Knowledge is power : $b A view of the productive forces of modern society and the results of labor, capital and skill.Knight, Charles
Philosophy
Knowledge is power : $b A view of the productive forces of modern society and the results of labor, capital and skill.
Knight, Charles
Industrial arts; Industries
But there is a great deal still to be done before the cloth is fit to be
worn. The cloth, now woven, has to be scoured as the wool was. There is
a subsequent process called burling, at which females are constantly
employed. The boiling and milling come next, in which the cloth is again
exposed to the action of water, and beaten so as to give it toughness
and consistency. Dressers, called giggers, next take it in hand, who
also work with machinery upon the wet cloth. It has then to be dried in
houses where the temperature is sometimes as high as 130 degrees, and
where the men work almost naked. It is evident that the boilers and
dressers could not profitably work in the dry-houses: and that there
must be division of employment to prevent those sudden transitions which
would destroy the human frame much more quickly than a regular exposure
to cold or heat, to damp or dryness. The cloth must be next cropped or
cut upon the face, to remove the shreds of wool which deform the surface
in every direction. When cut, it has to be brushed dry by machinery, to
get out the croppings which remain in its texture. This done, it is dyed
in the shape of cloth, as it was formerly dyed in the shape of wool.
Then come a variety of processes, to increase the delicacy of the
fabric:--singeing, by passing the cloth within a burning distance of
red-hot cylinders; frizing, to raise a nap upon the cloth; glossing, by
carrying over it heavy heated plates of iron; pressing, in which
operation of the press red-hot plates are also employed; and drawing, in
which men, with fine needles, draw up minute holes in the cloth when it
has passed through the last operation. Then comes the packing; and after
all these processes it must be bought by a wholesale dealer, and again
by a retailer, before it reaches the consumer. Between the growth of the
fleece of wool, and the completion of a coat by a skilful tailor,--who,
it is affirmed, puts five-and-twenty thousand stitches into it,--what an
infinite division of employments! what inventions of science! what
exercises of ingenuity! what unwearied application! what painful, and
too often unhealthy labour! And yet if men are to be clothed well and
cheaply, all these manifold processes are not in vain; and the
individual injury in some branches of the employ is not to be compared
to the suffering that would ensue if cloth were not made at all, or if
it were made at such a cost that the most wealthy only could afford to
wear it. But for the accumulation of knowledge, and the division of
employments, engaged in the manufacture of cloth, and set in operation
by large capital, we should each be obliged to be contented with a
blanket such as John Tanner desired, and very few indeed would even
obtain that blanket: for if skill and division of labour were, not to go
on in one branch, they would not go on in another, and then we should
have nothing to give in exchange for the blanket. The individual injury
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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