There is a process connected with the production of clothing which we must briefly refer to, as one of the signal examples of the axiom of our title--'Knowledge is Power.' Let us suppose that chemistry had not discovered and organised the modes in which bleaching is performed; and that the thousands of millions of yards of calico and linen which we weave in this country had still to be bleached, as bleaching was accomplished in the last century. We knew nothing about the matter, and our linen was then sent over to Holland to go through this operation. The Dutch steeped the bundles of cloth in ley made by water poured upon wood ashes--then soaked them in buttermilk--and finally spread them upon the grass for several months. These were all natural agencies which discharged the colouring matter without any chemical science. It was at length found out that sulphuric acid would do the same work in one day which the buttermilk did in six weeks; but the sun and the air had still to be the chief bleaching powers. A French chemist then found out that a new gas, chlorine, would supersede the necessity for spreading out the linen for several months; and so the acres of bleaching ground which we were using in England and Scotland--for we had left off sending the brown and yellow cloth to Holland--were free for cultivation. But the chlorine was poisonous to the workmen, and imparted a filthy odour to the cloth. Chemistry again went to work, and finally obtained the chloride of lime, which is the universal bleaching powder of modern manufactures. What used to be the work of eight months is now accomplished in an hour or two; and so a bag of dingy raw cotton may be in New York on the first day of the month, and be converted into the whitest calico before the month is at an end. [Illustration: Bleaching-ground at Glasgow.] [23] Blount's 'Ancient Tenures,' ed. 1784, p. 183. CHAPTER XVIII. Hosiery manufacture--The stocking-frame--The circular hosiery-machine--Hats--Gloves--Boots and shoes-- Straw-plait--Artificial flowers--Fans--Lace--Bobbin-net machine--Pins--Needles--Buttons--Toys--Lucifer-matches-- Envelopes. Before the invention of the first stocking-machine, in the year 1589, by William Lee, a clergyman, none but the very rich wore stockings, and many of the most wealthy went without stockings at all, that part of dress being sewn together by the tailor, or their legs being covered with bandages of cloth. The covering for the leg was called a "nether-stock," or lower stocking. Philip Stubbes, a tremendous declaimer against every species of luxury, thus describes the expensive stockings of his time, 1585:--