Down to the beginning of last century, the Italians were the principal producers of organzine or thrown silk; and for a long time they succeeded in keeping their art a secret. Although the silk manufacture, as we have seen, was introduced into this country by the Huguenot artizans, the price of thrown silk was so great that it interfered very considerably with its progress. Organzine was principally made within the dominions of Savoy, by means of a large and curious engine, the like of which did not exist elsewhere. The Italians, by the most severe laws, long preserved the mystery of the invention. The punishment prescribed by one of their laws to be inflicted upon anyone who discovered the secret, or attempted to carry it out of the Sardinian dominions, was death, with the forfeiture of all the goods the delinquent possessed; and the culprit was "to be afterwards painted on the outside of the prison walls, hanging to the gallows by one foot, with an inscription denoting the name and crime of the person, there to be continued for a perpetual mark of infamy."[3] Nevertheless, a bold and ingenious man was found ready to brave all this danger in the endeavour to discover the secret. It may be remembered with what courage and determination the founder of the Foley family introduced the manufacture of nails into England. He went into the Danemora mine district, near Upsala in Sweden, fiddling his way among the miners; and after making two voyages, he at last wrested from them the secret of making nails, and introduced the new industry into the Staffordshire district.[4] The courage of John Lombe, who introduced the thrown-silk industry into England, was equally notable. He was a native of Norwich. Playfair, in his 'Family Antiquity' (vii. 312), says his name "may have been taken from the French Lolme, or de Lolme," as there were many persons of French and Flemish origin settled at Norwich towards the close of the sixteenth century; but there is no further information as to his special origin. John Lombe's father, Henry Lombe, was a worsted weaver, and was twice married. By his first wife he had two sons, Thomas and Henry; and by his second, he had also two sons, Benjamin and John. At his death in 1695, he left his two brothers his "supervisors," or trustees, and directed them to educate his children in due time to some useful trade. Thomas, the eldest son, went to London. He was apprenticed to a trade, and succeeded in business, as we find him Sheriff of London and Middlesex in 1727, when in his forty-second year. He was also knighted in the same year, most probably on the accession of George II. to the throne. John, the youngest son of the family, and half-brother of Thomas, was put an apprentice to a trade. In 1702, we find him at Derby, working as a mechanic with one Mr. Crotchet. This unfortunate gentleman started a small silk-mill at Derby, with the object of participating in the profits derived from the manufacture.