by skilled native women. The colour of the greater proportion of alpaca imported into the United Kingdom is black and brown, but there is also a fair proportion of white, grey and fawn. It is customary to mix these colours together, thus producing a curious ginger-coloured yarn, which upon being dyed black in the piece takes a fuller and deeper shade than can be obtained by piece-dyeing a solid-coloured wool. In physical structure alpaca is somewhat akin to hair, being very glossy, but its softness and fineness enable the spinner to produce satisfactory yarns with comparative ease.
The history of the manufacture of this wool into cloth is one of the romances of commerce. Undoubtedly the Indians of Peru employed this fibre in the manufacture of many styles of fabrics for centuries before its introduction into Europe as a commercial product. The first European importations would naturally be into Spain. Spain, however, transferred the fibre to Germany and France. Apparently alpaca yarn was spun in England for the first time about the year 1808. It does not appear to have made any headway, however, and alpaca wool was condemned as an unworkable material. In 1830 Benjamin Outram, of Greetland, near Halifax, appears to have again attempted the spinning of this fibre, and for the second time alpaca was condemned. These two attempts to use alpaca were failures owing to the style of fabric into which the yarn was woven—a species of camlet. It was not until the introduction of cotton warps into the Bradford trade about 1836 that the true qualities of alpaca could be developed in the fabric. Where the cotton warp and mohair or alpaca weft plain-cloth came from is not known, but it was this simple yet ingenious structure which enabled Titus Salt (q.v.), then a young Bradford manufacturer, to utilize alpaca successfully. Bradford is still the great spinning and manufacturing centre for alpacas, large quantities of yarns and cloths being exported annually to the continent and to the United States, although the quantities naturally vary in accordance with the fashions in vogue, the typical “alpaca-fabric” being a very characteristic “dress-fabric.”
The following statistics, taken from Hooper’s Statistics of the Woollen and Worsted Trades of the United Kingdom, give an idea of the extent of the trade in yarns and fabrics of the alpaca type; unfortunately statistics for alpaca alone are not published.
| Year. | Peru. | Chile.1 | ||
| ℔ | £ | ℔ | £ | |
| 1854 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1902 1905 |
1,247,015 2,334,048 3,324,454 1,412,365 3,114,336 4,236,566 5,038,998 2,301,522 |
124,946 263,635 388,969 98,644 190,703 205,839 259,927 119,321 |
15,573 520,402 563,782 890,627 564,606 1.148,694 1,028,171 2,303,650 |
1,557 58,443 65,996 64,621 30,694 51,116 47,610 112,367 |
Note.—In 1840 the imports into, exports from, and consumed in the
United Kingdom of mohair, alpaca, vicuña, &c., amounted to £50,000.
1 Grown in Peru but shipped from Valparaiso.
| Russia | ... | 1,288,800 | ℔ | . | £168,596 |
| Germany | ... | 9,851,200 | ,, | . | 1,145,795 |
| Belgium | ... | 316,400 | ,, | . | 40,409 |
| France | ... | 2,006,700 | ,, | . | 223,605 |
| 1881 | . . | £1,256 | 1900 | . . | £30,631 | |
| 1890 | . . | — | 1905 | . . | 4,954 |
Owing to the success in the manufacture of the various styles of alpaca cloths attained by Sir Titus Salt and other Bradford manufacturers, a great demand for alpaca wool arose, and this demand could not be met by the native product, for there never seems to have been any appreciable increase in the number of alpacas available. Unsuccessful attempts were made to acclimatize the alpaca goat in England, on the European continent and in Australia, and even to cross certain English breeds of sheep with the alpaca. There is, however, a cross between the alpaca and the llama—a true hybrid in every sense—producing a material placed upon the Liverpool market under the name “Huarizo.” Crosses between the alpaca and vicuña have not proved satisfactory.
The preparing, combing, spinning, weaving and finishing of alpacas and mohairs are dealt with under Wool. (A. F. B.)
ALP ARSLAN, or Axan, MAHOMMED BEN DA’UD (1029–1072),
the second sultan of the dynasty of Seljuk, in Persia, and
great-grandson of Seljuk, the founder of the dynasty, was born
in the year A.D. 1029 (421 of the Hegira). He assumed the name
of Mahommed when he embraced the Mussulman faith; and on
account of his military prowess he obtained the surname Alp Arslan,
which signifies “a valiant lion.” He succeeded his
father Da’ud as ruler of Khorasan in 1059, and his uncle Togrul
Bey as sultan of Oran in 1063, and thus became sole monarch of
Persia from the river Oxus to the Tigris. In consolidating his
empire and subduing contending factions he was ably assisted
by Nizām ul-Mulk, his vizier, one of the most eminent statesmen
in early Mahommedan history. Peace and security being established
in his dominions, he convoked an assembly of the states
and declared his son Malik Shah his heir and successor. With
the hope of acquiring immense booty in the rich church of St
Basil in Caesarea, the capital of Cappadocia, he placed himself
at the head of the Turkish cavalry, crossed the Euphrates and
entered and plundered that city. He then marched into Armenia
and Georgia, which, in 1064, he finally subdued. In 1068 Alp
Arslan invaded the Roman empire. The emperor Romanus
Diogenes, assuming the command in person, met the invaders
in Cilicia. In three arduous campaigns, the two first of which
were conducted by the emperor himself while the third was
directed by Manuel Comnenus, the Turks were defeated in
detail and finally (1070) driven across the Euphrates. In 1071
Romanus again took the field and advanced with 100,000 men,
including a contingent of the Turkish tribe of the Uzes and of
the French and Normans, under Ursel of Baliol, into Armenia.
At Manzikert, on the Murad Tchai, north of Lake Van, he was
met by Alp Arslan; and the sultan having proposed terms of
peace, which were scornfully rejected by the emperor, a battle
took place in which the Greeks, after a terrible slaughter, were
totally routed, a result due mainly to the rapid tactics of the
Turkish cavalry. Romanus was taken prisoner and conducted
into the presence of Alp Arslan, who treated him with generosity,
and terms of peace having been agreed to, dismissed him, loaded
with presents and respectfully attended by a military guard.
The dominion of Alp Arslan now extended over the fairest part
of Asia; 1200 princes or sons of princes surrounded his throne
and 200,000 warriors were at his command. He now prepared
to march to the conquest of Turkestan, the original seat of his
ancestors. With a powerful army he advanced to the banks of
the Oxus. Before he could pass the river with safety it was
necessary to subdue certain fortresses, one of which was for
several days vigorously defended by the governor, Yussuf
Kothual, a Kharizmian. He was, however, obliged to surrender
and was carried a prisoner before the sultan, who condemned
him to a cruel death. Yussuf, in desperation, drew his dagger
and rushed upon the sultan. Alp Arslan, the most skilful archer,
of his day, motioned to his guards not to interfere and drew
his bow, but his foot slipped, the arrow glanced aside and he
received the assassin’s dagger in his breast. The wound proved
mortal, and Alp Arslan expired a few hours after he received it,
on the 15th of December 1072.
See Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, edited by J. B. Bury (1898), vi. pp. 235 et seq., and authorities there cited.
ALPENA, a city and the county seat of Alpena county, Michigan, U.S.A., on Thunder Bay, a small arm of Lake Huron, at the mouth of Thunder Bay river, in the N.E part of the lower peninsula. Pop. (1890) 11,283; (1900) 11,802, of whom 4193 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 12,706. It is served by the Detroit & Mackinac railway and by steamboat lines to Detroit and other ports. The city is built on sandy ground on both sides of the river and has a good harbour, which has been considerably
