The New Student's Reference Work/Woolen Manufacture

Wool′en Manufacture. With the introduction of power-machinery and the factory-system a great impetus has been given to the manufacture of woolens as well as worsteds in this and other countries; while in recent years there has also been a large increase in the wool-crop and other raw material, raised not only on the North American continent but in other continents and countries, as Australia, South Africa and South America. As the material of which articles of clothing are made, the use of wool dates from early historic times. It is known to have entered into fabrics worn by the ancient Jews as well as by the Greeks and Romans. To-day woolen manufacture is an extensive industry in this and European nations. Early in the 18th century it found seat in Yorkshire, England, where carding, knitting, spinning, weaving and the various processes of cloth-finishing were actively and profitably engaged in. In the production of woolen goods in the United States we have the advantage not only of possessing, annually, large crops of wool besides extensive importations from abroad (the total available United States wool-product, domestic and foreign, amounted in 1905 to about 500 millions pounds' weight, the domestic production in 1906—7 being 298,715,130 pounds), but of having well-nigh numberless looms, with improved and often ingeniously devised machinery for the now vast local production and the utilizing of what is termed waste.