Page:Memoirs of a Huguenot Family.djvu/168

162 when I had got the various parts ready I put the machine together myself. It consisted of two large rollers, and the piece was wound gently, off the one, and upon the other, and fire applied during its passage; when both sides were singed it was washed in the river, then pressed, and it really had much the appearance of the true Calimanco; the strength of the coarse worsted gave it substance, and the fineness of the warp gave it lustre. I now gave up teaching entirely, and confined myself to my manufactory, which proved very great slavery, for it was absolutely necessary to keep secret the mode by which we removed the coarse hairs, and therefore I was obliged to do that part of the work myself. My wife or my sister-in-law turned the spit while I roasted the joint.

I succeeded so well, that in the course of seven or eight months I was able to keep from twelve to fifteen looms constantly going. I had not been long at work before the profitable nature of my new trade became known, and the old-fashioned manufacturers of serge were envious of it. Their astonishment at my inventive genius was very great, they almost looked upon it as sorcery; and it was increased by an incident which I will relate. I heard accidentally of a poor weaver who had lost a leg, and in consequence of it, he was, according to the general opinion, incapable of ever working again at his trade of weaving serge, because they and their fathers before them had made use of two feet to work the loom, they did not imagine it possible that anybody could weave with only one leg. The poor man had been supported by the parish for three years. I thought much about his distressed condition, and wondered within myself whether it would not be possible to devise some plan, whereby he could work at his old trade. I made many experiments, and at last I hit upon