Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/217

* TEXTILE MANUFACTURING. 173 TEXTILE PRINTING. people on the soil must be taken into consider- ation. In places like, say Africa, districts may be fonnd where the planter can settle on virgin soil and find natives who are only too willing to work for wages : but in India a more civilized, we might say more dignified, set of people are to be found, and these natives prefer to manage the soil without European intervention. This feeling is illustrated in a higher stage of the in- dustry, where the best and largest cotton mills are owned by natives or are operated by native companies." In China, Japan, the East Indies, and Mexico there has been of recent years a considerable introduction or development of the industry, due almost entirely to the adaptability of the people to a manufacturing life. Yet it is doubt- ful if the movement would have been as success- ful in some of these cases if there had not been encouragement in the way of Government meas- ures. The most wonderful growth of the cotton-man- ufacturing industry has been in the Southern United States. The availability of the raw material, made possible largely by the agricul- tural labor of the negro, and the presence of a class of tlie white population who, after the war, found themselves without homes or occupa- tion and who it was found were teachable and tractable, and would make good factory hands, and were to be had in abundance, were the chief factors in this development ; then there were available water-power and land which could be secured cheaper than elsewhere, and at first municipal aid in the way of exemption from taxation for a term of years. The growth of the industry in the Southern States has been remarkably steady since 1880. and ample proof of its success is evidenced by the fact that more and larger mills are now being built, together with the enlargement and development of older ones. The sources which first gave the so-called 'civilized' nations their fine and beautiful fab- rics of silk were China and .Tapan ; there the silkworm flourished, labor was plentiful and cheap, and the nations iesthetic ; they produced beautiful but costly fabrics which were con- sidered luxuries as far back as the nations have a history, yet these nations now produce less in value than many others, though they still produce fabrics which the more higlily civilized nations can hardly equal. It is natural to ex- pect that the growth of the silk industry should be greatest in those countries which can pro- duce the raw material, but this is not always the case. The introduction of the silkworm into Central and Western Europe caused a remark- able expansion of the manufacture of silks in Switzerland, Italy, Austria, and France. The Germans, producing practically no raw silk, how- ever, have made a great success of the industry, as has the United States in recent years. Eng- land, however, with a wonderful capacity for manufacturing, having attempted the silk indus- try, relying on imported silk, though fairly successful for a time, has seen it decline for the last half-century, while the cotton industry dur- ing the same period has had an ex-traordinary de- velopment. Mr. Edward Stanwood. of Boston, a textile statistician, in speaking of the develop- ment of the industry of the United States, says: "Reasons corresponding to those which caused the wool manufacture to spring up in every part of the country and which concentrated the manufacture of cotton where power is cheap, where rates of transportation are low, where labor is abundant, or in the immediate vicinity of a supply of cotton, result in a still greater localization of the silk industry. Eleven- twelfths of all the establishments in the country are in the five adjoining States of Pennsylvania, New .lersey. New York. Connecticut, and Massa- chusetts, and of the spindles, more than nineteen- twentieths of the whole are in the mills of those States." The most important reason for this localization is the ]>rosence of sullicient labor of requisite skill to manufacture the raw material and produce fine and costly fabrics — a labor which would be too costly to employ in the pro- duction of cotton goods except those of the very finest quality, but which may be emploj'ed in the silk industry with profit. Yet another factor has been an encouraging Government policy, which has helped to establish the industry more firml}-. These are briefl.y the important features in connection with the development of the most important of the world's textile industries. See Cotton : Silk ; ^VooL anu ^'oBSTED Manufac- tures ; Factories and Factory System ; Manu- FACTUKESj etc., etc. TEXTILE PRINTING. The art of produc- ing figured designs upon textile fabrics, by dye- ing or staining, can be traced back 4000 years to the early homes of textile weaving, in India and Egypt. Probably the earliest figured eflfects were produced by securely binding up spots all over the material so that the dye into which the fabric was afterwards dipped could not penetrate these places. Another method of producing white or uncolored spots was by applying fused wax, which, of course, was removed after the cloth had been dyed. According to Pliny, the Eg-ptians. from early times, were very skillful in the production of patterned cloth by apply- ing or painting mordants on fabrics and then dyeing them. Another way of producing the same effect was the use of the stencil, on which the coloring material was applied with a brush. Painting, or making the designs directly with a. brush, was a common method of producing figured textiles ; most of the early figured te.K- tiles introduced into Europe were not really printed, hut only painted fabrics. It is recorded that painted cloth, probably linen, was produced in London in 1410. The printing block, in its most primitive form, was used in the Orient from the remotest times. In Europe it seems to have been applied to the printing of fabrics before its use in book-print- ing was thought of. For centuries it was the only means used for producing figured designs not embroidered or painted, and it is still em- ployed for producing special patterns. Upon the face of a block of some hard wood, 9 or 10 inches long. 5 or 6 inches wide, and half as thick, the design was carA-ed, a stout handle having previously been fastened to the block. Sometimes stout copper wire was bent into th? required shape and hanunered into the block along the outlines of the pattern, which had been previously traced on the wood. The table upon which the printing was performed was a