398

HISTORY OF LACE.

The year 1823 is memorable for the “bobbin-net lever.” Mr.Heathcoat’s patent having expired, all Nottingham went mad.Every one wished to make bobbin-net. Numerous individuals,clergymen, lawyers, doctors, and others, readily embarked capitalin so tempting a speculation. Prices fell in proportion as produc-tion increased ; but the demand was immense, and the Notting-ham lace frame became the organ of general supply, rivalling andsupplanting in plain nets the most finished productions of Franceand the Netherlands. 11 Dr. Ure says: “It was no uncommonthing for an artisan to leave his usual calling and betake himselfto a lace frame, of which he was part proprietor, and realise, byworking upon it, twenty, thirty, nay, even forty shillings a day.In consequence of such wonderful gains, Nottingham, with Lough-borough and the adjoining villages, became the scene of an epi-demic mania Many, though nearly void of mechanical geniusor the constructive talent, tormented themselves night and daywith projects of bobbins, pushers, lockers, point bars, and needlesof every various form, till their minds got permanently bewildered.Several lost their senses altogether, and some, after cherishingvisions of wealth as in the olden time of alchemy, finding theirschemes abortive, sank into despair and committed suicide.

Such is the history of the bobbin-net 12 invention in England. 13

We now pass on to France.

11 McCulloch.

Progressive Value of a square yardof plain cotton bobbin-net.

1809 . 51. 1830 . 2s.

1813 . 21. 1833 . Is. id.

1815 . 11. 10s. 1836 . lOd.

1818 . 11. 1842 . 6 d.

1821 . 12s. 1850 . id.

1821 . 8s. 1856 . 3d.

1827 . 4s. 1862 . 3d.

“ Histoire du Tulle et des Dentellesme'caniques en Angleterre et en France,par S. Ferguson fils.” Paris, 1862.

“ Bobbin-net and lace are cleaned fromthe loose fibres of the cotton by the in-genious process of gassing, as it is called,invented by the late Mr. Samuel Hall,

of Nottingham. A flame of gas is drawnthrough the lace by means of a vacuumabove. The sheet of lace passes to theflame opaque, and obscured by loose fibre,and issues from it bright and clear, notto be distinguished from lace made ofthe purest linen thread, and perfectlyuninjured by the flame.”— Journal of theSociety of Arts, Jan. 1864.

18 In 1825, Mr. Huskisson’s reductionof the duty on French tulle caused somuch distress in Leicester and Not-tingham that ladies were desired to wearonly English tulle at court; and in 1831,Queen Adelaide appeared at one of herballs in a dress of English silk net.