PLATE CII.

MACHINE-MADE LACE,

BY BIRKIN OF NOTTINGHAM.

In a former article on the subject of Nottingham lace (Plate XXX.), we limited our observations to thatvariety of the local manufacture in which a pattern was “run” by hand, after the groundwork was made bythe bobbin-net machine. In the excellent specimen we now engrave, both the ground and the pattern have beenentirely produced by the machine; and we shall endeavour to narrate a few particulars of the rise and progressof the Nottingham lace trade, the different machines employed, and the variety of goods produced by them.Interesting and important as the subject is, it is, however, so copious and intricate, that we can give only avery slight sketch, referring our readers for further information to an elaborate article by Professor Barlowin the “Encyclopaedia Metropolitana,” to an equally careful notice of the subject in APCulloch’s “Dictionaryof Commerce,” and to the Jury Reports on the late Great Exhibition .

The first successful attempt to construct a machine for making fabrics in imitation of pillow-lace wasmade at Nottingham about the year 1768, by a stocking-frame-work knitter, named Hammond; and hisinvention was a modification of the stocking-frame. A machine, called a pin-machine, w r as introduced atNottingham, about the same time, by Else and Harvey of London ; and, although now disused in this country,it is still employed in France for making tulle. The warp-frame (also a variety of the stocking-frame) islargely employed for warp-lace, and dates from 1782, by which period the manufacture of plain lace byimperfect machinery had steadily increased.

The great improvement, however, which gave to this new branch of industry its most extraordinary impulse,was that introduced by Mr. John Heathcoat, who, in the year 1809, obtained a patent for the machine knownas the “bobbin-frame,” from which the fabric it produces has received the name of “bobbin-net.” Severalprevious attempts had been made by others to construct such a machine, but without success. Mr. Heathcoatworked his patent extensively, with very profitable results; and he progressively effected several improvementsin the machine. On the expiration of his patent in 1823 the Nottingham manufacturers, who had applied steampower (in 1816) to their less perfect machines, evinced the utmost eagerness to adopt the “bobbin-frame.”This important invention, in fact, immediately superseded the pillow-lace trade, its enormous power of productionrendering all competition with it hopeless.* The desire to possess bobbin-frames was not confined to themanufacturers : a perfect mania seized all persons who could raise a small capital. Butchers, bakers, farmers,and even clergymen, invested their means in purchasing these machines; and large sums were paid foiinstruction in the mode of working them. The popularity of the machine-made lace, and the profits foia time realised by its manufacture, justified the excitement wbich prevailed. Prices, however, fell as themanufacture increased, but the demand appeared unlimited; and the productions of the Nottingham lace-fiamesoon rivalled and supplanted the best plain nets of the Continent. The conclusion was not difficult to be foi eseen.the immense supply of bobbin-net soon reduced the profits, and rendered the machines less valuable, and, thoughsome of the earliest producers realised large sums, multitudes were disappointed, and many luined.

The energy of various manufacturers in the improvement of the lace-frame neveitheless maintained and

* It has been calculated that, as compared with hand labour, the productive powers of the bobbin-net machine aie now neaily as 600 to 1,and even in its earliest state the disproportion must have been very great.