History of the cotton manufacture in Great Britain: with a notice of its early history in the East, and in all the quarters of the globe ... and a view of the present state of the manufacture / By Edward Baines, jun.

  • Baines, Edward, Sir, 1800-1890.
Date:
[1835]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: History of the cotton manufacture in Great Britain: with a notice of its early history in the East, and in all the quarters of the globe ... and a view of the present state of the manufacture / By Edward Baines, jun. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    a strong one, and two of these again twisted together and knotted at the middle and at the end to prevent unravelling, formed the fringe, precisely like the silk shawls of the present day. u The selvedges of the Egyptian cloths generally are formed with the greatest care, and are well calculated by their strength to protect the cloth from accident. Fillets of strong cloth or tape also secure the ends of the pieces from injury, shewing a knowledge of all the little resources of modern manufacture. Several of the specimens, both of fine and coarse cloth, were bordered with blue stripes of various patterns, and in some alternating with narrow lines of another colour. The width of the patterns varied from half an inch to an inch and a quarter. In the latter were seven blue stripes, the broadest about half an inch wide nearest the selvedge, followed by five very narrow ones, and terminated by one an eighth of an inch broad. Had this pattern, instead of being confined to the edge of the cloth, been repeated across its whole breadth, it would have formed a modern gingham, which we can scarcely doubt was one of the articles of Egyp- tian industry. A small pattern about half an inch broad formed the edging of one of the finest of these cloths, and was composed of a stripe of blue, followed by three narrow lines of the same colour, alternating with three lines of a fawn colour, forming a simple and elegant border. These stripes were produced in the loom by coloured threads pre- viously dyed in the yarn. The nature of the fawn colour I was unable to determine. It was too much degraded by age, and the quantity too small, to enable me to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion. Though I had no doubt the colouring matter of the blue stripes was indigo, I subjected the cloth to the following examination. Boiled in water for some time, the colour did not yield in the least 5 nor was it at all affected by soap, nor by strong alkalies. Sulphuric acid, diluted only so far as not to destroy the cloth, had no action on the colour. Chlo- ride of lime gradually reduced, and at last destroyed it. Strong nitric acid dropped upon the blue turned it orange, and, in the same instant, destroyed it. These tests prove the colouring matter of these stripes to be indigo. u This dye was unknown to Herodotus, for he makes no mention of it. It was known to Pliny, who, though ignorant of its true nature and the history of its production, has correctly described the most characteristic of its properties, the emission of a beautiful purple vapour when exposed to heat. Had his commentators been ac- quainted with the sublimation of indigo, it would have saved many learned doubts. We learn from the “ Periplus,” that it was an article of export from Barbarike on the Indus to Egypt, where its employment by the manufacturers of that country, probably from a remote period, is clearly established by the specimens here described.