English Manufactories

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There were, in Yorkshire in 1850, according to tables made up, 532 woollen factories for spinning only, with 629,838 spindles, and an aggregate power of steam and water combined, of 7,431, furnishing employment to 20,153 persons, of which number 5,063 were females above 13 years of age, and 3,819 boys, 13 to 18 years—the balance being males above that. Of the weaving and spinning establishments not enumerated in the above, there were 180, employing 295,611 spindles, 30,604 power looms, and 14,002 hands, ot whom 7,800 were females. Of other woolen factories besides these, there were 159, employing 6,128 persons, the number of spindles, etc., not being stated. These, however, do not include the worsted mills, which, strictly speaking, are woolen manufactories, and are arranged under another head. The number of yards of cloth annually produced is not named, nor are the wages of the hands stated ; but it appears that there has been an increase since 1834 throughout the kingdom, of woolen and worsted factories, of 51 per cent., and that the hands have increased 116 per cent., whafethe increase in the-consumption of colonial and foreign which form less than one-half of the whole consumed, has been 64 per cent. From this statement, necessarily much abridged, it will be seen that the manufacture is extensive in England, and rapidly and steadily increasing.

Scientific American Magazine Vol 8 Issue 11This article was published with the title “English Manufactories” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 8 No. 11 (), p. 82
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican11271852-82f

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