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GENERAL REPORT OF THE JUDGES OF GROUP IX. Weidmann & Greppo, educated in Europe, and related to eminent dyers in Lyons and Switzerland, have introduced the best processes and machinery known abroad. One group of machines just intro duced for stringing and shaking the yarns, for the purpose of straight ening and stretching them after being dyed, does with three or four men what formerly required the severe labor of sixty stout men. Their relations with Lyons and Zurich keep them promptly informed as to the latest improvements and fashions. Their exhibit of dyed silks was one of the most attractive, and that of black weighted silks was one of the most instructive, at the Exhibition. Lour years ago the dyers of Paterson held that it was impossible to perfectly dye pure black silks in their establishments, on account of supposed defects in the water of the place. A dye is now given in black dress- silks fully equal to the celebrated black dyes of St. Chaumond, near Lyons. The American dyers of black silks refrain from the repre hensible practice of European manufacturers of heavily weighting their black silks by means of chemicals. It is said that the average of French black silks are weighted as high as one hundred per cent. The weighting may be carried, without detection by the eye, as high as three hundred per cent.; but very brief wear reveals the deception. It is by no means claimed that there is higher morality on the part of American manufacturers. But the sins of the producer for a domestic market fly back to him so promptly and certainly, in the form of reclamations, that interest compels honest fabrication. “ Dyeing,” said the immortal Colbert, “ is the soul of tissues, with out which the body could scarcely exist.” This is especially true of silks: the attainment of the arts of perfect dyeing is the overcoming of the last obstacle to a successful manufacture. Fashion, constant only in change, is perpetually varying her demand for new colors, hues, and tones. She is inexorable even as to the most delicate shades. A ribbon or dress-silk may become absolutely unsalable, at any moment, by a change of fashion. Hence the advantages which Paterson enjoys in the perfection of her dyeing establishments, and of a taste instructed by a vicinage to the great metropolis. The taste of the present times, it may be observed, demands the almost exclu sive use of aniline dyes in colored silks. They are more vivid and enduring on silk than on any other raw material, and, though still comparatively fugitive, are no more so than the fashions. Black, brown, and drab are almost the only colors for which anilines are not used. To recur to the more general features of the silk-industry of Paterson. Its importance is shown by the facts obtained from the