Volltext Seite (XML)
GENERAL REPORT OF THE JUDGES OF GROUP IX. 5 : nels should have a twilled weave, and be both wool- and indigo-dyed. The regulations of the Government have tended to keep alive the skill in indigo-dyeing, which, from its costliness, threatened to disappear before cheaper processes. The excellence attained in the army and navy flannels led the way to a more perfected fabric. About 1859 appeared, either through the Middlesex or Washington Mills,—for the honor is claimed by both, and the products of both vie with each other in celebrity,—the blue flannel coating, indigo- and wool-dyed, and having a three-leaved twill. This fabric—sheared and finished like doth, but retaining the lightness and pliability of the flannel texture, forming an admirable material for summer garments—is distinctly American in origin and character. It has a large domestic consump tion, and has become an article of export to South America. Opera flannels—a name given abroad, from one of its original uses, to a light flannel more highly gigged and finished than the ordinary article, being piece-dyed uniformly, in many fancy colors, and hot- pressed—were first introduced into this country by the Bay State Mills. They have, however, gained their command of the American market principally through the fabrication of a manufacturer of Ware, Massachusetts, now deceased. He commenced the manufacture in 1858, making in that year four thousand pieces. In 1871 his estab lishment made and sold, of this single fabric, one hundred and twenty thousand pieces, or nearly two million yards. At this time foreign importations of this fabric had entirely ceased. The thorough cleansing of the fabric to receive the dye, and the requisite skill to give the numerous colors and shades desired, are the principal diffi culties which the manufacturers have to encounter, single manufac turers keeping all the time a hundred or more distinct shades and colors in stock. American opera flannels were abundantly and taste fully displayed at the Exhibition by several mills. Nothing surpassed them in variety and perfection of hues and shades, except, perhaps, the masterpieces of the French dye-houses,—the exquisite merinos of Rheims and Paris. It is noteworthy that these fabrics are made wholly of American wool, the quality known as XX being used for medium, and picklock (selected from choice flocks) for the finest grades. American flannels of a still higher grade exhibited were the all- wool gauze and silk-warped flannels. The credit of the introduction of the fine flannel manufacture belongs to the Ballardvale Mills, in Andover, Massachusetts, this mill being the first which made fine yarns by double spinning. In some of these fabrics, made expressly for the Exhibition, there were one hundred and thirty picks to the