The Fulling Mill
Having alluded to the fulling mill as a felting machine, it is only necessary to remark here, that it is a rude looking but effective method of condensing a previously formed article. It consists of a trough six or eight feet long, and two feet wide, varying in size according to the kind of goods to be operated on. The bottom is of a semi-circular form, having a radius of five or six feet, with sides rising three or four feet high, a strong solid heading, but no end piece. There is a heavy wooden battering-ram suspended from above, at a height answering to the curve of the trough; its immense head has a flat face fitting the trough in which it is made to play freely, similar to the pendulum of a clock. The goods are tumbled promiscuously into this trough in front of the ram, with warm water, fuller’s earth, and soap, in sufficient quantity to saturate and wash the material, a small stream of water from a boiler being admitted for that purpose. The power of a water-wheel or steam engine draws back the ram out of its perpendicular, to its allotted distance, whence it falls by its own gravity, with a momentum that sweeps the goods before it with a fearful crash, upon the solid heading of the trough. On the withdrawal of this enormous hammer for a second onset, the goods roll over, resuming their quiescent state, but differently disposed, which is no sooner done than back comes the ram, repeating its dashing blows upon its unoffending and unresisting victims in the trough, washing, scouring, and buffeting them about, till they become not only clean, but completely felted.
All of our broadcloths have been subjected to its action, in the process of which the hairs of the weft and those of the warp have become mutually entangled, and each with one another, as with hatting in the regular hand process of loose wool or fur felting. Indeed, every hair composing the whole piece of cloth has its individual and independent progressive motions, combining the threads of both warp and weft together to such an extent that these cloths never unravel, and no hemming of a garment is required in the making of our clothes.
Twelve hours in the mill will reduce a piece of cloth two-fifths of its breadth and one-third of its length.
The progressive travelling motion of the hair resulting in the entanglement of the fibres and consequent felting and shrinking of the cloth, is further exemplified in the comfortable soft half-dress caps of the British soldiers, and in the bonnets and caps of the Scottish peasantry generally, which have all been first knitted very large with soft spun yarn, and afterwards felted down to the required size in the fulling mill. During the fulling of any and all kinds of goods, they must be frequently taken out of the trough, to be stretched, turned, the folds straightened, and generally inspected.