Chapter IV

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[1] "This was equally the case with two other trades;--those of glass-maker and druggist, which brought no contamination upon nobility in Venice. In a country where wealth was concentrated in the hands of the powerful, it was no doubt highly judicious thus to encourage its employment for objects of public advantage. A feeling, more or less powerful, has always existed in the minds of the high-born, against the employment of their time and wealth to purposes of commerce or manufactures. All trades, save only that of war, seem to have been held by them as in some sort degrading, and but little comporting with the dignity of aristocratic blood." Cabinet Cyclopedia--Silk Manufacture, p. 20.

[2] A Brief State of the Inland or Home Trade. (Pamphlet.) 1730.

[3] A Brief State of the Case relating to the Machine erected at Derby for making Italian Organzine Silk, which was discovered and brought into England with the utmost difficulty and hazard, and at the Sole Expense of Sir Thomas Lombe. House of Commons Paper, 28th January, 1731.

[4] Self-Help, p. 205.

[5] The Trade and Navigation of Great Britain considered, p. 94.

[6] The petition sets forth the merits of the machine at Derby for making Italian organzine silk--"a manufacture made out of fine raw silk, by reducing it to a hard twisted fine and even thread. This silk makes the warp, and is absolutely necessary to mix with and cover the Turkey and other coarser silks thrown here, which are used for Shute,--so that, without a constant supply of this fine Italian organzine silk, very little of the said Turkey or other silks could be used, nor could the silk weaving trade be carried on in England. This Italian organzine (or thrown) silk has in all times past been bought with our money, ready made (or worked) in Italy, for want of the art of making it here. Whereas now, by making it ourselves out of fine Italian raw silk, the nation saves near one-third part; and by what we make out of fine China raw silk, above one-half of the price we pay for it ready worked in Italy. The machine at Derby contains 97,746 wheels, movements, and individual parts (which work day and night), all which receive their motion from one large water-wheel, are governed by one regulator, and it employs about 300 persons to attend and supply it with work." In Bees Cyclopaedia (art. 'Silk Manufacture') there is a full description of the Piedmont throwing machine introduced to England by John Lombe, with a good plate of it.

[7] Sir Thomas Lombe died in 1738. He had two daughters. The first, Hannah, was married to Sir Robert Clifton, of Clifton, co. Notts; the second, Mary Turner, was married to James, 7th Earl of Lauderdale. In his will, he "recommends his wife, at the conclusion of the Darby concern," to distribute among his "principal servants or managers five or six hundred pounds."

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