AND ON THE CONTINENT.
107
cliango to tho factory system has been possible, hand-weaving inGermany has also been put aside without extreme sufferings.Where it still exists, conditions are the most favourablewhere it confines itself to at least a specialty. But it wrestlesmost severely with death where it does not bend before thefactory system in the direction of a specialty, but lives on bytampering with the quality, as in many cases in Silesia andpartly in Saxony (4).
Power-weaving, compared with hand-weaving, means a replace-ment to a large extent of labour by capital. A weaver on thepower-loom accomplishes about as much as 40 good hand-weavers(5). But also in power-weaving itself, as in spinning, the quantityproduced per loom as well as per operative is continuously in-creased.
First comes into account, since the “ thirties,” the considerablyincreased speed of the loom, which at the present time in Lanca-shire has in some cases reached 240 picks per minute (6). Theaverage speed on plain goods is approximately as follows: —
la England, in 1830 (7) .. .. .. 80 to 90 picks
.. to-day .. .. .. 195 ,,
,, Alsace ., (8).. .. .. 140 ,,
Tho advantage of England in this respect is given in detail bythe following table : —
Approximate Speed op Looms ox Plain Cotton Goods.
Picks per minute.
Width.
England.
Alsace. (9)
80 to 85 cm.
240
190 to 200
150 to 100
110 .. 115 .,
200
100 ., 170
130 .. 140
135 .. 140 ..
180
150 .. 100
120 „ 125
105 „ 170 „
180
120 ., 130
110 „ 115
Similarly, however,
as in spinning, the number
of the really
completed movements of the machine within a working day is farless than tho simple multiplication of the picks by the number ofminutes. The loom is not in operation during the whole of the
4. Report of the - Enquetekommission, ” p. 77 ; “ Protokolle.” pp. 223.300, 405, 411.
5. Andrew : “ Fifty Years’ Cotton Trade,” p. 7.
0. Compare Andrew, p. 2.
7. Ure : “ Cotton Manufacture.” II., 310.
8. Jannasch : “ Europiiische Baumwollindustrie ” (Berlin, 1882), p. 54.
9. These figures are from private information. The particulars for Englandare. however, confirmed by Brooks: “Cotton Manufacturing” (Blackburn,1889), p. 79.'