Jacques de La Fontaine

“ I recollected when I was at school often going to a hatter’s shop which was opposite to warm myself; and I used to see them burn off the long hairs from the hats with a wisp of straw; so I thought that would be the mode of remedying the defect in my calimanco. A hat can be easily turned round in the hand to apply the flame, not so a piece of stuff; a machine must be made for the purpose of doing it with certainty and regularity. This piece however I determined to singe as well as I could without waiting for a machine. ”

“ The Prince of Orange was welcomed at Exeter by the same party that had declared for Monmouth. Three sorry-looking Dutchmen took possession of Taunton without the slightest show of resistance from any quarter; and the common people hailed their arrival as a joyous event. ”

“ My workman improved and made it better and better every day, and I agreed to pay him four pence halfpenny for every yard he made in future, and he was soon able to produce ten or twelve yards in a day. I also employed again the man who had worked unsuccessfully for so long a time, and he accquired it after a while. I now hired a shop for the sale of my manufactures; and I took from my old tradesmen all the articles I wanted, paying them with my own goods. I took more workmen into my employment, binding them not to work for any one else, or to teach the art, under a penalty of £10. ”

“ At the end of a fortnight, after trying seven or eight different plans, we produced a yard of Calimanco which looked very well, but being made of single thread, it had no more substance than serge. It was necessary for me to set my wits to work again, to try to find some plan by which I could produce a substantial fabric out of the materials that were at my command, and thus I contrived it. I made the warp, which appeared all on the right side, of fine wool coarsely spun; and the weft of very coarse wool, combed like fine wool, and spun coarsely and compactly. ”

“ I heard accidentally of a poor weaver who had lost a leg, and in consequence of it, he was, according to the general opinion, incapable of ever working again at his trade of serge weaving; because they and their fathers before them had never imagined it possible to weave serge with one foot ”

“ On my return to Taunton we made immediate preparations for removing to Ireland, and the packing up our goods and closing my concerns occupied about six weeks. We took twelve horse-loads of furniture and baggage to Bristol, whence we intended to embark; and I purchased there a variety of drugs for dyeing, and large coppers, and screws, and in short every thing that I thought would be requisite for setting up a manufactory at Cork ”