West Riding – Western Rhineprovince, 1790-1840: Diverse Paths to ...

West Riding – West of the Rhineland, 1780-1840 28
Alfred Reckendrees, University of Cologne reckendrees@wiso.uni-koeln.de
Figures 4: Gig mill, ~ 1805 Figure 5: Shearing frame, ~ 1805
Source: Rees Cyclopaedia, Plates, vol. IV (1820) Source: Rees Cyclopaedia, Plates, vol. IV (1820)
Jenkins assumes that the ‘violent resistance of many of the workers perhaps prevented a
more widespread use of the machines until at least the 1820s.’ 112 According to Lipson,
who gives no prove, only five gig mills were in use in the the beginning of the 19 th century
(1806), but the number increased to 72 in 1817. 113 At that time the gig mill and the shearing
frame were already established in the west of the Rhineland. The first machines arrived at
Aix-la-Chapelle and Montjoie before 1810, 114 however, there is only one seemingly complete
account of the gig mills of the cloth region for 1819 (Table 3).
The total of 152 suggests that at that time the use of the gig mill was more widespread in
the Rhineland than in the West Riding. Yet the figure regarding Montjoie may be too high,
because a list of march 1817 names only two cloth manufacturers in district of Montjoie
who together possessed 17 gig mills. 115 Nevertheless, the figures demonstrate that the gig
mill has advanced to an important mean of production.
Table 3: Gig mills in the cloth region of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1819
Aix-la-Chapelle 47
Aix-la-Chapelle, county 3
Düren, county 29
Eupen, county 21
Montjoie, county 52
gig mills
machines machine
construction
Summe 152 2
Source: Gewerbetabelle von den einzelnen Städten und Kreisen des Regierungs-Bezirks Aachen für das Jahr 1819,
DSTA Reg. Aachen BR 2116-43, F.207pp.
112 Jenkins, West Riding (1975), 128p., citation p.129.
113 Lipson, Woollen Industries (1921), 191.
114 Nemnich, Tagebuch (1809): ‘Tuchscheren durch die Bewegung eines mit der Hand gedrehten Rades
[…] zu Reims, Verviers, Aachen, Düren usw.’ cited by Strauch, Tuchindustrie (1922), 33.
115 ‘Appretur- und Stuhlarbeiten’, 1.3.1817, DSTA Reg. Aachen BR 2116-13.