Lewis Topographical Dictionary - OSi Online Shop

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patronage of the Belfast Society. Over the exchange is
an elegant suite of assembly-rooms; there are also
others in the Commercial Buildings, and there is a neat
theatre in Arthur-street. On the north-eastern side of
the town are artillery and infantry barracks; and a
town-major is regularly appointed, this being nominally
a garrison town: it is also a chief constabulary police
station for the county.
Belfast owes much of its importance to the increase
of the linen trade of Ulster, of which it is now become
the grand depot. In 1830 a very extensive mill was
erected for spinning linen yarn upon the same principle
as in the chief houses at Leeds, in order to meet the in-
creasing demand of the manufacturers; and, in 1832,
a large cotton-mill was adapted to the spinning of the
refuse flax of the linen-mill, for the use of the canvas
weavers. In these two mills more than 700 persons
are employed, and, since their erection, a linen cloth
manufactory has been established on a very large scale
at Ligioneil, two miles distant, which is the first of the
kind in this part of the country. Seven more spinning
mills, containing 48,000 spindles, and affording em-
ployment to more than 5000 persons, were built In
1834, and several others have been erected since;
they are all of brick, roofed with slate, and are mostly
five stories high. The celebrated Ardoyne damask ma-
nufactory was established in 1825; and the elegance of
the fabric soon extended its reputation, and obtained
royal patronage, an extensive order for his Majesty
being at present under execution. Linens and sheet-
ings of the stoutest fabric, for the London market,
are likewise manufactured in this establishment, the
proprietor of which, Michael Andrews, Esq., obtained
the gold medal of the Royal Dublin Society for speci-
mens of his productions, shewn at their exhibition of
national manufactures, held in Dublin, in May 1835.
The business of the linen trade of the whole kingdom
was for a long time transacted solely in Dublin, by agents
resident there; but the serious inconvenience experienced
by the numerous bleachers in the province of Ulster,
in consequence of the remoteness of the principal mart,
prompted them to the establishment of a linen-hall at
Belfast, and in 1785 a spacious and handsome quadran-
gular building was erected in the centre of Donegal-
square, by public subscription, and called the White
Linen Hall, which affords great facility for making up
assorted cargoes for foreign countries; great quantities
are exported to America, the West Indies, and various
other places, and nearly all the London merchants are
supplied by factors resident here. The Brown Linen
Hall, erected about the same time, is an enclosed space
on the south side of Donegal-street, containing several
detached platforms, where the merchants attend every
Friday for the purchase of brown webs from the weavers,
who assembled here from the surrounding districts.
The webs brought to this mart are principally one yard
in width, and of the finest quality; and so great is the
quantity purchased by the merchants, who are also
bleachers, that in the Belfast district, situated within a
distance of six miles of the town to the west and south
west and containing in all fourteen bleaching-greens (of
which eleven are within the parish of Belfast), 260,000
pieces are annually bleached, exceeding by 87,000 the
number of pieces bleached in the same district in the
year 1822; the value of the goods finished annually
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in these establishments is little less than one million
sterling.
The cotton manufacture, of which Belfast is the
centre and principal seat, was originally introduced here
in 1777, by Mr. Robert Joy, father of Chief Baron Joy,
and at that time one of the proprietors of the Belfast
News Letter. That gentleman had been chiefly instru-
mental in establishing the incorporated poor-house,
which under his auspices became the nursery of this
important branch of manufacture, at that time unknown
in any other part of Ireland, and which, after struggling
with various difficulties, at length attained such rapidity
of progress that, in 1800, it afforded employment to
27,000 persons within a circuit of ten miles round
Belfast, and is still carried on here to a vast extent in
all its branches, more especially in the spinning depart-
ment, for which alone there are, in the town and neigh-
bourhood, no less than 21 factories. The machinery
used in these works is partly impelled by steam, but
chiefly by water, for which the streams in the neigh-
bourhood are particularly favourable, by reason of the
rapidity of their currents and their numerous falls; and
gives motion to about 982,000 spindles and 640 power-
looms, which latter are of very recent introduction.
The buildings are of very large dimensions, in general
from six to eight stories in height, and in some of them
from 800 to 2000 persons are employed. The principal
articles manufactured are velvets, fustians, jeans, ticking,
checks, ginghams, quiltings, calico muslins, and mus-
linets. There are also very extensive print-fields, bleach-
greens, dye-works, and establishments for every depart-
ment of the manufacture, which in the aggregate affords
employment to 36,225 persons; but is at present in
a declining state, several of the works having been
recently suspended, and others applied to different pur-
poses. Connected with these establishments are various
manufactories for machinery, iron-forges, and works for
the preparation of oil of vitriol and other chymical pro-
ducts used in bleaching, dyeing, and printing, together
employing about 1000 persons; engraving also, as con-
nected with the printing of cotton goods, is carried on
extensively. An iron-foundry was first established here
in 1792; in 1798 the Lagan foundry, in Ballymacarrett,
was erected, where steam-engines are now made; and
in 1811 the Belfast foundry, in Donegal-street, was
built, in which the patent rotatory steam-engines, origi-
nally invented by one of the proprietors, have been
manufactured. In 1834 the manufacture of machinery
for spinning flax was first successfully introduced into
Ireland, by the proprietors of the Belfast foundry two
other foundries have been since established,—the Phoe-
nix, in York-street, and the Soho foundry, in Townsend-
street, where spinning machinery is made; there are
also several other foundries on a smaller scale, the whole
affording employment to about 600 persons. The
making of vitriol was introduced in 1799; at present
there are two establishments, in which about 180 per-
sons are employed. The manufacture of flint glass was
commenced in 1776, and in a few years several extensive
glass-houses were erected; at present there are only
two in operation, employing together about 90 persons.
There are two distilleries, which annually produce 311,000
gallons of spirits, nearly the whole of which is for home
consumption: about 150 men are employed in the pro-
cess; and at Brookfield, adjoining the town, is another