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Fulling, also known as felting, tucking or walking ( Scots: ''waukin'', hence often spelled waulking in
Scottish English Scottish English ( gd, Beurla Albannach) is the set of varieties of the English language spoken in Scotland. The transregional, standardised variety is called Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English (SSE). Scottish Standa ...
), is a step in
woollen Woolen (American English) or woollen (Commonwealth English) is a type of yarn made from carded wool. Woolen yarn is soft, light, stretchy, and full of air. It is thus a good insulator, and makes a good knitting yarn. Woolen yarn is in contrast t ...
clothmaking which involves the cleansing of woven or knitted
cloth Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...
(particularly
wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. ...
) to eliminate (lanoline) oils, dirt, and other impurities, and to make it shrink by friction and pressure. The work delivers a smooth, tightly finished fabric that is isolating and water repellent. Well known example are duffel cloth, first produced in
Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to cultu ...
in the 14th century and loden, produced in
Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
from the 16th century on. The practice to do this by hand or feet died out with the introduction of
machines A machine is a physical system using power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromolecul ...
during the
industrial revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
.


Process

Fulling involves two processes: scouring and milling (thickening). Originally, fulling was carried out by the pounding of the woollen cloth with a club, or the fuller's feet or hands. In
Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...
tradition, this process was accompanied by waulking songs, which women sang to set the pace. From the medieval period, however, fulling was often carried out in a
water mill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production ...
, followed by stretching the cloth on great frames known as tenters, to which it is attached by
tenterhook Tenterhooks or tenter hooks are hooked nails in a device called a ''tenter''. Tenters were wooden frames which were used as far back as the 14th century in the process of making woollen cloth. The phrase "''on tenterhooks''" has become a m ...
s. It is from this process that the phrase ''being on tenterhooks'' is derived, as meaning to be held in suspense. The area where the tenters were erected was known as a
tenterground A tenterground, tenter ground or teneter-field was an area used for drying newly manufactured cloth after fulling. The wet cloth was hooked onto frames called " tenters" and stretched taut using "tenter hooks", so that the cloth would dry fl ...
. In Roman times, fulling was conducted by slaves working the cloth while ankle deep in tubs of human
urine Urine is a liquid by-product of metabolism in humans and in many other animals. Urine flows from the kidneys through the ureters to the urinary bladder. Urination results in urine being excreted from the body through the urethra. Cellul ...
. Urine was so important to the fulling business that it was
taxed A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...
. Stale urine, known as wash or lant, was a source of
ammonium The ammonium cation is a positively-charged polyatomic ion with the chemical formula or . It is formed by the protonation of ammonia (). Ammonium is also a general name for positively charged or protonated substituted amines and quaterna ...
salts and assisted in cleansing and whitening the cloth and having its fibers intertwined. By the medieval period,
fuller's earth Fuller's earth is any clay material that has the capability to decolorize oil or other liquids without the use of harsh chemical treatment. Fuller's earth typically consists of palygorskite (attapulgite) or bentonite. Modern uses of fuller's ea ...
had been introduced for use in the process. This is a soft clay-like material occurring naturally as an impure
hydrous In chemistry, a hydrate is a substance that contains water or its constituent elements. The chemical state of the water varies widely between different classes of hydrates, some of which were so labeled before their chemical structure was underst ...
aluminium silicate Aluminium silicate (or aluminum silicate) is a name commonly applied to chemical compounds which are derived from aluminium oxide, Al2O3 and silicon dioxide, SiO2 which may be anhydrous or hydrated, naturally occurring as minerals or synthetic ...
. It was used in conjunction with wash. More recently, soap has been used. The second function of fulling was to thicken cloth by matting the fibres together to give it strength and increase waterproofing ( felting). This was vital in the case of woollens, made from carded
wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. ...
, but not for
worsted Worsted ( or ) is a high-quality type of wool yarn, the fabric made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from Worstead, a village in the English county of Norfolk. That village, together with North Walsham and Aylsham ...
materials made from combed wool. After this stage, water was used to rinse out the foul-smelling liquor used during cleansing. Felting of wool occurs upon hammering or other mechanical agitation because the microscopic scales on the surface of wool fibres hook together, somewhat like hook and loop fixings.


History

There are several Biblical references to fulling (; and ; ; ). In addition to this, at least one reference appears in the speeches of
Lysias Lysias (; el, Λυσίας; c. 445 – c. 380 BC) was a logographer (speech writer) in Ancient Greece. He was one of the ten Attic orators included in the "Alexandrian Canon" compiled by Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus of Samothrace i ...
, written in Athens during the 5th century BC. By the time of the
Crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were ...
in the late eleventh century, fulling mills were active throughout the medieval world. They appear to have originated in 9th or 10th century in Europe. The earliest known reference to a fulling mill in France, which dates from about 1086, was discovered in
Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
.


Mills

From the medieval period, the fulling of cloth often was undertaken in a
water mill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production ...
, known as a fulling mill, a walk mill, or a tuck mill, and in
Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
, a pandy. In these, the cloth was beaten with wooden hammers, known as fulling stocks or fulling hammers. Fulling stocks were of two kinds, falling stocks (operating vertically) that were used only for scouring, and driving or hanging stocks. In both cases the machinery was operated by
cam Calmodulin (CaM) (an abbreviation for calcium-modulated protein) is a multifunctional intermediate calcium-binding messenger protein expressed in all eukaryotic cells. It is an intracellular target of the secondary messenger Ca2+, and the bin ...
s on the shaft of a
waterwheel A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with a number of blades or bucke ...
or on a
tappet A tappet is most commonly a component in an internal combustion engine which converts the rotating motion of the camshaft into linear motion of the valves, either directly or indirectly. An earlier use of the term was for part of the valve gea ...
wheel, which lifted the hammer. Driving stocks were pivoted so that the foot (the head of the hammer) struck the cloth almost horizontally. The stock had a tub holding the liquor and cloth. This was somewhat rounded on the side away from the hammer, so that the cloth gradually turned, ensuring that all parts of it were milled evenly. However, the cloth was taken out about every two hours to undo plaits and wrinkles. The 'foot' was approximately triangular in shape, with notches to assist the turning of the cloth. There was a fulling mill established at
Temple Guiting Temple Guiting is a village and civil parish in the Cotswolds, in Gloucestershire, England. The civil parish includes the smaller settlements of Barton, Farmcote, Ford and Kineton. In 2011 the parish had a population of 463. The place was re ...
, Gloucestershire which was documented in the
Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
.


Legacy

The names for workers who performed these tasks ('' fuller'', '' tucker'', and ''
walker Walker or The Walker may refer to: People * Walker (given name) *Walker (surname) * Walker (Brazilian footballer) (born 1982), Brazilian footballer Places In the United States *Walker, Arizona, in Yavapai County *Walker, Mono County, California ...
''Jones, Gareth ''Daniel Rhydderch of Aberloch'', reproduced from The Western Mail July 17, 1933 accessed at June 19, 2006) have become common
surname In some cultures, a surname, family name, or last name is the portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family, tribe or community. Practices vary by culture. The family name may be placed at either the start of a person's full name ...
s. The
Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...
word for a fulling mill is ''pandy'', which appears in many place-names, for example Tonypandy ("fulling mill lea").


See also

*
Bleachfield A bleachfield or bleaching green was an open area used for spreading cloth on the ground to be purified and whitened by the action of the sunlight. Bleaching fields were usually found in and around mill towns in Great Britain and were an integral ...
*
Beetling Beetling is the pounding of linen or cotton fabric to give a flat, lustrous effect. Process Beetling was a textile finishing method of obtaining an aesthetic finish i.e. lustre in cotton or linen based fabrics, the cloth was exposed under the ha ...
* List of laundry topics * Posting (laundering process) * Dadeumi, a similar traditional practice in Korea


References


Bibliography


"full"
Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved June 30, 2005. * E. K. Scott, "Early Cloth Fulling and its Machinery", ''Trans. Newcomen Soc.'' 12 (1931), 30–52. * E. M. Carus-Wilson, "An Industrial Revolution of the Thirteenth Century", ''Economic History Review'', Old Series, 11(1) (1941), 39–60. * Reginald Lennard, "Early English Fulling Mills: additional examples", ''Economic History Review'', New Series, 3(3) (1951), 342–343. * R. A. Pelham, ''Fulling Mills'' (
Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) (also known as Anti-Scrape) is an amenity society founded by William Morris, Philip Webb, and others in 1877 to oppose the destructive 'restoration' of ancient buildings occurring in ...
, (mills booklet 5), c. 1958) * A. J. Parkinson, "Fulling mills in Merioneth", ''J. Merioneth Hist. & Rec. Soc.'' 9(4) (1984), 420–456. * D. Druchunas ''Felting, Vogue Knitting, The Basics'', Sixth & Spring Books, NY. (2005); p. 10.


External links


A model of a fulling mill on view at bishops Lydeard Mill & Museum, Somerset
* {{Authority control History of clothing Laundry Production occupations Textile treatments