Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 3

GLASGOW
gow citizen named Harvey brought away from Haarlem,
at the risk of his life, two inkle looms and a workman,
and by this means fairly succeeded in establishing the
manufacture in Glasgow, and breaking the Dutch mono-
poly in the article. The Dutch workman he had brought
■with him afterwards took offence and went to Manches-
ter, and introduced the inkle manufacture there. Gib-
son, in his History of Glasgow, gives an account of the
manufactures and industries in 1771, and it is worth
noticing, as he seems to have taken great pains to
make it exact. He mentions different kinds of linen,
checkered handkerchiefs, diaper, damask, cambric, lawn,
muslin handkerchiefs, ' Glasgows ' or lawn mixed with
cotton, and Carolines which are the chief things. Be-
sides these there were industries in brushes, combs,
horn, and ivory ; copper, tin, and white iron ; delf and
stonewares ; gloves, handkerchiefs, silk, and linen ;
men's hats, jewellery, inkles, iron, tanned leather,
printed linens, ropes, saddlery, shoes, stockings, and
thread; and Spencer, in his English Traveller (1771),
mentions as the industries the herring trade, the tobacco
trade, the manufacture of woollen cloth, stockings, shal-
loons, and cottons ; muslins, the sugar trade, distill-
ing, the manufacture of boots and shoes, and other
leather goods, including saddles ; and the manufacture
of house furniture.
The vast improvements which were effected in the
production of cotton yarn by the inventions of Har-
greaves and Sir Richard Arkvmght gave still a fresh
impulse to the manufactures aifected, and capital, seek-
ing new outlets after the failure of the tobacco trade,
was invested largely in cotton manufacture. Through
the subsequent improvements effected on the steam
engine by James Watt, it became no longer necessary
for miUs to be erected only where a large water supply
was available, and it was possible to raise them in the
midst of a rich coal field, and alongside of a navigable
river with a port. The first steam engine used in Glas-
gow for spinning cotton was erected in Jan. 1792. It
was put up at Springfield, on the S side of the Clyde,
opposite the lower steamboat quay. This work, which
at that time belonged to Mr Todd, and later to Todd and
Higginbotham, was removed at immense expense, in
virtue of the Clyde Trustees Act of 1840 to afford space
for the extension of the harbour. The works of Messrs
S. Higginbotham, Sons, & Gray are now to the E, opposite
Glasgow Green, and at them spinning, weaving, dyeing,
and printing are carried on very extensively. A power-
loom had, however, been introduced previously. Ac-
cording to Pagan 'the power-loom was introduced to
Glasgow in 1773 by Mr James Louis Robertson of Dun-
blane, who set up two of them in Argyle Street, which
were set in motion by a large Newfoundland dog per-
forming the part of a gin horse.' This statement has
since, however, in 1871, in letters to the Glasgow Herald,
been disputed by Mr John Robertson, a PoUokshaws
power-loom tenter, who asserts that a man named Adam
Einloch, whom he met in 1845, and who was then eighty-
five years of age, ' made the fii'st two power-looms that
ever were made in the world, and drove them with the
use of a crank by his own hand in a court off the Gallow-
gate' in 1793. About 1794 there were 40 looms fitted up
at Milton, and in 1801 Mr John Monteith had 200 looms
at work at PoUokshaws near Glasgow, and the exten-
sion of power-loom factories and of the cotton trade
generally became so rapid as almost to exceed belief
In 1818 there were within the city 'eighteen steam weav-
ing factories, containing 2800 looms, and producing 8400
pieces of cloth weekly.' There were altogether 52 cot-
ton mills in the city, with 511,200 spindles, the total
length being over 100,000,000 yards, and the value up-
wards of £5,000,000. Including the, at that time, out-
lying districts now in 'natural Glasgow,' and all the
looms in the surrounding districts usually kept at work
by Glasgow merchants, there were nearly 32,000 steam
and hand looms at work. There were also in the city
18 calico printing works and 17 calendering houses. In
1854 the number of cotton spinning factories was 39, of
cotton weaving factories 37, of cotton spinning and
122
GLASGOW
weaving factories 16, the number of spindles was
1,014,972, the number of power-looms 22,335, and the
number of persons employed 24,414. In 1875 the num- ^
ber of spindles was 1,500,000, the number of power- I
looms 27,500, and the number of persons employed
33,276. Besides the works of Messrs Higginbotham
already mentioned, two of the largest cotton factories
in Scotland are those of Messrs Galbraith at Oakbank
and St RoUox. They employ about 1800 persons, and
produce nearly 400,000 yards of cotton per week.
The wooUen manufactures in most of their depart-
ments are much less prominent in Glasgow and its
neighbourhood than in many other parts of Scotland.
The manufacture of carpets, introduced first in 1757, is,
however, carried on to a considerable extent, and em-
ploys a number of hands. In 1854 there were 7 worsted,
spinning, and weaving factories, with 14,392 spindles,
120 power-looms, and 800 hands. In 1861 there were
11,748 spindles, 14 power-looms, and 1422 hands; 'and
though since then considerable fluctuations have been
caused by the disturbed condition of trade arising from
the state of the coal and iron industries in 1873-74, and
subsequently from the failure of the City of Glasgow
Bank in 1878, there has been on the whole a propor-
tional increase.' One work alone at Greenhead now
employs upwards of 500 hands, and the annual value of
the trade is nearly £200,000. There are also a number
of silk and rope, flax and jute factories, which, in 1854,
had 74,705 spindles and 2050 hands. In 1861 they had
44,224 spindles, 231 power-looms, and 2206 hands; and
here again a fitting increase has taken place.
Altogether about one-eighth of the population of Glas-
gow, between the ages of 10 and 40, are employed in
connection with these factories with their accompany-
ing processes of bleaching, dyeing, and printing. An
establishment for the manufacture of bandanas was
started at Barrowfield in 1802 by Messrs Monteith,
Bogle, & Co., and the superior manufacture of the
article itself and the successful application of the Tur-
key-red dye have given to Glasgow bandanas a fame and
a preference in almost every commercial mart in the
world, and rendered this one of the staple industries in
the city, for the manufacture, now shared in by other
companies, is carried on upon a scale of great magnitude.
Independent!}' of this the manufacturing operations of
various other parts in Scotland are kept in motion by
Glasgow capital, and even in the North of Ireland vast
numbers of the muslin weavers are in the direct and
constant employment of Glasgow houses. The manu-
facture of sewed muslin is carried on by over 50 firms in
Glasgow, and employs more than 10,000 women. The
Messrs Macdonald, who, in 1856, erected the large block
of warehouses already mentioned, close to the post office,
had, for some time prior to their retirement during the
commercial crisis of 1857, 1500 men and 600 women on
their establishment, and gave besides employment to
between 20,000 and 30,000 needle-women in the W of
Scotland and the N of Ireland. They sent into the
market annually a quantity of sewed muslin valued at <
half a million.
The soft goods trade is, as might be expected, largely
developed in Glasgow, and the retail and wholesale
trades are often united, the merchants importing goods
largely from England and abroad, and sending them
out wholesale to smaller traders situated in almost
every village and town in Scotland, and not a few in
Ireland, and, notwithstanding the magnitude of such
transactions, the poorest customer is supplied as readily
and courteously with a yard of tape as the richest with an
order of a very much more extensive nature. Of the two
gentlemen, brothers, who originated this mixed whole-
sale and retail soft goods trade, one filled the ofBce of
chief magistrate of the city, and was knighted. For the
purposes of their business they, in 1858, erected in In-
gram Street a very large block of buildings in the fine
picturesque old Scottish style. Another firm who
started in the same line of business about 1850 at first
occupied premises with a rental of £1300, and ultimately
purchased them.