Volume 6

897
1768, and soon afterwards two more were established on the same river (k).
The number of the works and the quantity of the manufactures have since
been greatly increased. In 1810 the printfields of this shire were carried
on by seven different companies, five of whom had six printfields on the
Leven. The whole of the printfields employed 1700 people, whose wages
amounted to �50,000 yearly. The cost of the buildings and machinery
was estimated at �140,000, and they consumed annually 9600 tons of coals
of the value of �6000 (l). In this county there are three cotton spinning
mills, which employ about 350 persons, and use about 500 carts of coals yearly.
There are three paper mills, which usefully employ 150 workmen and consume
about 600 cartloads of coals annually. At Dalnotter iron works, nails, edge
tools, and all sorts of  wrought-iron goods are manufactured on an extensive
scale. Four water wheels give motion to the machinery for rolling and
forging the iron and grinding the edge tools ; 200 workmen are employed,
and 2520 tons of coals are consumed yearly. The glass works at Dumbarton
were begun about 1776, and have been enlarged at different times. There
are three cones for making window glass, with the whole apparatus neces-
sary for carrying on that beautiful manufacture in the best manner, and
the glass made is equal to any manufactured in Britain (m). At  Burnfoot of
Dalmuir, between the Clyde and the Great Canal, there is a manufacture
of alkali which employs about twenty workmen. At  Millburn there is a
distillery of  pyroligneous acid, which consumes daily a ton of small timber,
chiefly oak, from which is extracted the acid liquor, which is employed in
making colours for the calico printers. This manufacture produces a con-
siderable quantity of tar and charcoal, the value of which is esteemed equal
to the expense of the fuel. A few tan-works in the town of Dumbarton
afford a ready market for the hides of the cattle which are killed in the
vicinity, and use a considerable quantity of oak bark, the products of the copse
woods in this shire.
(k) In 1785 those three print-fields employed about 1000 people, paid from �10,000 to
�12,000 of excise duties every year; the value of their sales amounted to from �130,000 to
�140,000 yearly. MS. Statement of Mr. Stirling, who chiefly carried on this business.
(l) The most extensive print-fields are those of Messrs. Stirling at Cordale and Dalquhurn, who
employ about 600 people, and  have nearly a half of the printing trade of this shire. To the print-
field at Milton there are attached 30 looms or weaving machines, moved by a water wheel, which
weave about 420 yards of calico daily.
(m) These glass works employ 300 workmen, and consume yearly 15,000 tons of coal, 88,000
stones of hay and straw, and near 1200 tons of kelp. They give employment to 10,000 tons of
shipping, and they pay from �40,000 to �50,000 of excise duties yearly.