The Irish Linen Industry

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 33, 14 August 1902, Page 29

The Irish Linen Industry

In one year (.says a Home magazine) tho yarn spun by the countless mills in the Beltast distr ctl was ctetin mated to measure about 644,000,000 mil^.s To grasp what this means ia to realise a gigantic ball of yarn, which, unwound to its single thread, -would encircle the world with 25,000 threads. In a three ply cord the same yarn would reach from the earth to the sun an,d back again , or, should wo desire to pay a visitl to the man in the moon, our big ball of yarri_would gi,ve us a network r.oad having 380 threads extending tho full length between our planet/ and his. And what of the cloth which a year's output of yarn might be woven into ? It represents a web containing about 156,000,000 yards. We might unroll this Gargantuan web and make a path three feet wide, and on its snowy whiteness, laid flat, wo would bo able to make a triumphal tour completely aro-und old Mother Earth at the Equator. Wo might make a tent of t«he big web manufactured in the Belfast linen district, and what a wonderful tent it would be '— slieh as would amaze even Ilaioun al Itaschid. With the dome of St Paul's for itsi centre support this glorious linen canopy would co\er 500 acres and stretch as far out o\er London as twel\e and a-half miles on all sides To spin the yarn necessary for this gigantic white expanse of linen, 838, 5H2 spindles were working^ while/ its further conversion, by \\ea\mg into fabi ie necessitated .'32,245 looms Jn connection with its varn'd processes nenrK 70,000 people find occupation m the. Belfast district