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24-501: The original craft of the Clothworkers was the finishing of woven woollen cloth: fulling it to mat the fibres and remove the grease, drying it on tenter frames raising the nap with teasels ( Dipsacus ) and shearing it to a uniform finish. The Ordinances of The Clothworkers' Company, first issued in 1532 and signed by Sir Thomas More , sought to regulate clothworking, to maintain standards and to protect approved practices. From

48-464: A waterwheel or on a tappet 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'

72-591: A carrier for pesticides and fertilizers. Minor uses include filtering, clarifying, and decolorizing; as an active and inactive ingredient in beauty products; and as a filler in paint, plaster, adhesives, and pharmaceuticals. It also has a number of uses in the film industry and on stage. The English name reflects the historical use of the material for fulling (cleaning and shrinking) wool, by textile workers known as fullers . In past centuries, fullers kneaded fuller's earth and water into woollen cloth to absorb lanolin , oils, and other greasy impurities as part of

96-541: A raw material, im-bab-bár ( Akkadian : 𒅎𒌓 , gaṣṣu : 'gypsum, plaster'), literally "white earth", which was delivered to fullers for the finishing of cloth. There are several Biblical references to fulling (2 Kings 18:17; Isaiah 7:3 and 36:2; Malachi 3:2; Mark 9:3), but the materials used to whiten the fabric are not specified. Pliny the Elder mentions several types of fuller's earth ( creta fullonia in Latin) from

120-628: A smooth, tightly finished fabric that is insulating and water-repellent. Well-known examples are duffel cloth , first produced in Flanders in the 14th century, and loden , produced in Austria from the 16th century on. Waulking could be done with the hands and feet. In medieval Europe, it was done in water-powered fulling mills. After the Industrial Revolution , coal and electric power were used. Felting refers more generally to

144-616: A smoother finish. The names for workers who performed these tasks ( fuller , tucker , and walker ) have become common surnames . The Welsh word for a fulling mill is pandy , which appears in many place-names, for example Tonypandy ("fulling mill lea"). Fuller%27s earth Fuller's earth is a term for various clays used as an absorbent, filter, or bleaching agent. Products labeled fuller's earth typically consist of palygorskite (also known as attapulgite ) or bentonite . Primary modern uses include as absorbents for oil, grease, and animal waste (cat litter), and as

168-707: A tuck mill, and in Wales , a pandy. They appear to have originated in the 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 . There was a fulling mill established at Temple Guiting , Gloucestershire which was documented in the Domesday Book (also 1086). E. A. Lewis (possibly Welsh historian Edward Arthur Lewis ) observed: By

192-523: A variety of locations, each with different properties and therefore different uses. The first references to fulling mills are from Persia , and by the time of the Crusades in the late eleventh century, fulling mills were active throughout the medieval world. The use of fuller's earth across the Indian subcontinent dates back to at least 1879. While its household use and transportation by local carts in

216-532: Is altered volcanic ash composed mostly of montmorillonite. In 2005, the United States was the largest producer of fuller's earth with an almost 70% world share followed at a distance by Japan and Mexico. In the United States fuller's earth is typically derived from deposits of volcanic ash of Cretaceous age and younger (glacial clays do not form fuller's earth). Fuller's earth deposits have been mined in 24 states. The first discovery of fuller's earth in

240-617: The Duke of Kent . 51°30′41″N 0°04′52″W  /  51.51144°N 0.08109°W  / 51.51144; -0.08109 Fulling Fulling , also known as tucking or walking ( Scots : waukin , hence often spelt waulking in Scottish English ), is a step in woollen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of woven cloth (particularly wool ) to eliminate ( lanolin ) oils, dirt, and other impurities, and to make it shrink by friction and pressure. The work delivers

264-650: The Sindh region of Pakistan predates the 1800s, export by rail was first recorded in 1929 in British India . The value of fuller's earth is a plot point in the Sherlock Holmes story " The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb " (1892). In the story, an engineer is paid an outlandish sum to repair a hydraulic press, accepting his client's explanation that the potential profit from fuller's earth warrants both

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288-634: The City of London. The site was conveyed to a group of Shearmen in 1456 and the present building, completed in 1958, is the sixth on the site. Its immediate predecessor, designed by Samuel Angell and opened in 1860, was destroyed in 1941. Famous members of the Worshipful Company of Clothworkers included King James I , Samuel Pepys , Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , Baroness Burdett-Coutts , George Peabody , Sydney Waterlow , Edward VII , Lord Kelvin , Viscount Slim , Robert Menzies and

312-545: The Clothworkers' Foundation, an independent charity. Through its grants, the Foundation seeks to improve the quality of life, particularly for people and communities that face disadvantage. The company generates some of its income by renting out the hall on a private hire basis for events. Both the company and the foundation operate from Clothworkers' Hall, in Dunster Court, between Mincing Lane and Mark Lane in

336-866: The United States was near Quincy, Florida , in 1893; previously it was imported from England. In 1939 mines near Quincy produced half the U.S. production. In the United Kingdom, fuller's earth occurs mainly in England. It has been mined in the Lower Greensand Group and the Vale of White Horse , Oxfordshire . The Combe Hay Mine was a fuller's earth mine operating to the south of Bath, Somerset , until 1979. Other sites south of Bath included Frome , Lonsdale, Englishcombe , Tucking Mill , and Duncorn Hill . Although these sites had been used since Roman times, William Smith developed new methods for

360-729: The cloth finishing process. The original spelling was without an apostrophe, but the apostrophe became more common in the 19th century, both before or after the  s . Fuller's earth is the most common spelling today, but both fullers earth and fullers' earth remain in wide use. Fuller's earth is also known by the following other names: Fuller's earth consists primarily of hydrous aluminum silicates (clay minerals) of varying composition. Common components are montmorillonite , kaolinite , and attapulgite . Small amounts of other minerals may be present in fuller's earth deposits, including calcite , dolomite , and quartz . In some localities fuller's earth refers to calcium bentonite , which

384-519: The identification of deposits of fuller's earth to the south of Bath . Other English sources include a mine near Redhill, Surrey (worked until 2000), and Woburn, Bedfordshire , where production ceased in 2004. Hills, cliffs, and slopes that contain fuller's earth can be unstable, since this material can be thixotropic when saturated by heavy rainfall. Fulling is an important step in the production of woolen garments, and can be traced back to ancient times. Cuneiform texts from Mesopotamia mention

408-496: The interlocking of loose wool fibers; they need not be spun and woven first. Fulling involves two processes: scouring (cleaning) and milling (thickening). Removing the oils encourages felting, and the cloth is pounded to clean it and to encourage the fibers to felt, so in practice the processes overlap. Urine was so important to the fulling business that it was taxed in Ancient Rome . Stale urine, known as wash or lant ,

432-473: The later Middle Ages, cloth production gradually moved away from London, a situation exacerbated by the Great Fire of London and the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries. The charitable role of the Clothworkers' company nevertheless continued, supported by generous gifts of money and property by members and benefactors. Nowadays, the company's main role is in the charitable sphere, through

456-512: The microscopic scales on the surface of wool fibres hook together, somewhat like hook and loop fixings. Originally, fulling was carried out by the pounding of the woollen cloth with a club, or the fuller's feet or hands. In Roman times, fulling was conducted by slaves working the cloth while ankle deep in tubs of human urine . There are several Biblical references to fulling ( 2 Kings 18:17 ; Isaiah 7:3 and 36:2 ; Malachi 3:2 ; Mark 9:3 ). In addition to this, at least one reference appears in

480-467: The speeches of Lysias , written in Athens during the 5th century BC. Scotland, then a rather remote and un-industrialized region, retained manual methods into the 1700s. In Scottish Gaelic tradition, this process was accompanied by waulking songs , which women sang to set the pace. From the medieval period, the fulling of cloth was often done in a water mill , known as a fulling mill, a walk mill, or

504-410: The time of the Crusades in the late eleventh century, fulling mills were active throughout the medieval world. The mills beat the cloth 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 cams on the shaft of

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528-461: Was a source of ammonium salts and assisted in cleansing and whitening the cloth and having its fibers intertwined. By the medieval period, fuller's earth had been introduced for use in the process. This is a soft clay-like material occurring naturally as an impure hydrous aluminium silicate . Worked through the cloth, it absorbs oils and dirt. It was used in conjunction with wash. More recently, soap has been used. The second function of fulling

552-460: Was approximately triangular in shape, with notches to assist the turning of the cloth. After fulling, cloth was stretched on great frames known as tenters, to which it is attached by tenterhooks (whence the phrase being on tenterhooks ). The area where the tenters were erected was known as a tenterground . Cloth would also have the nap raised by napping or gigging . The surface would then be sheared smooth. The process might be repeated for

576-407: 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 , but not for worsted 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

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