Fulling or tucking or walking ("waulking" in Scotland) is a step in woollen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of cloth (particularly wool) to get rid of oils, dirt, and other impurities, and thickening it. The worker who does the job is a fuller, tucker or walker. Despite suggestions to the contrary,^[1] these processes are essentially identical. This article is about the country. ... This article is about wool, the fiber. ... Textile manufacturing is one of the oldest of mans technologies. ... It has been suggested that Textile be merged into this article or section. ... For other uses, see Wool (disambiguation). ...

Engraving of Scotswomen waulking or fulling cloth, c. 1770

The Process

Fulling involves two processes - scouring and milling (thickening). These are followed by stretching the cloth on great frames known as tenters and held onto those frames by tenterhooks. It is from this process that we derive the phrase being on tenterhooks as meaning to be held in suspense. The area where the tenters were erected was known as a tenterground. A tenterground or tenter ground was an area used for drying newly manufactured cloth after fulling. ...

Originally, this was literally pounding the cloth with the fuller's feet (whence the description of them as 'walkers'), or with his hands or a club. However, from the medieval period, it was often carried out in a water mill. A watermill is a machine constructed by connecting a water wheel to a pair of millstones. ...

Scouring

In Roman times, fulling was conducted by slaves standing ankle deep in tubs of human urine and cloth. Urine was so important to the fulling business that urine was taxed. Urine (known as 'wash') was a source of ammonium salts, and assisted in cleansing the cloth. This article is about the urine of animals generally. ... Urine Tax was a tax levied by the Roman emperor Nero in the first century C.E. upon the collection of urine. ... A ball-and-stick model of the ammonium cation Ammonium is also an old name for the Siwa Oasis in western Egypt. ...

By the medieval period, fuller's earth had been introduced. This is a soft clay-like material occurring in nature as an impure hydrous aluminium silicate. This seems to have been used in conjunction with 'wash'. More recently, soap has been used. The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times. ... Fullers earth is any nonplastic clay or claylike material that can be used to decolorize, filter, and purify animal, mineral, and vegetable oils and greases. ... For other uses, see Soap (disambiguation). ...

Thickening

The second function of fulling was to thicken the cloth, by matting the fibres together to give it strength. This was vital in the case of woollens, made from short staple wool, but not worsteds made from long staple wool. At this stage, the liquid used was water, thus rinsing out the foul smelling liquor used during cleansing. Woolen (British spelling woollen) is the name of a yarn and cloth usually made from wool. ... Two wool samples of different staple lengths Staple is a term referring to fiber that comes in discrete and consistent lengths, measured in millimeters. ... For other uses, see Wool (disambiguation). ... Worsted is the name of a dick the cloth made from this yarn, as well as a yarn weight category. ...

Fulling Mills

A fulling mill from Georg Andreas Böckler's Theatrum Machinarum Novum, 1661

From the medieval period, the fulling of cloth was often undertaken in a water mill, known as a fulling mill (also as walk mills or tuck mills). In Wales, a fulling mill is a pandy. In these, the cloth was beaten with wooden hammers, known as fulling stocks. Fulling stocks were of two kinds, falling stocks (operating vertically), used only for scouring, and driving or hanging stocks. In both cases the machinery was operated by cams on the shaft of a waterwheel or on a tappet wheel, which lifted the hammer. Georg Andreas Böckler (1644-1698), was a German architect and engineer who wrote Architectura Curiosa Nova (1664) and Theatrum Machinarum Novum (1661). ... A watermill is a machine constructed by connecting a water wheel to a pair of millstones. ... This article is about the country. ... For other uses, see CAM. Animation showing rotating cams and cam followers producing reciprocating motion. ... An overshot water wheel standing 42 feet high powers the Old Mill at Berry College in Rome, Georgia A water wheel (also waterwheel, Norse mill, Persian wheel or noria) is a hydropower system; a system for extracting power from a flow of water. ... In mechanical engineering, a tappet is a projection which imparts a linear motion to some other component within an assembly. ...

Driving stocks were pivotted 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 somewhat triangular in shape, with notches to assist the turning of the cloth.

History

The first reference to a fulling mill so far discovered was in Normandy about 1086.^[2] The first in England occurs in the Winton Domesday of 1117-19. Others belonged to the Knights Templar by 1185. For other uses, see Normandy (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... Events Knights Templar founded Baldwin of Le Bourg succeeds his cousin Baldwin I as king of Jerusalem John II Comnenus succeeds Alexius I as Byzantine emperor Gelasius II succeeds Paschal II as pope Births November 28 - Manuel I Comnenus, Byzantine Emperor (died 1180) Andronicus I Comnenus, Byzantine Emperor (died 1185... For other uses, see Knights Templar (disambiguation). ... Events April 25 - Genpei War - Naval battle of Dan-no-ura leads to Minamoto victory in Japan Templars settle in London and begin the building of New Temple Church End of the Heian Period and beginning of the Kamakura period in Japan. ...

They became widespread during the 13th century, and occur in most counties of England and Wales, but were largely absent in areas only making worsteds. (12th century - 13th century - 14th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 13th century was that century which lasted from 1201 to 1300. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... This article is about the country. ... Worsted is the name of a dick the cloth made from this yarn, as well as a yarn weight category. ...

What caused Don Quixote to tilt at windmills? "Six huge Fulling-Mill Hammers which interchangeably thumping several Pieces of Cloth, made the terrible Noise that caus'd all Don Quixote's Anxieties and Sancho's Tribulation that Night." from Don Quixote by Cervantes.

Popular Culture

‘Fulling’ is popularly called ‘felting’ or ‘boiled wool’ by crafters today (as distinguished from non-woven felt). You can create fulled (felted) fabric at home by beating a sweater in an ordinary washing machine set on hot, load size small, with heavy agitation, and soap. The heat, water and agitation cause the scales of the hair fibers to open up and lock together. The shrunken result is dense, durable, and irreversible. Woolen fabrics (unless treated), some blends, or almost any animal hair will felt, but cotton, acrylics, synthetics or plant fiber will not. For example, the "mats" in cat fur and "dreadlocks" in human hair are formed by a similar process of locking the microscopic scales of the hair together.

See also

Look up fulling, tenter in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Waulking song
• Bleachfield

Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wiktionary (a portmanteau of wiki and dictionary) is a multilingual, Web-based project to create a free content dictionary, available in over 151 languages. ... Waulking songs (Scots Gaelic: Orain Luaidh) are pieces of Scottish folk music, traditionally sung by women while waulking (in fact, men were often banned from the sessions). ...

References

• 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, mills booklet 5, c.1958)
• A. J. Parkinson, 'Fulling mills in Merinoneth' J. Merioneth Gist. & Rec. Soc. 9(4) (1984), 420-56. so that the
• D. Druchunas 'Felting, Vogue Knitting, The Basics', Sixth & Spring Books, NY. (2005) 10.

The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) was founded by William Morris in 1877, to oppose what he saw as the insensitive renovation of ancient buildings then occurring in Victorian England. ...

Notes

1. ^ Jones, Gareth Daniel Rhydderch of Aberloch, reproduced from The Western Mail July 17, 1933 accessed at [1] June 19, 2006
2. ^ J. Gimpel, The Medieval Machine (2nd edn, Pimlico, London 1992 repr.), 14.

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