Actually, I was originally hoping for some discussion on pre-Industrial shoddy fabric -- I was wondering if shoddy was even produced before the 19th Century. BUT... I think I answered my own question: according to "The History of the Shoddy-Trade" (1860) p.18, manual labor can not produce the force required for the process.
So... it appears that shoddy was not made prior to the 1800's. Cite: http://books.google.com/books?id=vs4oAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=history+of+shoddy&source=bl&ots=1uWV0Cg6ZK&sig=kxRFoaNHFM3qVPmcy-ijikIA6gc&hl=en&ei=kd-tTaOCMMXX0QGl0qi6Cw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CB0Q6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q&f=false _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
