Library Looms – the development of industrialism
What interests me of this period are the social aspect and the question of taste. In his delightful booklet Quali macchine ho vedute (Machines I have seen) Alessandro Rossi, founder of Lanificio Rossi, illustrates the evolution of wool processing machines and wool processing from 1846 to 1896. In the space of fifty years the whole system of wool processing, from washing the raw fiber to folding and packing the cloth, moved from manual to mechanical. We think our present world is moving fast, but in Rossi’s time a few decades witnessed a real revolution. After several just reflections, in the last page, on the improvement of working and living conditions of workers, Rossi however subscribes, in the concluding sentence, to the illusion of many 19th-century enlighted industrialists that Love and harmony have always reigned between capital and labor! This just one example of what the books in this section of the bibliography tell. The stories of technical development are always about great upheavals and social evolutions.
ALESSANDRO ROSSI. Quali macchine ho vedute. 1846-3 Novembre-1896, Schio: Lanificio Rossi, 1896, 35 pages, b&w ill.
ENZO PIFFERI. Gli strumenti della seta. Como: Enzo Pifferi Editore, 1990, 91 pages, b&w ill.
FRIEDRICH SCHIERACH. Gründliche Anweisung zur Vorrichtung der Jacquard-Maschine. Erfurt: Commission bei F.W. Otto, 1842, 56 pages, b&w ill.
I resti di una rivoluzione /Remains of a Revolution, catalog of the photographic exhibition organized by the Britsh Council (December 1977- October 1978). London: Britsh Council, 13 pages, b&w ill. (Italian and English)
PIETRO D'AVANZO. Regola per la meccanica del telaio da seta 1753. Venezia: Corbo e Fiore, 1981, 71 pages, b&w ill. e col.
DIDEROT-D'ALEMBERT. L'Encyclopedie. Tessuti. Raccolta di tavole, sulle scienze, le arti liberali e le arti meccaniche con relative spiegazioni. Milano: Libritalia, 2002, b&w ill., ISBN 88-8197-279-4
JOSETTE GONTIER. La Soierie de Lyon. Le Puy: Christine Bonneton, 1985, 131 pages, b&w ill. e col., ISBN 2-86253-004-2
D. DE PRAT. Traité de tissage au jacquard. Paris: Ch. Beranger, 1921, 394 pages, b&w ill.
ANNA P. BENSON. Textile Machines. Oxford: Shire Albums 103, Shire Publications, 1987 and 2002, 32 pages, b&w ill., ISBN 9780852636473
ENZO QUARENGHI, a cura di. Crespi d'Adda: la fabbrica e il villaggio. Bergamo: Il filo d'Arianna, 1984, 43 pages, b&w ill.
K.R. GILBERT. Textile Machinery. London: Her Majestry's Stationery Office, 1971, 23 pages, col. ill., ISBN 011290116