Blankets. The best qualities of those made in England are wholly of wool, but what may be called a typical English blanket of medium or inferior quality is generally formed of cotton warp and woollen weft threads, since, owing to the peculiar way much of the wool is spread in an open pile over the surface of the fabric, the cotton gives it strength. One of the chief aims of the manufacturer is to raise the fibres of the woollen yarn into a loose, soft mat on the face of this kind of blanket, which hides the threads below. This is effected by Teazles (q.v.), or steel brushes, in what are called gigs or brushing machines. Scotch blankets, even of ordinary quality, on the other hand, are entirely made of wool, and are finished in a different way, the pile on the surface not being sufficient to hide the twilled pattern into which they are woven. An imitation of the Scotch blanket is made in some mills at Sowerby-Bridge in Yorkshire. Cloth or Bury blankets, again, have a surface more like ordinary woollen cloth. Witney, Kersey, Yorkshire, and Bath are the best-known varieties of English blankets. Dewsbury in Yorkshire is the principal centre of the trade. The Scotch blanket mills are chiefly situated in Ayrshire, Berwickshire, and at Markinch in Fife. Some blankets made in Ayrshire are not of the ordinary Scotch type. The 'Witney' and 'Bath' are perhaps the most comfortable blankets made in Great Britain, but none of the English kinds can compare with the Scotch blanket for economy. The latter is by far the most durable.
Foreign visitors to the Philadelphia Exhibition of 1876 were surprised at the luxurious nature of the more expensive kinds of American blankets exhibited, which find a market in that country at from thirty to fifty dollars a pair. An official report states that nothing comparable with these in weight, thickness, softness, and perfection of face had ever before been attempted. It also mentions that the lowest grades of blankets, composed of shoddy, hair, and the coarsest wool, which are saleable abroad, cannot be disposed of in America—even the savage Indians will not have them. Extraordinarily fine woollen blankets are made in Mysore in India; some, it is said, so delicate that, though as much as 18 feet long, they can be rolled inside a hollow bamboo. Such fancy blankets cost £30. English blankets range in price from four to forty shillings per pair. Some more costly kinds are made, but the market for them is very limited.