Only $ 51.00

Only $ 10.00

b. May 29, 1716 and d. December 31, 1800 (1799)

French naturalist. Discovered a method of refining the fleece of sheep, and invented a micrometer for measuring the most delicate wool.

Awakened spring weaves in her mystic loom,
An azure sky, a soft caressing wind,
The song of birds, the glint of streams combined
With perfumed promises of summer’s bloom-
A vernal scarf to drape dead winter’s tomb,
A seamless robe of grasses green entwined,
To wrap the world; while, ever thoughtful, kind,
The leafy screen, concealing all the bloom
Which frosty fingers painted in the world.
Her warp is time, which into moments spun,
Leap back and forth across a woof of gold
As in and out her fairy shuttles run,
With sunshine filled. And beauty manifold
Blooms in the web-earth finished, heaven begun.

—God’s Tapestries: John Tracy Jones

1331—Woolen manufacture was established at York by two weavers from Brabant. 1390—It was begun at Kendal.

1620-1634—Drebbel discovered his new process of dyeing wool and silk, afterwards used in the Gobelin factories.

1762—The cylinder carding machine was invented by Sir Robert Peel.

1802—Merino sheep introduced in the United States.

1849-50—Pollender and Davaine discovered bacillus anthrax, a disease of sheep and cattle.

1863—Davaine discovered the same disease called anthrax in the blood of wool-sorters.