FULLING-MILL

a mill used for fulling or telting woollen cloths; the modern name for such a mill is milling-machine (q.v.). An apparatus used for the same purpose and anterior to the milling-machine is known as fulling-stocks. The principal parts of this apparatus in its simplest form are the wheel and one or two projecting studs from its sides, which, while rotating, raise two levers, the ends of which are formed of large blocks of heavy wood, and shaped very much like a pig’s foot. The cloth to be fulled is saturated with soap and water, and placed in a suitably shaped receptacle into which the pig’s-foot levers descend. The weight of the levers supplies the nece ary pre ure to the fabric, and at the same time their shape causes the fabric to roll gradually in the receptacle, so that all parts may be equally treated and fulled, i.e. made more compact. These simple stocks were subsequently replaced by more scientific stocks, which performed the same kind of action on the cloth but at a much higher speed.