Editing Fulling

{{Short description|Pre-industrial process in making wool fabric}}
{{Redirect|Tucked|the sewn pleat|Tuck (sewing)|the song|Smile (Katy Perry album)}}
{{Distinguish||text =  [[felting]], the same process, but of loose fibers, not woven cloth, and [[boiled wool]], for knitted cloth}}
[[File:Waulking 18th century engraving.jpg|thumb|Scotswomen walking (fulling) [[woollen]] cloth, singing a [[waulking song]], 1772 (engraving made by [[Thomas Pennant]] on one of his tours).|250x250px]]

'''Fulling''', also known as '''tucking''' or '''walking''' ([[Scots language|Scots]]: ''waukin'', hence often spelt '''waulking''' in [[Scottish English]]), is a step in [[Woolen|woollen]] [[clothmaking]] which involves the cleansing of woven [[cloth]] (particularly [[wool]]) to eliminate ([[lanolin]]) oils, dirt, and other impurities, and to make it shrink by friction and pressure. The work delivers a smooth, tightly finished fabric that is insulating and water-repellent. Well-known examples are [[duffel cloth]], first produced in [[Flanders]] in the 14th century, and [[Loden cape|loden]], produced in [[Austria]] from the 16th century on.

Waulking could be done with the hands and feet. In medieval Europe, it was done in [[Watermill|water-powered]] fulling mills. After the [[Industrial Revolution]], coal and electric power were used.

[[Felting]] refers more generally to the interlocking of loose wool fibers; they need not be spun and woven first.

== Process ==
Fulling involves two processes: [[scouring (textiles)|scouring]] (cleaning) and milling (thickening). Removing the oils encourages felting, and the cloth is pounded to clean it and to encourage the fibers to felt, so in practice the processes overlap.

===Scouring===
{{main|scouring (textiles)}}
Urine was so important to the fulling business that it was [[urine tax|taxed]] in [[Ancient Rome]].<ref>{{Cite web|date=2016-04-14|title=Feeling Overtaxed? The Romans Would Tax Your Urine|url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/160414-history-bad-taxes-tax-day|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413153044/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/160414-history-bad-taxes-tax-day|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 13, 2021|access-date=2021-09-20|website=History|language=en}}</ref> Stale urine, known as wash or [[lant]], was a source of [[ammonium]] salts and assisted in cleansing and whitening the cloth and having its fibers intertwined.

By the medieval period, [[fuller's earth]] had been introduced for use in the process. This is a soft clay-like material occurring naturally as an impure [[hydrous]] [[aluminium silicate]]. Worked through the cloth, it absorbs oils and dirt. It was used in conjunction with wash. More recently, soap has been used.

===Milling===
The second function of fulling was to thicken cloth by matting the fibres together to give it strength and increase waterproofing ([[felting]]). This was vital in the case of [[woollen]]s, made from [[carding|carded]] [[wool]], but not for [[worsted]] materials made from [[combing|combed]] wool. After this stage, water was used to rinse out the foul-smelling liquor used during cleansing. Felting of wool occurs upon hammering or other mechanical agitation because the microscopic scales on the surface of wool fibres hook together, somewhat like hook and loop fixings.

==== Manual methods ====
[[File:Pompeii; its history, buildings and antiquities - an account of the destruction of the city, with a full description of the remains, and of the recent excavations and also an itinerary for visitors (14772708972).jpg|thumb|Manual trampling, drawing after an [[Ancient Roman]] fresco in the [[Fullonica of Stephanus]], Pompeii. A [[fullonica]] is a fullery and laundry shop.]]
Originally, fulling was carried out by the pounding of the woollen cloth with a club, or the fuller's feet or hands.

In Roman times, fulling was conducted by slaves working the cloth while ankle deep in tubs of human [[urine]].{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

There are several Biblical references to fulling ({{Bibleverse|2 Kings|18:17}}; {{Bibleverse|Isaiah|7:3}} and {{BibleVerse-nb|Isaiah|36:2}}; {{Bibleverse|Malachi|3:2}}; {{Bibleverse|Mark|9:3}}). In addition to this, at least one reference appears in the speeches of [[Lysias]], written in Athens during the 5th century BC.<ref name=woods/>

Scotland, then a rather remote and un-industrialized region, retained manual methods into the 1700s. In [[Scottish Gaelic]] tradition, this process was accompanied by [[waulking song]]s, which women sang to set the pace.

==== Mills ====
<gallery mode=packed heights=200>
File:Fulling at Goritsa waterfall.JPG|Fulling cloth by letting a waterfall agitate it
File:Fulling mill bockler.jpg|upright=1|A driving-stock fulling mill from [[Georg Andreas Böckler]]'s ''Theatrum Machinarum Novum'', 1661
File:Fulling mill.jpg|Model of a falling-stock machine, showing the set of hammers that drop in sequence to pound the cloth in the vats below
File:PSM V39 D471 Rotary fulling mill.jpg|1891 illustration of a rotary fulling mill
</gallery>

From the medieval period, the fulling of cloth was often done in a [[water mill]], known as a fulling mill, a walk mill, or a tuck mill, and in [[Wales]], a pandy. They appear to have originated in the 9th or 10th century in Europe. The earliest known reference to a fulling mill in France, which dates from about 1086, was discovered in [[Normandy]].<ref>J. Gimpel, ''The Medieval Machine'' (2nd ed., Pimlico, London 1992 repr.), 14.</ref> There was a fulling mill established at [[Temple Guiting]], Gloucestershire which was documented in the [[Domesday Book]] (also 1086).<ref>The Doomsday Book. England's Heritage, Then and now. Book Club Associates, 1985. Editor:Thomas Hinde. Page 107.</ref> E. A. Lewis (possibly Welsh historian [https://archives.library.wales/index.php/lewis-e-edward-arthur-1880-1942 Edward Arthur Lewis])<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lewis |first1=E. A. |title=The development of industry and commerce in Wales during the Middle Ages |journal=Transactions of the Royal Society |date=1904 |volume=New Series XVII |pages=121–173 |url=https://archive.org/details/TransactionsOfTheRoyalHistoricalSociety1904VolXVII2ndSeries/page/n197/mode/2up |access-date=13 August 2024}}</ref> observed:

:   'Fulling mills appear in Wales early in the reign of Edward II., just at the time when fulling mills were being introduced into Lancashire.'<ref>The author added the following footnote to their observation: 'Chetham Society Publications, xliii. 637. Cf the Pipe Roll of the Bishopric of Winchester, 1208-9. Introd. xxvii, as to the earliest recorded fulling mills in England.'</ref>
By the time of the [[Crusades]] in the late eleventh century, fulling mills were active throughout the medieval world.<ref name=woods>Thomas Woods (2005), "How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization", ''How the Monks Saved Civilization'' '''33'''</ref>

The mills beat the cloth with wooden hammers, known as fulling stocks or fulling hammers. Fulling stocks were of two kinds, falling stocks (operating vertically) that were used only for scouring, and driving or hanging stocks. In both cases the machinery was operated by [[Cam (mechanism)|cam]]s on the shaft of a [[waterwheel]] or on a [[tappet]] wheel, which lifted the hammer.

Driving stocks were pivoted so that the foot (the head of the hammer) struck the cloth almost horizontally. The stock had a tub holding the liquor and cloth. This was somewhat rounded on the side away from the hammer, so that the cloth gradually turned, ensuring that all parts of it were milled evenly. However, the cloth was taken out about every two hours to undo plaits and wrinkles. The 'foot' was approximately triangular in shape, with notches to assist the turning of the cloth.

==Post-processing==
[[File:Pompeii - Fullonica of Veranius Hypsaeus 1 - MAN (cropped to napping).jpg|thumb|Raising the nap, Roman fresco]]
After fulling, cloth was stretched on great frames known as tenters, to which it is attached by [[tenterhook]]s (whence the phrase ''being [[:wiktionary:on tenterhooks|on tenterhooks]]''). The area where the tenters were erected was known as a [[tenterground]].

Cloth would also have the [[nap (fabric)|nap]] raised by napping or [[gig-mill|gigging]]. The surface would then be [[shearing (textiles)|sheared]] smooth. The process might be repeated for a smoother finish.

== Legacy ==

The names for workers who performed these tasks (''[[Fuller (surname)|fuller]]'', ''[[Tucker (surname)|tucker]]'', and ''[[Walker (surname)|walker]]''<ref>Jones, Gareth ''Daniel Rhydderch of Aberloch'', reproduced from The Western Mail July 17, 1933 accessed at {{cite web |url=http://colley.co.uk/garethjones/rural_wales/daniel_rhydderch.htm |title=Daniel Rhydderch  |access-date=2007-04-07 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311112410/http://colley.co.uk/garethjones/rural_wales/daniel_rhydderch.htm |archive-date=2007-03-11 }} June 19, 2006</ref>) have become common [[surname]]s.

The [[Welsh (language)|Welsh]] word for a fulling mill is [[:wikt:pandy#Welsh|''pandy'']],<ref name="Arnold 1968">{{cite book|last=Arnold|first=James|title=The Shell Book of Country Crafts|year=1968|publisher=John Baker (Publishers) Ltd|pages=213–215|chapter=Weaving}}</ref> which appears in many place-names, for example [[Tonypandy]] ("fulling mill lea").

== See also ==
* [[Beetling]]
* [[Bleachfield]]
* [[Dadeumi]], a similar traditional practice in Korea
* [[List of laundry topics]]
* [[Posting (laundering process)]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==

* [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=full "full"]. Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved June 30, 2005.
* E. K. Scott, "Early Cloth Fulling and its Machinery", ''Trans. Newcomen Soc.'' 12 (1931), 30–52.
* E. M. Carus-Wilson, "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/2590709 An Industrial Revolution of the Thirteenth Century]", ''Economic History Review'', 11(1) (1941), 39–60.
* Reginald Lennard, "Early English Fulling Mills: additional examples", ''Economic History Review'', 3(3) (1951), 342–343.
* R. A. Pelham, ''Fulling Mills'' ([[Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings]], (mills booklet 5), c. 1958)
* A. J. Parkinson, "Fulling mills in Merioneth", ''J. Merioneth Hist. & Rec. Soc.'' 9(4) (1984), 420–456.
* D. Druchunas ''Felting, Vogue Knitting, The Basics'', Sixth & Spring Books, NY. (2005); p.&nbsp;10.

== External links ==
{{Wiktionary|fulling|tenter}}
*[http://vicnewey.co.uk/ A model of a fulling mill on view at bishops Lydeard Mill & Museum, Somerset]

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[[Category:History of clothing]]
[[Category:Laundry]]
[[Category:Production occupations]]
[[Category:Textile treatments]]
[[Category:Waulked textiles]]