Mungo or Shoddy?

major bill

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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Aug 25, 2012
I am doing some work on Civil War uniforms and at times the terms for cloth are confusing. For example what is the difference between Mungo and Shoddy? Perhaps they are one in the same.

Are Kerseymere and Kersey the same?

I also see Broadcloth and Cassimere use much the same.

Other terms I see: Petersham, Sateen, Satinet, Shalloon, Osnaburg, and others. I was wondering if there is a good source that explains the Civil War use of cloth terms.
 
It would appear that there is a difference:


Report of the Annual Meeting, Volume 45, Part 1874 By British Association for the Advancement of Science. Meeting

On the Shoddy Trade. By Samuel Jubb.
The shoddy manufacture was commencod at Batley, Yorkshire, in the year 1813, being introduced by Mr. Benjamin Law, of tho same place. The produce thereof are heavy woollen cloths chiefly, and they are used for coatings and other purposes. The essential raw materials used in the fabrication of shoddy cloths are shoddy and mungo, in combination with wool and noils.

Shoddy is produced from soft rags, such as cast-off stockings, flannels, carpets, &c.; and mungo from hard rags, such as worn-out dress-coats, tailors' cuttings, disused fine tablecloths, &c. Both these kinds of rags, which formerly were nearly valueless, are torn or ground up by a machine, the principal feature of which is a cylinder set with sharp iron teeth, and which revolves at a rapid rate; this machine is known locally by the name of "devil." The effect is, that the rags are converted into a kind of wool or flock, and hence capable of being mixed with sheep's wool.

Tho supplies of rags are drawn partly from the large cities and towns of tho United Kingdom, and also from various foreign countries. London is the principal market. Shoddy and mungo, viz. the rags in the prepared state, are largely imported from the continent of Europe.

Shoddy varies from Id. to Is. per lb., mungo from l£rf. to 20d. per lb., according to quality, colour, staple, &c. The wool used together with shoddy varies from GrA per lb. to l&d. per lb., and with mungo from Is, to 2s. Od. or 3?. per lb. There is a large quantity of fine Australian wool consumed in the shoddy manufacture.

Shoddy cloths vary from about la. 2d. to 12s. per yard, 54 inches wide, and always appear cheap, whilst as a fact they are an economical fabric, and as such extensively patronized, by the working and poorer classes at home; at the same time a large export trade is done in them to our colonies and the principal markets of the world.

Shoddy cloths are of course scribbled and carded, spun, woven, milled, raised, dyed, and finished much in the same way as cloths made of all sheep's wool.

The shoddy manufacture has its centre at Batley and the adjoining borough of Dewsbury, where large mills are in operation, employing thousands of workpeople. Batley is the principal seat of the trade, and at this time (1873) contains from fifty to sixty mills engaged in this business.

A considerable number of other places in the district, and at a distance, are more or less occupied in the heavy woollen manufacture, which have radiated from Batley as from a common centre. There are no statistics showing the extent of the trade in the aggregate, though it is desirable there were; it may, however, be stated that there ore without doubt 3000 power-looms used in this trade at Batley. Speaking of power-looms (that is to say looms driven by steam-power, in contradistinction to hand-looms, which were worked manually) they (power-looms) have been used on a large and increasing scale for some twenty years back; females are chiefly engaged in tending power-looms, intermixed with a few young and adult men. Female labour has been in great demand in tho heavy woollen district since the introduction of power-looms; and the result is that this kind of labour now receives about twice the remuneration it formerly did. Men's wages, though advanced, have not progressed in any thing like a corresponding ratio; females who are proficient at the power-loom can earn in full employ eighteen shillings per week. The employment in. the woollen manufacture is, generally speaking, healthy; tho oil, which is put upon the wool before scribbling, keeps down any dust, and is wholesome to the operative.

In conclusion, the trade seems destined to expand in futuro years as it has done in the past, and to become, large as it is, much larger still. In its first initiation, and for some time afterwards, the trade was not without detractors; but it has outlived all opposition, and has become firmly established as one of the leading manufactures of the kingdom.
 
I wondered because I saw the term "Mungo" and did not fully understand the term. In fact I knew who Mungo Jerry was, but I am not sure other than the music group I had seen the term Mungo.

Shoddy got a bad name during the Civil War. So it appears poorly made Shoddy was the problem and well made Shoddy did have some value
 
We have a new thread on Shoddy and so i thought we might want to re-look at Package4's very good description of this.
 
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