Doc Recap: Lyon in the 1850s by Joel Edson Rockwell

A Vermont Presbyterian Minister, Joel Edson Rockwell visited Europe in the 1850s. Part of his tour included France, in particular Lyon. He logged his impressions of churches in Lyon, especially those of Protestants amidst a nation of Catholics. But most importantly, he also wrote about Lyon’s fledgling silk industry.

The city of Lyons has a population of about 275,000 inhabitants, and it is built on a tongue of land, about three miles long, between the rivers Sein and Rhone, the one having swept down hither from the northern slope of the Jura mountains, the other from the tremendous glaciers of Switzerland, through the pure waters of Lake Leman. Wending our way to the citadel, commanding the town, from which we have a magnificent view of the Rhone; we can see the vast ranges of hills, terminating in the Alps, prominent among which is the glittering summit of Mont. Blanc.

One of the most interesting features of Lyons is her manufactories of silk. In the high parts of the city, amid old houses and step and narrow streets, we find a large portion of suburbs devoted to this business. There are about 32,000 ooms engaged in it. These factories are not large, like our cotton mills, but a proprietor rents out an ordinary house to a factor, who fill it with looms. Frequently the work-shop and dwelling apartments are in the same house, so that the operations are most economical. They have carried their work to great perfection, being able to weave into the silk the most exquisite pictures and portraits. The machinery for the work resembles, in its general details, the power carpet-looms. There are 38,000 men employed at this work, and their influence in the city sometimes make the greatest police vigilance necessary, especially in times of panic and commercial depression. During the last crisis, when hundreds were out of employment and clamoring for bread, the Emperor ordered the Bois de Boulogne, a large park, to be laid out, and so furnished employment for fourteen hundred men, saving as many families from want, and making himself intensely popular.

See also:

Industrial Revolution of France

Jacquard Loom

Source:

Rockwell, Joel Edson. Scenes and Impressions Abroad. New York, New YorkL Robert Carter & Brothers, 1860.