406 
PLAUEN. 
embroiderer who has charge of it is confined to moving the lever (pantograph) 
which guides the fabric according to the design in course of being worked, and 
watching the number of threads. He has a woman piecer to help him. In 
executing orders for large quantities of a particular pattern of lace a machine 
on the Jacquard principle, is used, on which the pattern is worked automatically, 
i.e. without guidance by an embroiderer, one of whom attends to several machines. 
The third kind of power-driven machine employed in the manufacture of 
Plauen goods is that used for tambour work, and in appearance resembles the 
domestic sewing-machine. Speaking generally, its work may be described as 
consisting in the sewing of ribbon or tape on to a background of net or other 
material over the lines of a pattern previously traced on the material. The 
heavier of these machines are worked by men and the others by women and girls, 
the work of the operatives in each case consisting in the guiding of the needle or 
needles, the movement of which is effected by steam or other motor power. 
The establishments in which the lace and embroidery manufactures of Plauen 
are produced may be divided into three main groups. The first group is that of the 
factories owned by large firms who are merchants as well as manufacturers, and 
produce on their own premises and with their own machines the goods they sell; 
the second group is that of the factories or workshops owned by firms or 
individuals whose sole business consists in manufacturing goods to the order 
of other firms (usually those of the first group) by whom those goods are sold. 
Some of these establishments consist of a large workroom adjoining, but separated 
from, the owner’s dwelling, and containing 20, 30 or more machines ; others 
consist of one of the storeys of a large building in which all the other storeys 
are let for similar purposes, power being supplied either by the landlord or 
obtained direct from the municipal electrical supply station. The third group of 
establishments is that of the domestic workshop containing one or two 
machines, set up in one of the rooms of the dwelling and worked by the owner 
himself, with or without the assistance of members of his family. The 
machines used in the domestic workshop are as a rule those employed for 
tambour work, costing £11 for the smaller to £35 for the larger sort. In the 
last few years, however, increasing numbers of operatives, after saving the neces 
sary sum (£125 to £150) have been purchasing shuttle embroidery machines 
and setting up as small master embroiderers, working in their own homes. 
Thus a movement has set in, the tendency of which is to reverse the course of 
evolution which the embroidery industry of Plauen has undergone since the 
introduction of machinery. The movement towards centralisation from the 
domestic to the factory system of production is being succeeded by a movement 
in the opposite direction—from the factory back to the domestic workshop— 
and this new movement is being fostered—at least in Plauen itself—by the 
facility of obtaining electrical power on a small scale from the municipality. In 
the outlying villages gas and benzine motors furnish the necessary power. For 
the domestic workshops the lace and embroidery industry is to a large extent of 
a seasonal nature, for the work which they obtain is an overflow from the larger 
establishments in busy times. 
As regards the wage-earners, properly so called, there are in the first 
place the operatives, male and female, regularly working in the factories 
of the first and second groups referred to above. In Plauen, apart from 
the surrounding villages, there were, as already stated, 14,385 such 
operatives working in 848 establishments on May 1st, 1906. Of these lU,902 
were women and girls and 3,483 men and boys. The proportion of adults 
(over 21 years of age) was approximately four-fifths of the males and one-half 
of the females. After the factory operatives come the numerous body composed 
of women and girls—mostly the wives and daughters of workpeople and 
subordinate officials, who supplement the family income by working in their 
own homes at various finishing processes. The most usual forms of homework 
consist in repairing defects in embroideries and lace after they have left the 
machine, and in cutting out with scissors certain parts of the fabric the 
removal of which is necessary in order to bring out the design, eg/., the parts 
between the scallops or points of lace. The first of these operations requires 
skill and training, and those who can give the whole of their time to it usually 
earn from 12a. to 15s. a week. The second operation is as a rule done in such