Cotton and wool have long dominated studies of the English textile industries, relegating silk manufacture to no more than a minor role in the British economy. Regional studies have likewise tended to concentrate upon areas dominated by a single feature or single industry. This thesis aims to address the economic and social impact of a silk industry established in the predominantly rural area of South West Hertfordshire. Here the indigenous population had other opportunities for employment, agricultural labour of various kinds forming the greatest occupational group. The straw plait absorbed female and child labour in the districts of Berkhamsted and St Albans, in direct competition to the silk mills, while the rag factories supplying the paper industry offered competition to the silk mills of Watford and Rickmansworth. Any industry dependent upon imports is especially vulnerable to external pressure, and an overview of the national situation regarding the silk industry in England, and of the particular problems besetting manufacturers during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, is therefore essential to an understanding of the situation in the rural semi-industrial districts. The chapters of this thesis therefore follow the story of silk production from the wider context of the national industry to the specific mills of Hertfordshire, asking first, why the establishment of an English silk industry was so important. Themes explored in later chapters are already discernible in the early history of the silk industry: the high involvement of women; the apprenticeshipo f children; the interventionist role of government; and the problem of the poor. The extent to which these factors impinged upon the relationship between master, worker, and the local district, and ultimately upon the viability of the Hertfordshire mills, form the central core of this study.

The dimensions of airborne fibres collected at various stages of fibre processing in mines and mills producing crocidolite, amosite and chrysotile asbestos were measured by using light optical and electron microscopy. Airborne fibres of different asbestos types had markedly different size and shape distributions. For a given asbestos type, airborne fibres collected at various stages of processing differed in their size distributions but the differences were considerably less than between fibre types. Most of the airborne fibres to which miners and millers were exposed were short, thin and thus respirable. The proportions of long fibres in the air of crocidolite and chrysotile mines and mills were small compared to those in amosite mining and milling environments. The physical parameters which best differentiated crocidolite fibres from other asbestos fibre types were aspect ratio, which was higher, and proportions of long thin fibres (0.06 - 0.2 (mu)m in diameter and > 5 (mu)m in length). Median mass of amosite fibres was more than 108 and 13 times higher than the median mass of chrysotile and crocidolite fibres respectively. Median true diameter of amosite fibres was approximately 4 and 3 times higher than median true diameters of chrysotile and crocidolite fibres respectively. Median true length of amosite fibres was more than 4.5 and 1.9 times higher than median true lengths of chrysotile and crocidolite fibres respectively. / The differences in size and shape of airborne fibres have important implications for setting of work environmental standards and explaining differences in health risks associated with different fibre types.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Auburn University, 2005. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1990. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 196-206). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, 2001. / Adviser: David R. Walt. Submitted to the Dept. of Chemistry, Includes bibliographical references (leaves 197-208). Access restricted to members of the Tufts University community. Also available via the World Wide Web;

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Virginia, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available online through Digital Dissertations.

Thesis (M.S.)--Villanova University, 2007. / Chemistry Dept. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S. in Civil Engineering)--Kansas State University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-106). Also available online.

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, March, 1988. / Title from PDF t.p.

Thesis (Ph.D.). / Written for the Dept. of Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics. Title from title page of PDF (viewed 2008/05/08). Includes bibliographical references.