The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett [314]
It was on one such evening that Aliena said: “I don’t know if I’m going to be able to sell all this cloth.”
They were somewhat taken aback. Ellen said: “Then why are we weaving it?”
“I haven’t given up hope,” Aliena said. “I’ve just got a problem. ”
Tom looked up from his slate. “I thought the priory was eager to buy it all.”
“That’s not the problem. I can’t find people to do the felting, and the priory doesn’t want loose-woven cloth—nor does anyone else.”
Ellen said: “Felting is backbreaking work. I’m not surprised no one will do it.”
“Can’t you get men to do it?” Tom suggested.
“Not in prosperous Kingsbridge. All the men have work enough. In the big towns there are professional fullers, but most of them work for weavers, and they’re prohibited from felting for their employer’s rivals. Anyway, it would cost too much to cart the cloth to Winchester and back.”
“It’s a real problem,” Tom acknowledged, and went back to his drawing.
Jack was struck by a thought. “It’s a pity we can’t get oxen to do it.”
The others laughed. Tom said: “You might as well try to teach an ox to build churches.”
“Or a mill,” Jack persisted. “There are usually easy ways to do the hardest work.”
“She wants to felt the cloth, not grind it,” Tom said. Jack was not listening. “We use lifting gear, and winding wheels, to raise stones up to the high scaffolding.”
Aliena said: “Oh, if there was some ingenious mechanism to get this cloth felted, it would be wonderful.”
Jack thought how pleased she would be if he could solve this problem for her. He determined to find a way.
Tom said thoughtfully: “I’ve heard of a water mill being used to work the bellows in a forge—but I’ve never seen it.”
“Really!” Jack said. “That proves it!”
Tom said: “A mill wheel goes round and round, and a grindstone goes round and round, so the one can drive the other; but a fuller’s bat goes up and down. You can’t make a round waterwheel drive an up-and-down bat.”
“But a bellows goes up and down.”
“True, true; but I never saw that forge, I only heard tell of it.”
Jack tried to picture the machinery of a mill. The force of the water drove the mill wheel around. The shaft of the mill wheel was connected to another wheel inside the mill. The inside wheel, which was upright, had teeth that interlocked with the teeth of another wheel which lay flat. The flat wheel turned the millstone. “An upright wheel can drive a flat wheel,” Jack muttered, thinking aloud.
Martha laughed. “Jack, stop! If mills could felt cloth, clever people would have thought of it already.”
Jack ignored her. “The fuller’s bats could be fixed to the shaft of the mill wheel,” he said. “The cloth could be laid flat where the bats fall.”
Tom said: “But the bats would strike once, then get stuck; and the wheel would stop. I told you—wheels go round and round, but bats have to go up and down.”
“There must be a way,” Jack said stubbornly.
“There’s no way,” Tom said decisively, in the tone of voice he used to close a conversational subject.
“I bet there is, though,” Jack muttered rebelliously; and Tom pretended not to hear.
On the following Sunday, Jack disappeared.
He went to church in the morning, and ate his dinner at home, as usual; but he did not appear at suppertime. Aliena was in her own kitchen, making a thick broth of ham and cabbage with pepper in it, when Ellen came looking for Jack.
“I haven’t seen him since mass,” Aliena said.
“He vanished after dinner,” Ellen said. “I assumed he was with you.”
Aliena felt a little embarrassed that Ellen should have made that assumption so readily. “Are you worried?”
Ellen shrugged. “A mother is always worried.”
“Has he quarreled with Alfred?” Aliena said nervously.
“I asked the same question. Alfred says not.” Ellen sighed. “I don’t suppose he’s come to any harm. He’s done this before and I daresay he’ll do it again. I never taught him to keep regular hours.”
Later