The Italians, by the most severe laws, long
preserved the mystery of the invention. The punishment
prescribed by one of their laws to be inflicted upon anyone who
discovered the secret, or attempted to carry it out of the
Sardinian dominions, was death, with the forfeiture of all the
goods the delinquent possessed; and the culprit was "to be
afterwards painted on the outside of the prison walls, hanging to
the gallows by one foot, with an inscription denoting the name
and crime of the person, there to be continued for a perpetual
mark of infamy."[3]
Nevertheless, a bold and ingenious man was found ready to brave
all this danger in the endeavour to discover the secret. It may
be remembered with what courage and determination the founder of
the Foley family introduced the manufacture of nails into
England. He went into the Danemora mine district, near Upsala in
Sweden, fiddling his way among the miners; and after making two
voyages, he at last wrested from them the secret of making nails,
and introduced the new industry into the Staffordshire
district.[4] The courage of John Lombe, who introduced the
thrown-silk industry into England, was equally notable. He was a
native of Norwich. Playfair, in his 'Family Antiquity' (vii.
312), says his name "may have been taken from the French Lolme,
or de Lolme," as there were many persons of French and Flemish
origin settled at Norwich towards the close of the sixteenth
century; but there is no further information as to his special
origin.
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