Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Blanket

BLANKET, an article of commerce so well known in domestic economy, that any definition of it would be superfluous.

The best kind of blankets is manufactured at Witney, in Oxfordshire: their excellency is attributed by some persons to the abstersive nitrous water of the river Windrush, with which they are scoured; while others imagine it is to be ascribed to a peculiar looseness in the spinning. Blankets are made of felt-wool, or that from sheep-skins, which is divided into several sorts. Of the head-wool and bay-wool they make blankets of ten, eleven, and twelve quarters broad; of the ordinary sort, those of seven and eight quarters; and of the best tail-wool, are made blankets of six quarters broad, commonly called cuts, and used for seamen's hammocks.—See Hykes.