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Analysis of Energy
Systems: Management,
Planning, and Policy
Series on
ENERGY SYSTEMS: FROM DESIGN TO MANAGEMENT
SERIES EDITOR
Vincenzo Bianco
Università di Genova, Italy
RECENT TITLES
Analysis of Energy Systems: Management, Planning and Policy
Vincenzo Bianco
Analysis of Energy
Systems: Management,
Planning, and Policy
Edited by
Vincenzo Bianco
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300
Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742
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Preface..................................................................................................................... vii
Contributors.............................................................................................................ix
5. Are Smart Grids the Holy Grail of Future Grid Mix? Economic,
Environmental, and Regulatory Opportunities for Smart Grid
Development in Northwestern Europe...................................................105
Michele Moretti, Nele Witters, Steven Van Passel, and
Sylvestre Njakou Djomo
v
vi Contents
Index......................................................................................................................299
Preface
vii
viii Preface
ix
x Contributors
Martín Sevilla-Jiménez
Department of Applied Economics
University of Alicante
Alicante, Spain
1
Systemic Interventions to Achieve
a Long-Term Energy Transition
toward Sustainability
CONTENTS
1.1 Multi-Dimensions of Energy System Transition........................................1
1.2 Complex Link between Energy and Development....................................3
1.3 Co-Benefits from the Energy Transition......................................................6
1.4 Integrated Policy Interventions....................................................................8
References................................................................................................................ 11
1
2 Analysis of Energy Systems: Management, Planning, and Policy
Second, in light of concerns with global climate change, clean energy tech-
nologies (in particular renewable energy technologies) need to become more
prominent in energy production and consumption. Economic growth based
on conventional fuels has historically been associated with increasing lev-
els of environmental degradation. While early industrializing countries
have managed to gradually reduce their environmental footprint, develop-
ing and emerging economies face massive challenges to decouple economic
growth from environmental degradation, especially as related to the scale
of investments and know-how. However, opportunities also exist; develop-
ing countries could leapfrog industrial development based on fossil fuels by
expanding their capabilities in renewables, thus paving the way to a sustain-
able growth pathway. Such a development process would require, however, a
change in the way we produce and consume energy, in the industrial process
itself, and the infrastructure for energy generation and distribution.
Third, as conventional energy systems are locked-in into existing infrastruc-
ture and power structures (Unruh 2000), institutional path dependencies
(e.g., subsidization of fossil fuels) need to be disrupted. The role of the state
in this process, in correcting market and coordination failures (Lütkenhorst
et al. 2014), is critical. By creating incentives for renewable energy deploy-
ment and energy efficiency adoption, a market for low-carbon energy can
be enabled, opening up opportunities for local value creation (through job
creation, knowledge, and research capabilities). A shift to low-carbon technol-
ogies can be, of course, costly in the face of other development requirements
(especially for developing and emerging economies), but the co-benefits that
can be captured in this process could compensate these costs in the medium
and long term.
Fourth, the main question, of course, is how to capture such benefits,
how to lock-out the energy system (and the development trajectory) from a
fossil fuel-based system and achieve a lock-in into a system based on low-
carbon energy technologies. The answer, I argue, lies within an integrated
policy approach and long-term planning, based on systemic learning and
experimentation. Policy integration across sectors leads to cooperation
between stakeholders with different interests and fosters consensus with
regard to the direction and sequencing of reforms. Integration can also
contribute to opening up new markets for renewable energy technologies
with applications in different sectors (e.g., water generation, agriculture, or
housing). Long-term planning needs to be based on a national vision for
sustainable development, which gives direction and purpose for various ini-
tiatives. The narrative framing such a vision should be elaborated by an alli-
ance of diverse stakeholders, representing the civil society, business sector,
and policy makers. Systematic learning and experimentation is an essential
part of this transition process. Such a systemic and deliberate transforma-
tion has almost no precedent in economic development history. Moreover,
policy solutions implemented in one context might not be suitable to another.
The example of the feed-in tariff (FIT) is a case in point; while this policy
Systemic Interventions to Achieve a Long-Term Energy Transition 3
TABLE 1.1
Typology of Market Failures
Imperfect Asymmetric Coordination
Competition Information Failures Public Goods Externalities
Market power Superior Obtainable Goods that are Deviation
resulting from information benefits are not nonexcludable between
nonatomistic of some being reaped and non-rival private and
structures and market actors due to lack of in consumption social costs and
collusive (mostly on coordinated benefits
behavior the supply action
side) Crucial for Most severe in Pervasive in
creating new case of climate environmental
and disrupting change pollution,
old techno- mitigation waste
economic suffering from management,
pathways “free riding” and natural
resource use
Source: Lütkenhorst, W. et al., Green industrial policy: Managing transformation under
uncertainty, DIE Discussion Paper 28/2014, German Development Institute, Bonn,
Germany, 2014.
lock-in, however, can result in political conflicts as vested interests might act
to prevent such transition (Lütkenhorst et al. 2014).
To facilitate the transition toward sustainable energy systems and to
overcome various market failures, governments have a particularly impor-
tant and challenging role to play (Altenburg and Pegels 2012). As opposed
to other sectors where the market would select the promising technologies
given a certain market size, in the case of clean energy technologies, the
government has to set the right incentives (by subsidizing future technolo-
gies and investing actively in R&D) to enable deployment and to attract
investment in this new sector. The government is also expected to identify
new and innovative policies/institutional frameworks that would sup-
port such “shift” in the energy system and to reduce coordination fail-
ures. For example, incentives need to target the systemic nature of the
energy sector, such that investments are made not only in roof-top solar
photovoltaic installations, but also in smart grids, new mobility concepts,
etc. Governments also need to be concerned with harmonizing national
and international policy frameworks (Altenburg and Pegels 2012) so that
national policy actions can benefit from the international governance
regimes that are constantly evolving in this area. As Mazzucato (2013)
argues, the government has always played a critical role in sharing major
transitions and directing investments in future technologies and systems.
The challenge in the case of energy system is that this process is much
more purposive, has a timeline, and is faced with a higher level of com-
plexity and synergies.
6 Analysis of Energy Systems: Management, Planning, and Policy
Socioeconomic effects of
large-scale renewable energy
FIGURE 1.1
Types of socioeconomic effects from large-scale deployment of renewable energy. (Adapted
from IRENA, The socio-economic benefits of solar and wind energy, EconValue, International
Renewable Energy Agency, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 2014.)
Not surprisingly, the countries with the largest number of renewable energy
jobs were China, Brazil, the United States, India, Germany, Indonesia,
Japan, France, Bangladesh, and Colombia. Most jobs were generated by
investments in the solar photovoltaics technology (2.5 million), biofu-
els (1.8 million), wind energy (1 million), and biomass and biogas (ibid).
IRENA (2016) finds that doubling the share of renewables would increase
direct and indirect employment in the sector to 24.4 million by 2013. Most
of these jobs will be generated from fuel supply, installations, and equip-
ment manufacturing.
Overall, doubling the share of renewables in the global energy mix by
2030 would increase global GDP by up to 1.1% or $1.3 trillion. Welfare effects
would also increase by 3.7% with regard to economic effects from consump-
tion and investment, social impacts based on expenditure on health and
education, environmental effects measured as greenhouse gases (GHG)
emissions, and materials consumption.
Private and public investments in clean energy technologies (renew-
ables and energy efficiency) are also likely to create new sources of
dynamic competitiveness. As most jobs are likely to be created in installa-
tion and manufacturing of parts and components, developing and emerg-
ing economies could find opportunities for creating new industries and
entering global value chains for renewable energy technologies. Examples
such as China, India, and Brazil, but also lower middle-income countries
currently deploying renewables at large scale, such as Morocco, illustrate
these opportunities.
8 Analysis of Energy Systems: Management, Planning, and Policy
FIGURE 1.2
Types of policy tools available to promote low-carbon transitions. (Adapted from
Whitley, S., At cross purpose: Subsidies and climate compatible investment, Overseas
Development Institute, London, U.K., 2013.)
References
Altenburg, T. and T. Engelmaier (2013). Boosting solar investment with limited
subsidies: Rent management and policy learning in India. Energy Policy, 59:
866–874.
Altenburg, T. and A. Pegels (2012). Sustainability-oriented innovation systems—
Managing the green transformation. Innovation and Development, 2(1): 5–22.
Ayres, R.U. (2009). The Economic Growth Engine: How Energy and Work Drive Material
Prosperity. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, U.K.
Blinderbacher, R. (2010). The Black Box of Government Learning: The Learning
Spiral—A Concept to Organize Learning in Government. The World Bank,
Washington, DC.
Carbonnier, G. and J. Grinevald (2011). Energy and development. International
Development Policy, Vol. 2, Graduate Institute of International and Development
Studies, Geneva, Switzerland.
Cottrell, F. (1955). Energy and Society: The Relation between Energy, Social Change and
Economic Development. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York.
Fouquet, R. (2008). Heat, Power and Light: Revolutions in Energy Services. Edward Elgar,
Cheltenham, U.K.
GEA (2012). Global Energy Assessment – Toward a Sustainable Future. Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, U.K.
Hallsworth, M. (2012). How complexity economics can improve government:
Rethinking policy actors, institutions and structures. In: Kay, J. et al. (eds.)
Complex New World: Translating New Economic Thinking into Public Policy. Institute
for Public Policy Research, London, U.K.
Hogarth, J.R., Haywood, C., and S. Whitley (2015). Low-carbon development in sub-
Saharan Africa: 20 cross-sector transitions. Overseas Development Institute,
London, U.K.
IEA (2010). World Energy Outlook 2010. International Energy Agency (IEA), Paris,
France. Available at: http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/media/weo2010.
pdf.
IEA (2015). World Energy Outlook 2015. International Energy Agency (IEA), Paris,
France. Available at: http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/weo2015/.
IIASA (2014). Energy poverty and development. In: Global Energy Assessment.
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Chapter 2.
Available at: http://www.iiasa.ac.at/web/home/research/Flagship-Projects/
Global-Energy-Assessment/Chapters_Home.en.html.
IPCC (2007). Fourth Assessment Report: Climate Change (AR4). Intergovernmental
Panel for Climate Change (IPCC). Available at: http://www.ipcc.ch/
publications_and_data/ar4/syr/en/contents.html.
IRENA (2014). The socio-economic benefits of solar and wind energy. EconValue.
International Renewable Energy Agency, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
IRENA (2015). Renewable energy and jobs: Annual review 2015. International
Renewable Energy Agency, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
IRENA (2016). Renewable energy benefits: Measuring the economics. International
Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
12 Analysis of Energy Systems: Management, Planning, and Policy
CONTENTS
2.1 Introduction................................................................................................... 13
2.2 Energy and Climate Planning: The Policy Framework........................... 14
2.3 Energy Awareness and Behavioral Aspects............................................. 16
2.4 Energy Planning Methods and Tools........................................................ 17
2.4.1 Concepts of Energy Planning......................................................... 19
2.4.2 Energy Models.................................................................................. 23
2.4.3 Tools for Local Administrators....................................................... 29
2.5 Citizens Engagement and Local Action Plans:
From Theory to Practice............................................................................... 33
2.5.1 Citizens Engagement........................................................................ 33
2.5.2 The Development of a Local Action Plan...................................... 37
2.6 Conclusive Remarks.....................................................................................42
References................................................................................................................43
2.1 Introduction
The transition toward a sustainable energy future, fostered by the recent
European directives, requires a huge deployment of renewable and energy
efficiency to reduce fossil fuels consumption in both energy production and
end use in order to respond to the urgent energy and climate challenges.
Moreover, energy and climate planning deal with interconnected systems
(energy supply, transport, households, etc.) requiring operational planning
tools capable to take into account multiple needs and constraints. In this
framework, local and regional authorities have a key role in the achievement
of the EU 2020 and 2030 Climate and Energy policy objectives, as they are
responsible for the definition and implementation of energy policies as well
as of infrastructures and services management. However, despite the large
number of decision support tools made available by the scientific community,
13
14 Analysis of Energy Systems: Management, Planning, and Policy
savings, renewable energy sources, and an efficient use of fossil fuels. These
interventions affect different sectors and local/regional competences, from
energy supply (e.g., heat and power generation) to the energy demand sec-
tors (e.g., residential and commercial buildings). This framework underlines
once more the crucial role played by local and regional authorities to achieve
the increasingly tight European targets as they act as “energy consumers and
service providers, planners, developers and regulators, advisors, motivators
and role models, energy producers and suppliers, buyers” (Energy Cities,
2013). To this issue several initiatives have been promoted to engage local
authorities, supporting information sharing and knowledge transfer through
networking, such as Climate Alliance (2016), the Covenant of Mayors (2016),
Energy Cities (2016), and the ManagEnergy Programme (2016), which involve
a large number of EU cities and communities.
In this framework, one of the most significant initiatives is the Covenant of
Mayors (2016), launched by the European Commission after the adoption, in
2008, of the 2020 EU Climate and Energy Package “to endorse and support
the efforts deployed by local authorities in the implementation of sustainable
energy policies” (Covenant of Mayors, 2016). In particular, signatories of the
Covenant of Mayors commit themselves to achieve at least a 20% reduction
of the overall CO2 emission (“absolute reduction” or “per capita reduction”)
in 2020 compared to a baseline year set by the local authority. The great suc-
cess achieved by this initiative has boosted, all around Europe, the devel-
opment of numerous Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs) inclusive of
energy balances and CO2 inventories covering key target sectors (buildings
and transport, usage of renewable energies, and combined heat and power
[CHP]). In particular, as of mid-May 2016, 5985 local authorities signed the
Covenant of Mayors and 5253 signatories had already submitted their SEAP
(Covenant of Mayors, 2016), bypassing the national level and setting climate
goals at the local level where the action plan is implemented (Kjær, 2012).
As an important follow-up, on March 19, 2014, the Covenant of Mayors
Initiative on Climate Change Adaptation, Mayors Adapt, was set up by the
European Commission in order to engage cities in taking action to adapt to
climate change (Mayors Adapt, 2016). In particular, the Mayor Adapt initia-
tive aims at increasing support for local activities through the provision of
a platform for engagement and networking. Cities signing up to the initia-
tive commit to contributing to the overall aim of the EU Adaptation Strategy
by developing a comprehensive local adaptation strategy or by integrating
adaptation measures to climate change into existing plans.
This framework led to a new integrated Covenant of Mayors for Climate &
Energy, launched by the European Commission on October 15, 2015, based
on three pillars: mitigation, adaptation and secure, and sustainable and
affordable energy (Covenant of Mayors, 2016). Endorsing a shared vision
for 2050, signatories commit themselves to reduce CO2 emissions by at least
40% by 2030 and to adopt an integrated approach to tackling mitigation and
adaptation to climate change. The political commitment of signatories is
16 Analysis of Energy Systems: Management, Planning, and Policy
on habits and routine,” “habits need to be broken down and changed by intro-
ducing new behaviours,” and that to this end “measures such as feedback
displays, better billing and micro-generation can help make people more
aware of their energy consumption.” However, as observed by Hertwich and
Katzmayr (2004) changing energy-consuming practices into energy-saving
behavior is a very slow process because these practices are inserted in every-
day routines. In recent years, there has been growing interest in a range of so-
called “soft policy” initiatives such as information campaigns and advisory
services that can make more attractive alternative choices that may deeply
influence people’s aspirations, motivations, and lifestyles.
A fundamental mean to promote energy awareness and improve energy
habits is thus to foster citizens engagement, making them aware of their con-
sumption and involving them in energy management practices. Educational
centers and public buildings are privileged places to engage people in energy-
saving actions in which they can evaluate energy consumption and energy
savings deriving from more “conscious” behaviors. This allows promoting
co-responsibility and disseminating a sustainability culture that may have a
greater and durable impact on the community.
The importance of consumers’ behaviors in promoting a sustainability
culture and achieving energy and climate targets is widely acknowledged
by the EU that in the framework of the former Intelligent Energy—Europe
(IEE) Programme supported several projects aimed at turning the concept of
“intelligent energy” in practice (IEE Programme, 2016).
The importance of a proactive role of private consumers as a fundamental
mean to unlock the consumption patterns and to speed up the transition
toward a low-carbon economy is also addressed by several calls on energy
efficiency in the current Horizon 2020 EU Programme. This background
underlines the importance of utilizing a scientific approach both to support
a significant change of collective behaviors toward a smart citizenship and to
estimate their impact on energy consumption, environment, and economy.
End-use
Supply Transformation Conversion Distribution
technologies
Oil Transport
Refinery
Pipeline
Coal
Renewables
Industry
FIGURE 2.1
Example of a reference energy system. (CNR-IMAA elaboration)
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no related content on Scribd:
NARRAGANSETT WEAVERS
During the first years of this century there could be found in every
English town, village, and hamlet many hand-looms and many
weavers who on these looms wove for their neighbors and for small
cloth-jobbers strong homespun woollen stuffs, rag-carpets, woollen
sheets, cotton and wool bed-spreads, flannels, coarse linen and tow,
heavy cotton cloth and fine table and bed linen. These hand-looms
lingered in use till about 1840. So universal was then the extinction
of hand-weaving through the vast growth of power-loom manufacture
and of spinning by steam-spindle, and so sudden and complete the
destruction and vanishing of all the old-time implements and
machines, that when, ten years ago, under the stimulus of Ruskin’s
fiery appeal for the revivifying of hand-spinning and hand-weaving,
these household arts were again started in Westmoreland, but a
single linen-loom could be found for the work.
In the American colonies hand-weaving was also a universal
industrial art. In no part of the country has the industry lingered
longer than in old Narragansett. In many old New England towns
single hand-looms can be found, some in running order, and with
owners capable of running them to make rag-carpets. Others are still
standing, cobwebbed and dusty, in attic lofts, lean-to chambers,
woodsheds, or barns, with no one to set the piece or fill the shuttles.
In Narragansett I know a score of old looms in good running order,
though, save in one instance, set only for weaving rag-carpets; in
many cases the owners, who do not make weaving a trade, will not
“start them up” for weaving less than a hundred yards of carpeting.
This is a long strip for a room in a cottage or farm-house, so
neighbors frequently join together in ordering these carpets, and in
company send vast rolls of the filling, which is made of inch-wide
strips of cloth of all colors and materials sewed in long strips. Within
a few years these old hand-looms have been used for weaving rag-
portières made of silk strips.
Weaving was a very respectable occupation. It is told that the
regicide Judge Whalley lived to great old age in Narragansett—one
hundred and three years—and earned his living by weaving. The son
of the Congregational minister at Narragansett, Dr. Torrey, was a
weaver. The province was full of weavers. Miss Hazard gives the
names of many in her “College Tom.” With all the spinning-jennies
for spinning a vast supply of thread and yarn, there were no power-
looms in Narragansett till 1812. Hand-looms made up all the yarn
and thread that were produced. The prince of Narragansett weavers
was Martin Read. In 1761 he was baptized in St. Paul’s Church as
“Martin Read, an adult, the Parish Clerk.” He was a devoted lover of
the church and was sexton for many years. He led the singing, and it
is said that under his leadership the Venite was first chanted in
America. During the troubled and rector-less days of the Revolution,
he helped the parish work along by reading morning-prayers and the
funeral-service for the dead.
He was apprenticed, an orphan, at seven years of age to a diaper-
weaver, and served till he was of age, with one term only of
schooling; but he was ambitious and read eagerly instructive books,
especially on weaving and kindred arts. He married the daughter of
an Irish weaver, and soon had journeymen and apprentices, whom
he taught to sing as they wove; and when they did not sing the men
whistled the airs, and with singing and whistling the work speeded.
This singing at the loom was not a peculiarity of Martin Read’s. We
know the exclamation of Falstaff: “I would I were a weaver, I could
sing Psalms and all manner of songs.” Nares says weavers were
generally good singers, and that as they sat at their work they
practised part-singing. Many of the weavers in Queen Elizabeth’s
day were Flemish Calvinists and therefore given to psalm-singing,
hence Falstaff’s reference.
One weaver, named James Maxwell, wrote some “Weaver’s
Meditations” in rhyme in 1756. The frontispiece of his book—his
portrait at his loom—is thus inscribed:
Martin Read reared his family well, and in the Episcopal Church.
His son, Rev. Dr. Read, preached for many years at Christ’s Church
in Poughkeepsie. He wove coverlets, blankets, broadcloth, flannel,
worsted, linen, tow-cloth, and calamanco. This last was a glossy
woollen twilled fabric, sometimes woven in a pattern in the warp.
James Fontaine, a Huguenot weaver, says it was made of a fine
double-twisted worsted. It was much used for the nightgowns and
banians worn by substantial citizens of the day, and for women’s
winter-gowns.
Other goods made by Weaver Read were duroy, durant, and
crocus, a coarse tow-stuff for servants’ wear. This word, crocus, still
may be heard in Virginia, and perhaps elsewhere in the South,
where it was more and longer used than in Narragansett.
Martin Read lived near the old church he so dearly loved, and a
sightly spot it was for a home. Still standing beside the church
foundation, the site where the church first stood, is the deserted
house in which Martin Read lived and wove and whistled and sung.
On the road near his home lives to-day the last of the old-time
weavers, one who can weave woollen and linen stuffs. Hand-
weaving is not with him an accidental industrial makeshift, but his
every-day occupation and means of livelihood. He learned to weave
from one of Martin Read’s apprentices.
His low, weather-beaten house, set in a close-walled garden, is
one of the most picturesque in old Narragansett. We entered from a
glory of midsummer sunlight into a cool, pale-green light which
penetrated the rooms through the heavy shadows of the rugged old
cedar-trees that overhung the roof and the ancient lilacs that pressed
close to the windows.
There has ever been associated in my mind with the trade of
weaving the pale and sickly appearance and bearing of many
English mill weavers; and, though ever of country life, this Yankee
weaver was no exception to the rule. His skin, of extreme delicacy,
was pale, yet suffused at times with that semi-transparent flush
which is seldom seen save on those whose life is wholly indoors. His
hair and beard were long and white, and had evidently been light-
brown before they were white; his bright blue eyes looked pleasantly
and intelligently out from the wisps of white hair. His visible attire was
a clean, but collarless, white shirt and a pair of blue overalls; his feet
were bare. We mounted with him the narrow enclosed staircase to
the loom-loft.
There was such a flood of color out of doors, the fields and trees
were so green, the tangle of larkspurs in the garden was so blue, the
sunbeams so radiant, that the attic seemed but a dull abiding-place
for a summer’s day; but as the eye grew accustomed to the dimmer
light and learned to avoid the piercing arrows of sunshine that
burned in through the heart-shaped holes in the shutters and made
every mote of wavering dust in their path a point of unbearable
glitter, then the attic seemed quiet and peaceful, and its shadows
were grateful; and even the bang, bang of the loom when it was
started up was not a garish rattle. Heaps of gay woollen yarns lay
under the eaves, and a roll or two of rag-carpeting and strips of
worn-out bed-coverlets of various patterns were hung on the beams
or piled in heaps. There were vast boxes of cotton twine; and many
yarn-beams ready wound, and swifts and quilling-wheels and
“scarnes,” many in number, thrust under the garret eaves. Among
the discarded wool-wheels and flax-wheels heaped high in the
corner—obsolete before their fellow, the hand-loom—I did not peer
deep. Though neglected, they are jealously treasured, for “that was
grandma’s foot-wheel,” and “Aunt Eunice used that wool-wheel sixty-
two year,” showed that what seemed to me useless lumber was
haloed with association and tradition. I have never seen or felt
elsewhere any such picture, any such atmosphere of an industrial
life that is forever past, as that old-time weaving. The dim half-light of
the loom-room and the darker garret beyond; the ancient chairs that
thrust out a broken arm, and tables that put forth a claw-foot from the
shadows; the low buzzing of hornets that fluttered against the upper
skylight or hung in dull clusters on the window-frame—hornets so
dull, so feeble, so innocuous in their helplessness that they seemed
the ancients of their day; the eerie clamor of swallows in the
chimney; the pungent aroma of “dry, forgotten herbs,” that swayed in
the summer wind from every rafter; and the weaver, pale and silent,
laboriously weaving his slow-growing web with a patience of past
ages of workers, a patience so foreign to our present high-pressure
and double-speed rates that he seemed a century old, the very spirit
of colonial, nay, of mediæval days.
There was a monotonous yet well-controlled precision in this
weaver’s work that was most soothing, and that seems to be a
characteristic influence of the homespun industries. It was felt by
Wordsworth and voiced in his sonnet:
This precision in work is that of the skilled hand and thinking brain
controlling the machine, not the vast power of steam relentlessly
crowding the overworked body and dulled brain.
By this hand-weaving, as if to prove Ruskin’s glowing and inspiring
assertions, this weaver earns an independent living in intelligent
work, of reasonable hours, in a comfortable house, and in conditions
favorable to health—a vast contrast to the overworked, unhealthy,
poorly fed, stultified factory-worker. His business has so prospered of
late that he has had a trade-card printed at the village printer’s like
any other independent manufacturer. From it I learn that he weaves
rag-carpets, bed-coverlets, and hap-harlots. Hap-harlots, forsooth!
could anyone believe that obsolete word had been used since
Holinshed’s day? He wrote in 1570, in his “Chronicles of England,”
etc.:
“Our fathers have lien full oft upon straw pallets or rough
mats, covered onlie with a sheet under coverlets made of
dagswain or hap-harlots, and a good round log under their
heads instead of a bolster.”
Yet here have been Narragansett weavers weaving hap-harlots,
and sleeping under hap-harlots, and speaking of hap-harlots as
though three centuries ago were as yesterday. I presume they have
made dagswains also, since there still exists bills of Narragansett
shepherds for dagging sheep.
The old-time cotton and wool bed-spreads or coverlets, seen of
old on every four-post bedstead, he now sells for portières and
bathroom rugs, as well as for bed and couch spreads. They are
woven in simple geometric patterns, just as in the times of the
ancient Britons, when the wools of the weft were dyed with woad and
broom. The patterns are nearly all over a century old. He has a worn
pattern-book with bewildering rules for setting the heddles for over
fifty designs. Quaint of name are the patterns: “chariot-wheels and
church-windows,” is a bold, large design; “church-steps,” a simpler
one; “bachelors’ fancy,” “devil’s fancy,” “five doves in a row,”
“shooting-star,” “rising sun,” “rail fence,” “green veils,” offer little in
their designs to give reason for their names. “Whig rose,” “Perry’s
Victory,” and “Lady Washington’s fancy,” show an historical influence
in naming. “Orange-peel” is simply a series of oblong hexagons
honeycombed together. “All summer and all winter” was similar.
“Bricks and blocks” is evenly checkered. “Capus diaper” is more a
complicated design for weaving damask linen, taking five harnesses.
Floral names are common, such as “Dutch tulip,” “rose in bloom,”
“pansies in the wilderness,” “five snow-balls,” etc.
The loom on which this Narragansett weaver works might be six
centuries old. You may see precisely similar ones pictured by
Hogarth in the middle of the eighteenth century; and an older one
still in the Campanile at Florence, by Giotto, in 1334.
These excerpts from a letter of Weaver Rose’s give some pleasant
weaver’s lore, and are in the lucid, simple, and quaint English to be
expected of a man who still weaves and talks of hap-harlots:
“My grandfather and grandmother Robert and Mary
Northrup lived at what is now called Stuart Vale but then
known as the Fish Pond, in a little hamlet of four houses, only
one of which, my grandfather’s, is now standing. He owned a
shore and fished in the spring and wove some at home and
went out amongst the larger farmers working at his trade of
weaving, whilst his wife carried on the weaving at home and
had a number of apprentices. He learned his trade of weaving
of Martin Read, the deacon of St. Paul’s Church, who lived a
few rods from the church. He died in 1822, his wife lived till
1848. The spool I gave you was made by Langworthy Pierce,
a veteran of the Revolution. It has the initials of his name. I
send you now one of his shuttles used for weaving
broadcloth, and a square of linen I have woven for you of a
pattern of five harnesses called Browbey. The looms here in
Narragansett were all made by local carpenters. Stephen
Northrup made looms, and Freeborn Church made looms and
spinning wheels. I have 2 of his make. Friend Earle! more
money can be made by weaving than farming. I have wove 30
yards of rag carpet in one day at 10 cents a yard; or 23 cents
a yard when I found the warp. There was a man here by the
name of Eber Sherman, he called himself Slippery Eber. He
died in the war of 1812; his widow worked at spinning for 25
cents per day and supported herself and one son well on that
wage. One dollar and a half per week was regular wage for a
woman’s work. It took a woman one week to weave a coverlet
of 3 yards long and 2-1/2 yards wide. Mahala Douglas went
out to work at one dollar and a half per week making butter
and cheese, milking seven cows every week day and nine on
Sunday. She died leaving a large Estate, several thousand
dollars, which her Legatees had no trouble in spending in six
weeks. My grandfather was one of eight children. One brother
was Rev. William Northrup; Thurston Northrup, another
brother, was a school-teacher and a weaver of coverlets and
cloth. John Northrup was called Weaver John. He was a
coverlet weaver. John Congdon was a maker of Weavers’
reeds or slays. I have 70 or 80 of his make in my house. I
have a reed that my grandfather Northrup had made when he
went to the Island of Rhode Island weaving Broadcloth. He
received 50 cents per day pay. Good Cream Cheese was 3
cents a pound at the same time of the Embargo in the war of
1812. I have an Eight and Twenty slay with 29 Beer that cost
one dollar, made by John Congdon 70 years ago, as good as
when made. He lived in North Kingston.”
The word slay or sley, meaning a weavers’ reed, has not been
used commonly in England for many years, and is contemporary
with hap-harlot. A beer was a counting-off of forty warp-threads.
It may be seen by this letter how many classes of workmen were
kept busily employed by these homespun industries; makers of
looms, wheels, reeds, scarnes, raddles, temples, swifts, niddy-
noddys, spools, and shuttles; and turners of warp-beams and cloth-
beams. The proper shaping of a shuttle was as important as the
shaping of a boat’s hull. When the shuttle was carefully whittled out,
smoothed off with glass, lightly shod with steel, and marked by burnt-
in letters with the maker’s initials, it was a proper piece of work, one
for a craftsman to be distinctly proud of. Spools could be turned on a
lathe but were marked by hand. No wonder our weaver loved his old
worn-out rubbish; every piece had been made and used by his
kinsfolk and neighbors, who had put into every spool, shuttle, and
loom good, faithful hand-work; and, like the cloths he wove, they
wore well.
Weaver Rose would be an unimpeachable candidate for many of
our modern patriotic-hereditary societies. One great-great-
grandfather held a commission under King George III., which the
weaver still has. Others were members of the provincial assemblies.
Two great-uncles were taken on board a Yankee privateer in the
Revolution, carried to England to Dartmoor Prison, and never heard
of afterward. The son of one of those patriots was captured in the
War of 1812, and kept eight years at Dartmoor, while he was
mourned in Narragansett as dead. He was then released, returned
home, and held to his death an office under the government at
Wickford, a Narragansett seaport. One great-uncle was starved to
death in the prison-ship Jersey in the Revolution, and another lost
his life in Newport during imprisonment by the British. Grandfather
James Rose was with the famous Kingston Reds in the Battle of
Rhode Island and other Revolutionary encounters; and the weaver’s
father, William Rose, fought in the War of 1812. His great-great-
grandfather Eldred killed the famous Indian warrior Hunewell, after
that cruel Narragansett tragedy, the Swamp Fight. Hunewell was
naked and covered with grease, but he was not slippery enough to
escape the bitter Englishman, who had been fighting for days. This
tragedy was at Silver Spring, about two miles from the weaver’s
home. Another Indian chased Eldred, but without capturing him. The
chase was long, and Eldred did not spend much time in looking
backward, but he never forgot the Indian’s face; and some years
later he met in Newport an Indian who was very smooth and friendly,
but whom he at once recognized as his old-time enemy. The weaver
thus grimly and laconically tells the sequel: “Grandfather got an awl
and settled it in his forehead and finished him.” Great-grandmother
Austin was one of sixteen children. Their names were Parvis, Picus,
Piersus, Prisemus, Polybius, Lois, Lettice, Avis, Anstice, Eunice,
Mary, John, Elizabeth, Ruth, Freelove. All lived to be three-score and
ten, and one to be five-score and two years old.
I have dwelt somewhat at length on the sturdy fighting ancestry of
this weaver, with a distinct sense of pleasure at the quality of his
forebears. He is, in the best sense, a pure American, with not a drop
of admixture of the blood from recent immigrations. Some of his
ancestors were those who made the original Petaquamscut
purchase from the Indians, and here he lives on the very land they
purchased. It is such examples as this that give dignity to New
England rural life, give us a sense of not being offensively new. In
my genealogical researches in England I have not found such cases
nearly as common as in New England. Surprise and even
annoyance is shown in England at your expectation and hope to find
descendants of the original owners occupying farm-houses and
manors two hundred years old.
Had the weaving been the only portion of the work done in the
farm-house it would seem an important addition to the round of
domestic duties, but every step in the production of clothing was
done at home, as expressed by Miss Hazard of her great-
grandfather’s household in Narragansett: “From the shepherd who
dagged the sheep, the wool-comber who combed the wool, the
spinners who spun, the weavers who wove, all in regular order till the
travelling tailor made the clothes up, and Thomas Hazard went to
meeting in a suit made from wool of his own growing.” The “all-wool
goods, yard wide,” which we so glibly purchase to-day meant to the
Narragansett dame the work of months from the time the fleeces
were given to her deft fingers. After dag-locks, bands, feltings, tarred
locks, were skilfully cut out, the white locks were carefully tossed and
separated, and tied in net bags with tallies, to be dyed. The homely
saying, “dyed in the wool,” indicated a process of much skill. Indigo
furnished the blue shades, madder and logwood the red. Sassafras,
fustic, hickory, and oak bark furnished yellow and brown. It will be
noted that the old-time dyes were all vegetable. After the dyeing
mixed colors could be made by spreading in layers and carding them
over and over again. In carding wool, the cards should be kept warm
and the wool very slightly greased with rape-oil or “swines’-grease.”
At last the wool was carded into light rolls and was ready for the
wheel.
An old writer says, “The action of spinning must be learned by
practice, not by relation.” The grace and beauty of wool-spinning,
ever sung by the poets, need not be described. Stepping lightly
backward and forward, with arms at times high in the air, now low at
the side, often by the light only of the fire, the worker, no matter what
her age, seemed the perfection of the grace of motion; and the
beauty of the occupation makes the name of spinster (the only title
by law of every single woman) a title of honor and dignity.
The preparation of flax was infinitely more tedious and more
complicated. From the time the tender plant springs up, through
pulling, spreading, drying, rippling, stacking, rotting, cleaning,
braking, swingling, beetling, ruffling, hetchelling, spreading, and
drawing, there are in all over twenty dexterous manipulations till the
flax is ready for the wheel, the most skilful manipulation of all, and is
wrapped round the spindle. Flax thread was spun on the small flax-
wheel. “Lint on the wee wheel, woo’ on the muckle.” It was reeled
into skeins on a clock-reel, which ticked when the requisite number
had been wound, when the spinner stopped and tied the skein. A
quaint old ballad has the refrain:
“And he kissed Mistress Polly when the clock-reel ticked.”