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University of Bradford >> Library >> Special Collections >> Daybook of Sir Titus Salt
Sir Titus Salt (1803-1876) was a Bradford textile manufacturer. His lasting memorial is the Mill and surrounding model village of Saltaire, built to provide better conditions for his textile workers. Saltaire is now a Unesco World Heritage Site.
The daybook is a small notebook in which Salt recorded personal notes of special transactions and experiments between 1834 and 1837. The section of the book which researchers have considered to be most significant covers his experiments with "Peruvian wool" (alpaca). Salt had seen this wool in Liverpool in 1834 and became interested in its use. The hair of the alpaca, a relative of the llama, had been used for weaving as a warp or with a worsted warp but the resultant cloth had little to recommend it. Titus Salt and his assistants spent over a year working on the problems involved in spinning alpaca, then pioneered the use of alpaca weft with cotton or silk warps; this produced a durable lightweight fabric with a sheen. The cloth became very popular and was the foundation of Salt's great success.
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