Fulling, also called Milling, the operation of removing greasy matters from woollen goods, and of giving to them a more compact texture by causing the fibres to entangle themselves more closely together, as in the process of felting. Fulling mills are ancient inventions, the process probably having been applied to the first woven fabrics, as felting must already have been then known. Cloths brought to the fulling mills contain the oil which was applied to the fibre in weaving. The first process to which they are subjected is called scouring or braying. This is effected by placing the rolls in troughs so arranged that they can retain the detergent liquid, as, first, stale urine and hogs' dung, subsequently urine alone, and again fullers' earth and water, while heavy oaken mallets or pounders slide down with force into one end of the troughs and mash and roll over the folds of cloth. The pounders are lifted by revolving cams, and kept in action for hours together, one to each trough. The oil is absorbed by the clay, and both are washed off by the water. The fulling is properly a second process performed in the same machines with the use of soap applied liberally in solution.

The stampers are better made of polished iron, and the operation is facilitated, with economy of soap, by keeping the trough filled with hot steam. Cloth is also fulled in what is called the fulling machine without stamping, the cloth being pushed in a succession of folds through a low trough, the top of which is made by weights to press upon these folds and resist their progress through. The soap is washed out after the fulling, and the nap is raised by teazling. To full a piece of ordinary broadcloth it has been customary to allow from 00 to 05 hours, and 11 lbs. of soap; the shrinkage in width is from 12 quarters to 7, and in length from 54 yards to 40.