he mention of a fulling mill in 1311 it is possible that woollen
manufacture had been begun at that time. By the reign of Henry VIII. it
had become an important industry and added much to the status of the
town. Towards the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th century the
woollen trade decreased and worsted manufacture began to take its place.
Leland in his _Itinerary_ says that Bradford is "a praty quik Market
Toune. It standith much by clothing." In 1773 a piece hall was erected
and for many years served as a market-place for the manufacturers and
merchants of the district. On the introduction of steam-power and
machinery the worsted trade advanced with great rapidity. The first mill
in Bradford was built in 1798; there were 20 mills in the town in 1820,
34 in 1833, and 70 in 1841; and at the present time there are over 300,
of much greater magnitude than the earlier factories. In 1836 Mr
(afterwards Sir) Titus Salt developed the alpaca manufacture in the
town; mohair was shortly afterwards introduced; and the great works at
Saltaire were opened (see SHIPLEY). Later, Mr S.C. Lister (Lord Masham)
introduced the silk and velvet manufacture, having invented a process of
manipulating silk waste, whereby what was previously treated as refuse
is made into goods that will compete with those manufactured from the
perfect cocoon.

See John James, _History of Bradford_ (1844, new and enlarged ed.,
1866); A. Holroyd, _Collectanea Bradfordiana_ (1873); _Victoria County
History--Yorkshire_.

BRADFORD, a city of McKean county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., near the N.
border of the state, about 80 m. E. by S. of Erie. Pop. (1890) 10,514;
(1900) 15,029, of whom 2211 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 14,544. It
is served by the Pennsylvania, the Erie, and the Buffalo, Rochester &
Pittsburg railways, and is connected with Olean, New York, by an
electric line. Bradford is situated 1427 ft. above sea-level in the
valley of the Tuna, and is shut in by hills on either side. Since 1876
it has been one of the most important oil centres of the state, and it
has been connected by pipe lines with cities along the Atlantic coast;
petroleum refining is an important industry. Among the city's
manufactures are boilers, machines, glass, chemicals, terra cotta,
brick, iron pipes and couplings, gas engines, cutlery and silk. The
place was first settled about 1827; in 1838 it was laid out as a town
and named Littleton; in 1858 the present nam