Lodz

Lodz (Lódẑ; more correctly Lodzia), a town of Russian Poland, in the government of Piotrków, 82 m. by rail S.W. of Warsaw. It is situated on the Lodz plateau, which at the beginning of the 19th century was covered with impenetrable forests. Now it is the centre of a group of industrial towns—Zgerź, Lḙczyca, Pabianice, Konstantinov and Aleksandrov. Chiefly owing to a considerable immigration of German capitalists and workers, Lodz has grown with American-like rapidity. It consists principally of one main street, 7 m. long, and is a sort of Polish Manchester, manufacturing cottons, woollens and mixed stuffs, with chemicals, beer, machinery and silk. One of the very few educational institutions is a professional industrial school. The population, which was only 50,000 in 1872, reached 351,570 in 1900; the Poles numbering about 37%, Germans 40% and Jews 22½%.