ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF ENGINEERING. 39 



expose their work to public gaze. How long in the silent night the 

 inventors of these machines sat and pondered ; how often they had to 

 cast aside some long-sought mecliauical movement and seek another 

 and better arrangement of parts, none but themselves could ever 

 know. They were unseen workers, who succeeded by rare genius, 

 long patience, and indomitable perseverance. 



More ingenuity and creative mechanical genius is perhaps dis- 

 played in machines used for the manufacture. of textile fabrics than 

 by those used in any other industry. It was not until late in histori- 

 cal times that the manufacture of such fabrics became established on 

 a large scale in Europe. Linen was worn by the old Egyptians, and 

 some of their linen mummy-cloths surpass in tineness any linen fabrics 

 made in later days. The Babylonians wore linen also and wool, and 

 obtained a wide-spread fame for skill in workmanship and beauty in 

 design. In this counti-y wool long formed the staple for clothing. 

 Silk was the first rival, but its costliness placed it beyond the reach 

 of the many. To introduce a new material or imjjroved machine into 

 this or other countries a century or more ago was no light undertaking. 

 Inventors and would-be benefactors alike ran the risk of loss of life. 

 Loud was the outcry made in the early part of the eighteenth century 

 ao-aiust the introduction of Indian cottons and Dutch calicoes. Until 

 1738, in which year the improvements in spinning-machinery were 

 beo-un, each thread of worsted or cotton-wool had been spun between 

 the fingers, in this and all other countries, Wyatt, in 1738, invented 

 spinning by rollei's instead of fingers, and his invention w^as further 

 improved by Arkwright. In 1770 Hargreaves invented the spinning- 

 jenny, and Crompton the mule in 1775, a machine which combined the 

 advantages of the frames of both Hargreaves and Arkwright. In less 

 than a century after the first invention by Wyatt, double mules were 

 working in Manchester with over 2,000 spindles. Improvements in 

 machines for weaving were begun at an earlier date. In 1579 a 

 ribbon-loom is said to have been invented at Dantzic, by which from 

 four to six pieces could be woven at one time, but the machine was 

 destroyed and the inventor lost his life. In 1800 Jacquard's most 

 ingenious invention was brought into use, which, by a simple mechani- 

 cal operation, determines the movements of the threads which form 

 the pattern in weaving. But the greatest improvement in the art of 

 weaving was wrought by Cartwright's discovery of the power-loom, 

 which led eventually to the substitution of steam for manual labor, 

 and enabled a boy with a steam-loom to do fifteen times the work of 

 a man with a hand-loom. For complex ingenuity few machines will 

 corapai-e with those used in the manufacture of lace and bobbin net. 

 Hammond, in 1768, attempted to adapt the stocking-frame to this 

 manufacture, which had hitherto been conducted by hand. It re- 

 mained for John Heathcoat to complete the adaptation in 1809, and to 

 revolutionize this branch of industry, reducing the cost of its produce 



