118 On the Rise and Progress 
perceptibly, to improvements in the carding 
and spinning, by first introducing simple im- 
provements in the hand instruments with 
which they performed these operations, till 
at length they arrivedat a machine, which, 
though rude and ill constructed, enabled them 
to produce more in their respective families. 
Here, then, commenced a great deviation 
from their former methods of proceeding ; 
and invention and ingenuity found their re- 
ward, in the construction of machinery for 
carding and spinning. 
But to return to the division of labour, 
and the small improvements made by the 
workers in the hand implements which they 
used. ‘They found that, by these means, they 
could obtain more of the comforts of life and 
have more time to amuse themselves. Thus 
they were induced to go on, till their cotta- 
ges were filled with their little improvements, 
and they were, in some measure, forced out of . 
their dwellings by. the multiplication of their 
implements. 
Here commences. the factory system, and 
the dividing one branch of the trade into two 
distinct parts (carding and spinning). The 
first of these improvements was in the carding, 
by means of which one boy or girl could work 
two pairs of stock-cards, so as to produce 
