128 On the Rise and Progress 
preferable to place the power amongst the 
people, wherever it was most wanted. 
The introduction of this admirable machine 
imparted new life to the cotton trade. Its in- 
exhaustible power, and uniform regularity of 
motion, supplied what was most urgently 
wanted at the time; and the scientific prin- 
ciples and excellent workmanship, displayed 
in its construction, led those who were in- 
terested in this trade to make many and great 
improvements in their machines and appara- 
tus for bleaching, dying and printing, as well 
as for spinning*. Had it not been for this 
new accession of power and scientific me- 
chanism, the cotton trade would have been 
stunted in its growth, and, compared with its 
present state, must have become an object 
only of minor importance in a national point 
* The operation of bleaching had continued for centuries 
without any material improvement, until Scheele disco- 
vered the oxymuriatic acid and its effects, and Berthollet 
applied it successfully (in 1786) to accelerate the process 
of bleaching. Mr. Watt first introduced this great im- 
provement into this Island; and our venerable President, 
Mr. Henry, was one of the first who carried it into prac- 
tice, and gave to some of the principal bleachers in the 
country the first instruction they received respecting the 
new process. 
