1820.] Memoirs of the Literary Sodetj/ of Manchester. 197 

 csted in the trade to make many and great improvements in 

 their machuies and apparatus for 'bleaching, dyeing, and prmt- 

 ing, as well as for spmning. Had it not been tor this new 

 accession of power and scientific mechanism, the cotton trade 

 would have been stunted in its growth, and, compared with its 

 present state, must have become an object only of minor import- 

 ance in a national point of view. Ihe effects of this engine 

 have been nearlv the same in the iron, woollen, and flax trades. 



In the year 17<Si>a new and valuable machine appeared, called 

 at that time the hall-in-thc-wuod machine, from the name of the 

 place where the inventor, Mr. Samuel Crompton, hved, uear 

 Bolton, in Lancashire. It is now called the mule, from its 

 uniting the prmciples of Mr. liargreave's jenny, and Mr. Ark- 

 wnglR's water frame. This machine, by producing at a small 

 expense, much finer and softer yarn than any that had been seen 

 before, gave birth to a new and most extensive trade. Before 

 the year 179U the mules were turned by hand, and were con- 

 fined chiefly to the garrets of cottages. About that tme 

 Mr. Kelley, of Lanark, first turned them by machinery. The 

 application of the steam-engine to this purpose produced 

 another great change in this branch of the trade. The mules 

 were removed from cottages to factories, were constructed more 

 substantially and upon better principles, and produced yarn of a 

 more uniform quahty and at less expense. 



In 1797 a new machine for cleaning cotton Vv'as constructed 

 by Mr. Snodo-rass, and first used at Johnston, near Paisley, by 

 Messrs. Houston and Co. This was called a scutching or 

 blowing machine. It was first brought to a state of perfectioa 

 by Mr.°Danlop, of Glasgow. It was not introduced into the 

 neighbourhood of Manchester till 1808. It is now generally 

 employed, and is said to have been greatly improved by Mr. 

 Arkwright and Messrs. Strutts. 



What are called power bums were first constructed by Dr. 

 Cartwright, at Doncaster, in 1774. But though i hey made good 

 cloth, in consequence of the great loss of time in dressing the 

 warp, they possessed no iiupoitant advantage over comnioa 

 looms. In 18U3 Mr. Thomas Johnson, of Bradbury, Cheshire, 

 invented a beautiful and excellent machine for warping und 

 dressing warps preparatory to weaving, by which the operation 

 is performed much better and cheaper than it can possibly be 

 done by hand. This is a great advantage to the power loom, 

 , and in consequence some large manufactories of the kind have 

 been established first in Scotland, and afterwards in England. 

 But as one person cannot attend upun m<jre than two power 

 looms, it is still a doubtful question whether this saving of 

 labour counterbalances the expense of power and machinery, and 

 the disadvantage of being obliged to keep an eslablislunent of 

 power looms constantly at work ; while in the common way the 

 fcoins might be stopped or turued to adifllrent kind of weaving. 



