

COTTON MANUFACTURE. 



COTTON MANUFACTURE. 





hu shown (' HUtory of the Cotton Manufacture/) that tha 

 plant WM extensively cultivated, and iU produce niamifacturol. 

 Mohammedan posMSMrs of Spain in the tenth century. TliU 



branch of indiwtry flourished long in that country. In the thirteenth 

 eentury the rattan manufacturer! formed one of the incorporated 

 companies of Barcelona, in which city two street* received n.-un.-a 

 which point them out u the quarter in which the manufacturera 

 resided. The doth* made were mostly of ooaree texture, and a con- 

 aidenble quantity wu ueed u sail-cloth. The name futliant, from 

 the Spanish word fuHt, signifying " substance," WM borrowed from 

 the Spanish weavers, and is still used to denote a strong fabric made 

 of cotton. The intercoune between tho Mohammedan possessors of 

 Spain and the Chriatian inhabitanta of other European countries waa 

 so mull, owing to religioua prejudice, that the orU which long 

 flourished among the former, did not extend themselves to the 

 r; the traffic of AtvW"i wu all carried on with Africa and the 



Prom Italy the cotton manufacture made its way to the Netherlands, 

 and about the end of the aixteenth or the beginning of the seven- 

 teenth century wu brought thence to England by proteatant refugees. 

 Lewis Roberta, in ' The Treasure of Traffic,' published in 1641, makes 

 the earliest mention extant of the manufacture in England. He says, 

 " The town of Manchester buys cotton wool from London that comes 

 from Cyprus and Smyrna, and works the same into fustians, ver- 

 milions, and dimities." 



There is abundant evidence to show that in the beginning of the 

 sixteenth century, and probably before that time, cotton was cultivated 

 and converted into clothiug in most of the countries occupying the 

 southern shores of the Mediterranean. The European conquerors of 

 Mexico in their first invasion of that country found in use native 

 manufactures of cotton, both unmixed and mixed with the fine hair 

 of rabbits and hares. Borne of these fabrics were sent by Cortes to 

 Spain u presents to tho Emperor Charles V. Cotton was cultivated 

 and manufactured at an equally early period by different nations on the 



coast of Guinea, and it ia stated by Hacphwson in his ' Annals of 

 Commerce,' that cotton cloths were imported into London in 

 ;.:.. i ho Bight of Benin. 



It would be difficult to trace the introduction of the cotton manu- 

 facture in the different countries of Europe where it is now established 

 but some notice of its recent progress and present state therein will be 

 fuuiul in the next following article. 



In Kngland, previous to the introduction of the inventions of Ark- 

 wright, this manufacture wu of small importance, u U evident from 

 the quantities of the raw material then brought into the country. 

 Arkwright's first patent for the mode of spinning ' v i. il.ni wu 

 taken out in 1769 ; and between the years 1776 and 1780 the average 

 annual consumption barely reached seven millions of pounds. Tim 

 system under which this manufacture wu long carried on was very 

 different from that which is now pursued. It wu the cnt 

 the weavers who were dispersed in cottages throughout the district to 

 purchase the material with which they worked, and having converted 

 it into cloths, to carry their wares to market and sell them on their 

 own account to the dealers; but about 1760, the merchants of Man- 

 chester began to employ the weavers furnishing them with yarn i..r 

 warp, and with raw cotton to be spun by the weaver's family into 

 weft, and paying a fixed price for the labour bestowed in weaving. 



The application of machinery to the preparation and spinning of 

 raw cotton for weft preceded by some years the inventions of Ark- 

 wright. In the year 1760, or soon after, a carding engine not very 

 different from that now used wu contrived by James Hargreavaa, an 

 illiterate weaver, residing near Church in Lancashire ; and in 1 707 die 

 ".'/-jenny was invented by the same person. This machine, u at 

 first formed, contained eight spindles, which were made to revolve by 

 means of bands from a horizontal wheel. Subsequent improvements 

 increased the power of the spinning-jenny to eighty spindles, and the 

 wheel was placed vertically, aa in the annexed cut : where the roving* 

 (1 ), clasped and drawn by the frame (5), are transferred in an attenuated 

 state from the spindles (3) to (4). The saving of labour which it thus 



[Hargrcavcs* Spinning Jenny.] 



occasioned produced considerable alarm among those persons who had 

 employed the old mode of spinning ; and a party of them broke into 

 Harp-eaves' house and destroyed his machine. The great advantage of 

 the invention wu so apparent, however, that it was soon again brought 

 into use, and nearly superseded the employment of the old spinning- 

 wheel. A second rising then took place of the persons whose labour 

 wu thus superseded by it ; they went through the country destroying, 

 wherever they could find them, both carding and spinning machines, 

 by which means the manufacture was for a time driven away from 

 Lancashire to Nottingham. 



The cotton-yarn produced both by the common | .inning wheel and the 

 spinning-jenny, though suitable for weft or cross-threads, could not be 

 made sufficiently strong to bo used as warp or long-threads ; and, 

 therefore, linen-yarn was used for the last-named purpose. It was not 

 until Arkwrightx spinning frame was brought into succcmtful <.] 

 that this disadvantage wu overcome. Yam Hpun with II irgreavea' 

 jenny continued for some time to be used for weft. At lirnt, the 

 manufacturers of cloths composed of cotton only wore subject to much 

 annoyance from the determination of the revenue officers to charge 

 them with double tho duty paid upon calicoes woven with linen warp 



and printed for exportation; and also by prohibiting their tise at 

 home. With some difficulty on act of parliament wu o 

 removing these obstacles to the devi'lopnirnt of the n 

 which from that time was prosecuted with a great and continually 

 accelerated rate of increase. 



The earliest attempts at producing the finer cotton goods called 

 mtulint were mode about the year 1780; but without, much success, 

 although India-spun yarn was substituted as weft for that produced 

 by the spinning-jenny : the greatest degree of fineness to which yam 

 spun with Arkwright's frame had then been brought, was 

 hanks to the pound, and even this degree wu ii"t attainable by means 

 i.-niiy. This disadvantage wu m tin' invi'iiti..n ..f 



Samuel Crompton's machine, whch cam. i,t the 



year 1 786, and which, partaking of t i i greaves' and 



ArkwriKht'.- aptly r;dl,-.| thr By means 



of this piece of mechanism, yarns wvrr prodoood of a much greater 

 fineness than had before been aitaim-.!. ('n>mi.t<>n'H im.nUou wu 

 made several years before it could If "|"-nly used, because of it* 

 interference with the patented invention of Arkwright ; but when this 

 patent was annulled, the mule-jenny was brought rapidly and extcn- 



