COTTON MANUFACTURE. 



COTTON' TRADE AND CONSUMPTION. 



attended by young women. The diameter of the reel i* 4) feet; when 

 it ha* performed 80 revolutious, a lay i* formed measuring 120 yards, 

 and seven of then lay* make up a hank. Each hank is separately tied 

 nmml wit ha thread, and weighed to ascertain its flneneas; the different 

 sii are then put by themselves, and separately packed in paper 

 bundles of either five or ton pounds weight 



Fine yam* are unually kinged, in order to remove their loose downy 

 fibre* and to give them onoothneaa. This i* accomplished by subjecting 

 the thread to the action of a (eries of coal-gas flames, through or over 

 which it i* several time* passed with degree of quickness cufficient to 

 prevent burning. 



Cotton (Arnuf, for *ewing, is made by laying together two or more 

 yarns of equal quality, and twisting them ; for which purpose distinct 

 machinery i* employed. Previous to the doubling and twisting, the 



Cii passed through a trough, containing a thin solution of starch ; 

 twist i* given in an opposite direction to that applied by the 

 pinning machine, causing the thread to reaemblc in this respect 

 organzine silk. 



Scarcely any o|x;ration in a cotton mill, we thus sec, is carried for- 

 ward without the intervention of a machine, by which the work is 

 done with greater precision, and also with greater celerity, and con- 

 sequently greater economy. The packing of the hanks of yarn into 

 bundles is the work of a bandit pnu, by means of which the hanks are 

 pnnunil into a small compass, the power of the machine enabling 

 female* to exert sufficient strength for the purpose. Even here, how- 

 ever, steam power is sometimes employed. 



The degree in which the inventions that have here been i 

 have reduced the expenses attending this branch of manufacture is 

 great almost beyond belief. One pound of the yarn known as No. 100 

 was, in the year 1786, worth 38*. ; in 1791, it was 29*. 9<f. ; in 1795, 

 19.; in 1709, 10*. 9i/. ; hi 1807, 6*. 9</; in 1832, 2. llrf. ; and in 

 recent years it has been still lower. The average waste in spinning 

 cotton is considered to be about 14 ox. per pound; it is very much 

 higher in fine yams than in coarse, and this is one reason for the in- 

 creased price of the former. Mr. Ainsworth, an eminent Lancashire 

 manufacture ntly pointed out the ratio which raw material 



bean to labour, in four varieties of textile manufacture, thus : 



For finished 



Goods. 



1 Ib. wool for flannel costs U. Gil. + It. ~d. for wages = St. Id. 

 lib. wool, for coarse cloth costs I. 2rf. + 4<. Vd. = it. 2rf. 

 1 Ib. flax for shirting costs Of. lorf. -i- lj. Crf. = 2>. td. 

 1 Ib. cotton for sheeting costs 0. Crf. + 0*. Oil. = lj. Od. 



The mechanical inventions relating to the various processes of cotton 

 manufacture, patented or otherwise, are, as has been already implied, 

 numerous almost beyond belief. The records of the Patent Office, 

 now placed in such admirable order under the superintendence of 

 Mr. Bennett Woodcroft, show this conclusively. It is not possible to 

 give the number of patents with accuracy, because some of them 

 relate to wool and flax as well as to cotton ; but it is putty evident 

 that the last-named fibre occupies the prominent place. Down to the 

 clone of the year 1858 there had, since the commencement of the 

 patent system, been lir.ii patents granted relating more or less to the 

 cleaning, spinning, separating, scutching, and Jiatting of fibrous mate- 

 rials ; 82 containing provisions relating to the carding, combing, 

 drawing, doubling, and roving of the materials thus prepared ; and 

 tin- eiiormoiis number of 1376 touching in a greater or less degree the 

 processes and apparatus for spinning, twisting, and thread-making. It 

 must not, as just stated, be understood that all these related to 

 cottons ; nor that there were 2457 separate patents relating to textile 

 materials, seeing that some of the patents comprise within themselves 

 the characteristics of all three lists, or of two out of the three ; but it 

 is quite certain that the patents relating strictly to the cotton manu- 

 facture are many hundreds in number. All these are irrespective of 

 weaving processes, which have been made the subjects of a distinct 

 series of patents. 



As the weaving of cotton does not differ much in principle from that 

 of linen, woollen, and silk, it will suffice to describe them all in one 

 artioie. [WKAVINO.] The statistics connected with the manufactured 

 product* of cotton-mills will come most suitably into the subjoined 

 article [COTTON TRADE AXD ComtntRTOir], as will likewise a brief 

 notice of the cotton manufacture in foreign countries. 



It would not be right to close this article without a few lines 

 descriptive of those important establishments, the cotton-mills of the 

 north those extraordinary centre* of industry, which have stamped a 

 character on the counties containing them. It is computed that, in 

 1859, if we draw a circle of thirty miles radius around Manchester, 

 that circle will l>e found to contain more inhabitants than a circle of 

 similar size having London in its centre. l,iv. rp.,,,1, the great port 

 for landing raw cotton and for -hipping manufactured cotton goods, is 

 just within the circle : Manchester, the cotton metropolis, is by the 

 term* of the argument in the centre of the circle ; while other part* 

 of the area include the great town* of Preston, Chorley, Blackburn, 

 Accrington, Clitheroc, Bumley, Haxlingdcn, Baciip, Itawtemttall, Kolton, 

 Bury, Middleton, Oldham, AshUm. Staleybridgc, Dukinlirld. Hyde. 

 tlluwop, Mottram, St-ick|irt, Ac. all of which contain immense 

 establishments for spinning, weaving, bleaching, or printing cotton; 



and there are *o many similar establishment* occupying the valley* 

 and road* between thoee town*, that the whole area may be regarded 

 as one large workshop. The same may be aaid, in a mnaller degree, of 

 the district around Glasgow. Some of the mills spin cotton only, 

 some weave it only, while some spin and weave. Some kinds of cotton 

 good* are more largely made than other* in particular towns ; fine 

 muslins in one, shirting calicoes in another, tuitions in a third, and so 

 on. Moat of the spinning and weaving mill* are buildings of va*t 

 size, speckled over with windows on every aide. Borne of them have 

 six or seven hundred window* each, which give light to st 

 eight stories or range* of room*. In those of improved construction, 

 there is apparatus for lifting the workpeople, or *ome of them, from 



story to story, thereby lessening the fatigue and the consumpti f 



time involved in ascending staircases. As one part of the perfect 

 system which ha* gradually become organised in this trade, it is 

 customary to haul up the bale* of cotton to the highest story of the 

 building, and then gradually lower the material from story to story 

 until it leaves the bottom range in a finished state ; thus the opening, 

 the mixing, the scutching, the carding, the drawing, the roving, and 

 the spinning, follow in their pro|>er order, in rooms occupying different 

 heights in the range of building. If it be a weaving as well a* a 

 spinning mill, the weaving machines or power-looms, sometimes fifteen 

 or eighteen hundred in number, are usually placed in a lower and 

 separate building, called the weaving-abed. Nothing is more admirable 

 in the whole arrangement than the manner in which the moving power 

 is conveyed from story to story, from room to room, by mean* of 

 highly-wrought shafting and wheel-work. The steam-engine may be 

 outside one end of the building, and yet its working efficacy may be 

 felt at the other end, perhaps two or three hundred feet distant. If 

 the mill be in a country district, with a hill close at hand, the architect 

 often plans that the chimney-shaft shall be built on the top i the 

 hill, with a flue leading to it under-ground from the furnaces ; this is 

 equivalent to a great increase in the height of the chimney, and in the 

 strength of the draught which passes through the furnace. In the 

 days of Arkwright and the elder Strutt, the mill builders look. 

 anxiously for a valley, where a stream might afford moving power for 

 a water-wheel ; but in the present days of steam-power, the > 

 spinner reckons little on the proximity of a river. In those days, 

 canals were the great channels of communication, along which raw 

 cotton was carried to the mill and manufactured cotton goods con- 

 veyed away from it; the transit is now effected almost entirely by 

 railway. There are nearly four hundred miles of railway in Lancashire 

 alone, mostly maintained by the cotton trade ; besides those belonging 

 to the cotton districts in the neighbouring counties. These four 

 hundred miles have certainly not cost lea* than twenty millions 

 sterling; which may, in a certain sense, be regarded as one portion of 

 the fixed capital expended in our gigantic cotton manufacture. 



The workers in cotton mills, with the arrangements for their pro- 

 tection, will be noticed in a later article. [FACTORIES.] Some of the 

 us processes to which cotton goods are subjected' have been 

 ill in earlier portions of this work. [BANDANA ; BLEACHING ; 

 CAI .KMiniiNii ; CALICO PRINTING] ; and another class of operations 

 will be found noticed under D^ 



( i (TTON TRADE AND CONSUMPTION. Having, in COTTON 

 Ci'i.TiVATiox AND SriTLV, passed under review the chief circumstances 

 connected with the growth of thin important fibre, and its shipment to 

 the busy marts of industry ; and in the article COTTON MAM i ACTURB, 

 having described the principal processes whereby the fibre is spun for 

 the use of the weaver we shall be prepared, under the present 

 heading, to trace the wonderful course of trade in the manufactured 

 commodities. 



And first, in relation to our own country, concerning which Un- 

 available sources of information ore abundant and trustworthy. 



The unprecedented!}- rapid increase in the consumption . 

 Great Britain, soon after the year 1780, resulted almost entirely from 

 the inventions of Arkwright, Hargreaves, and I'rompton, followed, at 

 later dates, by those of Cartwright, Ratclifl'e. and Itobert*, already 

 adverted to. Had it not been for these inventions, British artisan* 

 could not have competed successfully with the spinners and we;r 

 India. The Hindoos possess so much skill in this kind of work, and 

 aent with so low a rate of wages, that their muslins and calicoes 

 would have continued to beat those of England out of the market, 

 had not the latter been aided by machinery. Even \\ hen thi- difficulty 

 was overcome, the peculiar monopoly of the East India Company 

 retarded the opening of a market for British manufactures. It was 

 not until the present century had considerably 



goods found their way to India in any notable quantity. 

 Another circumstance deserving remark is, thai th .'avers 



were slow in arriving at an equality with the Hindoos in the durability 

 and general excellence of the product ; it was the cheapness of price, 

 rath.-r tlian the improvement of quality, which brought about the 

 revolution in the. trade. 



It will be ( onvrniciit and instructive to trace the advance of this 

 remarkable department of British commercial industry in successive 

 , i ... ;,.. 



ReJ 'ore 1800. The statistics of the trade during the last century are 



not much i ujKin; many of them were mere estimates 



than authenticated returns. So far as they go, however, they 



