INGENUITY AND LUXURY 



born in 1732, the youngest in a family of thirteen 

 children. Having little education and being extremely 

 poor, he was apprenticed as a boy to a barber; later 

 on becoming master of a shop of his own. Having a 

 naturally inventive turn of mind he devoted much of 

 his time to experimenting in various fields, finally 

 succeeding in producing a chemical process for dyeing 

 hair which produced him sufficient income to allow him 

 to devote more of his time to various inventions which 

 he had conceived and partially developed. 



Living, as he did, in the cotton-manufacturing dis- 

 trict, he was probably familiar with Hargreaves' spin- 

 ning-jenny, and if so he was certainly aware of its de- 

 fects. It is certain, at any rate, that his inventive 

 efforts were along entirely different lines from those 

 pursued by Hargreaves in his machine. In 1769 he 

 took out his first patent for spinning by means of 

 rollers, and soon after perfected a machine with which 

 he was able to spin a great number of threads at any 

 desired degree of thinness or hardness. 



In this "spinning-frame," or " water-frame " as it 

 was called, there were two pairs of rollers, set hori- 

 zontally and parallel, like the rollers of a wringer. 

 The lower roll of each pair was furrowed or fluted 

 longitudinally, while the upper rollers were covered 

 with leather to make them take hold of the cotton. 

 If both these pairs of rollers are revolved at the same 

 speed and a rove of cotton passed through them, it 

 is obvious that aside from the compression given by 

 the rollers, no change will be produced. If, however, 

 the second pair of rollers is revolved more rapidly than 



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