MANUFACTURE OF TEXTILES 



were his occupations, and at both he had succeeded 

 well. At forty years of age he was well known for his 

 Armiul and Eloira, a legendary tale in verse which 

 passed through some seven editions in a year, and for 

 The Prince of Peace, a poem of considerable merit. Two 

 years later he was far better known as one of the world's 

 great inventors. The story of this invention has been 

 told by Cartwright in a letter written to his friend 

 Bannatyne, in which he gives a vivid picture of the 

 circumstances that induced him to enter the field of 

 mechanics. 



"Happening to be in Matlock in the summer of 

 1784," he wrote, "I fell in company with some gentle- 

 men of Manchester, when the conversation turned on 

 Arkwright's spinning-machinery. One of the company 

 observed that as soon as Arkwright's patent expired 

 so many mills would be erected, and so much cotton 

 spun, that hands never could be found to weave it. 

 To this observation I replied that Arkwright must then 

 set his wits to work to invent a weaving-mill. This 

 brought on a conversation on the subject, in which the 

 Manchester gentlemen unanimously agreed that the 

 thing was impracticable ; and in defense of this opinion 

 they adduced arguments which I certainly was incom- 

 petent to answer, or even to comprehend, being totally 

 ignorant of the subject, having never at that time seen 

 a person weave. I controverted, however, the imprac- 

 ticality of the thing, by remarking that there had lately 

 been exhibited in London an automaton figure which 

 played at chess. 'Now you will not assert, gentlemen,' 

 said I, 'that it is more difficult to construct a machine 



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