because the workmen felt their occupa- 

 tion would be taken away. But the 

 cotton workers are to be congratulated, 

 for there are four times as many men 

 working in the cotton industries as 

 there were a hundred years ago, and 

 yarn thread is produced at less than 

 one-tenth the cost while the workmen 

 are all better paid for their labor. 



James Hargreaves invented the spin- 

 ning jenny in 1767. He was an illiter- 

 ate man, and yet his ma.chinery has 

 not been materially improved upon. 

 The poor fellow was mobbed by the 

 infuriated workmen who saw that their 

 labor was apparently to be taken from 

 them by machinery. He was nearly 

 killed. He sold out his invention and 

 died in poverty. He received nothing 

 from the government nor from the 

 business world for his great invention. 

 But after his death his daughter re- 

 ceived a bounty. 



Two years after the jenny, in 1769, 

 Richard Arkwright invented the spin- 

 ning frame. He was a barber by trade, 

 but through the appreciation of crazy 

 old George HI., he was struck upon 

 the shoulder with a sword and rose 

 Sir Richard Arkwright. He amassed 

 a great fortune from his invention. 

 His spinning frame and Hargreaves' 

 spinning jenny each needed the other 

 to perfect its work. The jenny made 

 yarn which was not smooth and hard. 

 So it was used only for woof, and could 

 not be stretched for warping. The re- 

 sult of the two inventions was a strong, 

 even thread which was better for all 

 purposes than any which had been 

 made before. 



Parliament imposed a fine of 1^2,500 

 for sending American cotton cloth to 

 England, and another for exporting 

 machinery to America. Massachusetts 

 at once gave a bonus of $2,500, and 

 afterwards ^10,000 to encourage the in- 

 troduction of cotton machinery. 

 Francis Cabot Lowell was an American 

 inventor. He brought the business of 

 weaving cotton cloth to this country. 

 There had been some small attempts 

 before his time, but he introduced it 

 extensively and profitably. He estab- 

 lished a cotton factory in Massachu- 

 setts in 1810, and was very successful. 

 In that year he was in England, deal- 



ing with makers of cotton goods. The 

 idea occurred to him that it would be 

 more profitable to make the goods on 

 his side of the water where the cotton 

 was raised. He acted promptly. 

 Lowell, Massachusetts, is named after 

 him, and stands as a monument to his 

 good judgment and inventive genius. 



Three years after he had established 

 the manufacture of cotton goods in 

 this country, he invented the famous 

 power loom. That was a great step in 

 advance. It has done more for the in- 

 dustry than anything since the days of 

 Hargreaves and Arkwright. By the 

 use of power these looms set the spin- 

 dles running at a remarkable rate of 

 speed. Twenty years ago the world 

 wondered at the velocity of our spin- 

 dles, 5,000 revolutions in one minute. 

 But it has kept on wondering ever 

 since, and the speed of spindles has 

 constantly increased as if there could 

 be no limit. 1 5,000 revolutions are now 

 common. 



In Great Britain there are 45,000,000 

 spindles running at a wondrous rate, 

 and 17,000,000 are running in America. 

 With cheaper labor and more extended 

 experience, they are doing more of it 

 across the water than we. For our 

 consumption we make all the coarse 

 grades, but all the fine cottons are im- 

 ported. They get large quantities of 

 cotton now in India. Egypt also is a 

 great cotton country, producing the 

 best cotton grown with the one excep- 

 tion of our famous sea island cotton. 

 Her crop is worth $48,000,000 annually. 

 England has hunted the world over for 

 cotton and good cotton ground, and 

 while we were engaged in war she was 

 increasing her endeavors in this direc- 

 tion with much earnestness. 



If you will notice the contents of a 

 boll of cotton you will be surprised to 

 find that the fiber is not the main thing 

 there. The seed is far heavier than 

 the fiber, and it really occupies more 

 space when the two are crowded into 

 their closest possible limits. You can 

 press the cotton down upon the seed 

 till the whole is but little larger than 

 the seed. 



The fiber clings to the seed with 

 great firmness, and you find it difficult 

 to tear them from each other. There 



