380 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL TREADWELL. 



a perfect yarn. The Gypsey is automatic; it asks nothing of the workman hut 

 to supply material, and to join the ends of a yarn if it happens to break ; and 

 even of this it takes care to notify him by instantly stopping, and does not again 

 start till the yarn is made whole. 



If Richard Arkwright merited knighthood and wealth, as he certainly did, for 



his combination of inventions already known, and their application to new processes, 

 by which a new character is given to cotton manufacture, Daniel Treadwell de- 

 serves to be held in grateful remembrance for the originality of his inventions, the 



■ 



new combinations and new applications of others, and for the ardor and persever- 

 ance with which he overcame great obstacles and great opposition, and gave a new 

 character to rope manufacture, at once enlarging its field, improving its quality, and 

 diminishing its cost, — u which, in manufacturing/' as he says, " is, other things being 

 equal, the universal and only true measure of utility." 



The profits from the spinning-machine from 1836 to 1838 were $15,166 ; for 1839, 



* 



$12,359. Of this Mr. Treadwell had twenty-five per cent. In 1839, forty spinning- 

 machines were made for the United States government ; four preparing and roving 

 machines, at $500 each ; and a circular hatchel, at the same price. The profit on the 

 forty machines at the Charlestown Navy Yard was $12,360. In 1844 the machines 

 sold to a single company gave a profit of $15,385. Besides this, the sale of rights 

 to use the machines w T as valuable. Mr. Treadwell received, as the manager of 

 the manufactory, at first $1,200 a year, then $1,500, according to the profits; in 



1832, his salary was $2,000, and probably so continued till the sale to the Hemp 

 Company, at which time sixty machines were in operation. 



At the end of Mr. Treadwell's account-book with the Spinning Company is the 

 following, in his own hand : 



" Spinning Company began in 1828 and ended in 1858, thirty years. An entire change in 

 the manufacture of cordage produced by it. A great amount of labor, ingenuity, and mechani- 

 cal knowledge exhibited by me in the five distinct inventions which I patented in connection 

 with it. I have obtained but very little credit from these inventions, and by no means the 

 profit in money that they deserved. Cambridge, Feb. 3, 1858. And thus I finish the account. 

 Daniel Treadwell." 



Again, in his Autobiography : 



"It is dangerous for a man to judge of the merits of his own works, but 1 have always 

 thought I have received from the public but a scant measure of credit for my inventions in 



• • 1 r-* ■» 



spinning hemp. Few persons 



means 



are of my 



man were to compare these machines with many 



