ADDRESS. IxXXV 



Cbina man was clothed in silk long ago, and although Confucius, in a -work 

 written 2,300 years ago, orders with the greatest minuteness the niles to be 

 observed in the jn-oduction and manufacture of silk, yet it was worth nearly 

 its weight in gold in Europe in the time of Aurehan, whose empress had to 

 forego the luxury of a silk gown on account of its cost*. Through Constan- 

 tinople and Italy the manufacture passed slowly westwards, and was not 

 established in France until the sixteenth century, and arrived at a stiU later 

 period in this country. 



So cotton, of which the manufacture in India dates from before historical 

 times, had scarcely by the Christian era reached Persia and Egypt. Spain 

 in the tenth and Italy in the fourteenth century inanufactured it, but Man- 

 chester, which is now the great metropolis of the trade, not until the latter 

 half of the seventeenth centurj\ 



Linen was worn by the old Egyptians, and some of their linen mummy- 

 cloths surpass in fineness any linen fabrics made in later daysf. The 

 Babylonians wore linen also and wool, and obtained a widespread fame for 

 skill in workmanship and beauty in design. 



In this country wool long formed the staple for clothing. Silk was the first 

 rival, but its costliness placed it beyond the reach of the many. To introduce 

 a new material or improved machine into this or other countries a century or 

 more ago was no light undertaking. Inventors and would-be benefactors alike 

 ran the risk of loss of life. Loud was the outcry made in the early part of 

 the eighteenth century against the introduction of Indian cottons and Dutch 

 calicoes. 



Until 1738, in which year imj)rovements in spinning-machinery were begun, 

 each thread of worsted or cotton wool had been spun between the fingers in 

 this and all other countries. Wyatt, in 1738, invented spinning- rollers 

 instead of fingers, and his invention was further improved hyArkwright. In 

 1770 Hargreaves patented the spinning-jenny, and Crompton the mule in 

 1775, a machine which combined the advantages of the frames of both Har- 

 greaves and Arkwright. In less than a century after the first invention by 

 Wyatt, double mules were working in Manchester with over 2,000 spindles. 



Improvements in machines for weaving were begun at an earlier date. In 

 1579 a ribbon-locm is said to have been invented at Dantzic, by which from 

 four to six pieces could be woven at one time ; but the machine was destroyed 

 and the inventor lost his lifet. In 1800 Jacquard's most ingenious invention 

 was brought into use, which, by a simple mechanical operation, determines 

 the movements of the threads which form the pattern in weaving. But the 

 greatest discovery in the art of weaving was wrought by Cartwright's discovery 



* Manufacture of silk brought from China to Constantinople A.D. 522. 

 t Williiuson's ' Ancient Egyptians ; ' Pliny, bk. six. c. ii. 

 I Eeckman's ' History of Inventions,' vol. ii. p. 528. 



