February 8th, 1921.] Proceedings. xv. 



opposite Bank Lane (now Bank Street). The glasses have been 

 in the writer's possession over 40 years, and as they are 

 probably the only ones still in existence he thought it advisable 

 to hand them over to the Society. 



Mr. Ronchetti was one of the best hydrometer makers in the 

 trade. He died in 1881, and was interred at St. Joseph's 

 Cemetery, Moston. He was the eldest son of Mr. Charles 

 Joshua Ronchetti — the friend and associate of Dalton and 

 Joule — who made the barometer at present hanging in the 

 Secretary's room, as well as several other instruments for 

 Dalton. 



Mr. Charles Joshua Ronchetti was in business in Balloon 

 vStreet, Manchester, from 181 7 to 182 1, when he removed to 

 Cateaton Street, until 1828, and was for some time afterwards 

 in St. Ann's Square, as stated on the barometer already referred 

 to. 



The late Mr. Joseph Casartelli, who was a member of the 

 Society from January 26th, 1858, until his death in March 1900, 

 at yy years of age, was a son-in-law of Mr. C. J. Ronchetti. He 

 took over the St. Ann's Square business in 1853 and transferred 

 it to Market Street, where it still remains, and is said to be the 

 oldest established firm in the principal street of the city. 



The writer is indebted to Messrs. Joseph Casartelli and Son, 

 of Market Street, for some of the dates relating to the family 

 connection with the maker of the hydrometers, whom he remem- 

 hers well on account of his somewhat striking personality. 



The set of hydrometers was then presented to the Society. 



Professor George Unwin, M.A., read a paper entitled 

 u Samuel Oldknow, the first manufacturer of British 

 Muslins." 



The author exhibited a series of records (1782 — 1812) which 

 have just been discovered in Oldknow's Mill at Mellor, near 

 Marple. They relate to the business of Samuel Oldknow, one 

 of the first manufacturers of British muslins, a man of some 

 character and enterprise, who towards the close of the eighteenth 

 century was classed with the Arkwrights and the Strutts, of 

 Derby, as a coming " cotton lord." The records disclose in 

 detail the whole process of manufacture, Oldknow's marketing 

 and financial relations, the economy of the handloom weaver's 

 life and conditions in one of the first cotton factories, and 

 Oldknow's connections with Sir Richard Arkwright, Robert 

 Owen, William Radcliffe, and other prominent figures in Lan- 

 cashire's side of the industrial revolution. The hope was 

 expressed that interest might be awakened in similar records 

 elsewhere. 



