xvi. Proceedings. [February nth, 1921. 



The muslin manufacture was attempted by Joseph Shaw at 

 Anderton, near Chorley, in 1764, but the first success was 

 achieved by Oldknow, who was born at Anderton in 1756, and 

 returned there about 1780 from Nottingham. In 1784 he carried 

 the manufacture to Stockport, and also carried on a bleaching 

 and dyeing works at Heaton Mersey. Here Oldknow was 

 found from the records to be buying his cotton in Manchester 

 and Liverpool, and giving it out to a score of little spinners 

 round about. From his warehouse 340 weavers of Stockport 

 and the villages within five or six miles received the materials 

 for their handlooms. Robert Owen, then an apprentice at 

 Stamford, had described how Oldknow 's British mull muslins at 

 9s. a yard were bought up by the nobility. Samples sent by 

 him to Lord and Lady Penrhyn had been found, and experts 

 pronounced them to be spun of 70's or 8o's counts. In 1788 

 two London agents took ^20,000 worth in four months, and the 

 output for the year may have been ^,80,000. According to 

 Owen, Oldknow made ^17,000 profit in two successive years. 

 He entered into a sort of partnership with Sir Richard Ark- 

 wright, who advanced money. 



The records of the mill at Mellor, which was built in 1790, 

 were in some respects unique, though not the earliest records 

 of a cotton factory ; those of Messrs. Greg at Styal went back 

 further. They showed the weekly wages, the different classes 

 of workers, the operation of the truck system. 



In 1798 Oldknow was obliged to put up to auction a good 

 deal of real estate and all his industrial investments but the 

 Mellor factory, which he kept until his death in 1828. His 

 Stockport mill became the scene of William Radcliffe's experi- 

 ments with the dressing machine which led to the perfecting 

 of the power-loom. 



Joint Meeting of the Society with the Faraday Society, 

 February nth, 1921. 

 Sir Henry A. Miers, M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S. (President), introduced 

 Professor A. W. Porter, D.Sc, F.R.S. (President of the 

 Faraday Society), who then took the Chair. 

 Dr. Allan Ferguson, M.A., read a paper entitled " Studies 

 in Capillarity." « Part I. Some General Considerations, 

 and a Discussion of the Methods of Measuring- Inter- 

 facial Tensions." 



"Part II. A Modification of the Capillary Tube 

 Method for the Measurement of Surface Tensions." By 

 Dr. Allan Ferguson, M.A., and Mr. P. E. Dowson, M.A., 

 was also read by Dr. Ferguson. 



