~2Si 



COTTON SPINNING, 



-Cotton improvement in spinning, yet from t'-is hint being pur- 

 Sj wnning. SUC( j aiose) jf vve are rightly infor «-, ', an invention 



^/ which, in its consequences, as a so"' >i individual and 



wight's national wealth, is without example. 



water-spin- As already noticed, the effect of Mi Arkwright's ap- 



aing frame. plj ca tion of rollers was precisely the same operation 

 which the spinner performs with the finger and thumb ; 

 and the adaptation of this simple and beautiful contri- 

 vance to the spindle and fly of the common domestic 

 flax-wheel produced what is called the water-spinning 

 frame, the machine for which Mr Arkwright obtained 

 his first patent, and on which was founded all his sub- 

 sequent improvements. 



But a considerable time elapsed before this patent was 

 cbtained, his circumstances not permitting him to com- 

 mence business on his own account, and no person seemed 

 willing to hazard capital in the undertaking. At length, 

 however, he was so fortunate, as to secure the co-opera- 

 tion of some persons, who had sufficient discernment to 

 see the merit of the invention, and he consequently ob- 

 tained his first patent for spinning by means of rollers in 

 the year 1769. His first mil) was erected at Notting- 

 ham. It was worked by horses, but this mode of working 

 being found too expensive, a larger mill driven by water 

 was erected in 1771, at Cromford in Derbyshire. At 

 this place he principally resided during the remainder of 

 his life. In the year 1772, his patent right was con- 

 tested ; but he obtained a verdict in his favour, and en- 

 joyed the patent to the end of its term. 



The essential part of Mr Arkwright's invention being 

 entirely new, he applied it with the happiest success in 

 various forms, in several of the stages of the preparation 

 of the raw material for the spinning ; and soon after the 

 erection of his mill at Cromford, he made many ingeni- 

 ous improvements in the mode of preparing the cotton ; 

 for all of which inventions he obtained a patent in 1775. 

 But after reiterated contests with rival manufacturers in 

 the year 1785, the Court of King's Bench cancelled this 

 patent, on the ground of his not being the original in- 

 ventor. 



The contests above alluded to related chiefly to the 

 operation of carding, which was now brought to a state 

 of great perfection. We already mentioned, that the 

 cotton was at first stripped from Mr Peel's machine by 

 hand. Afterwards, this operation was performed by a 

 roller, having tin plates like the floats of a water-wheel. 

 This was, however, a very rude method. Mr Arkwright 

 substituted a comb of metal, moved rapidly in a perpen- 

 dicular direction by a crank ; and in order to produce 

 ;n the finishing carding a continued Jleece, he introduced 

 narrow cards, termed fillets, wound, in a spiral form, 

 found one of the cylinders of the machine. 



This operation of combing off the cotton in a conti- 

 nued fleece, and gradually contracting it into a narrow 

 ribband, flattened between rollers, and delivered in the 

 form of a uniform carding, is allowed to be one of the 

 • most striking and beautiful in the whole process of cot- 

 ton-spinning. Mr Arkwright's right to the invention of 

 the crank and comb was disputed in the last hearing of 

 his cause. His claim, however, to the spiral cards, which 

 produce the continued carding, has never been disputed. 

 That all these inventions and improvements should 

 "have been the production of an individual without edu- 

 cation, or any previous mechanical knowledge or expe- 

 rience, is most extraordinary. Yet he was engaged at 

 the same time in many other concerns, arising from the 

 peculiarity of his circumstances. While he was extend- 



3 



Spinning 



machines 

 calltd 

 mules in* 



ing the business on a large scale, he was introducing in- Cotton 

 to every department of it a system ©f order and cleanli- Spinning 

 ness, till then unknown in any manufacture. And all —""/"*■" 

 these exertions, too, were made when he was suffering 

 under an oppressive disorder, which at last terminated 

 his life. 



Having now brought our history of Mr Arkwright's 

 improvements to a conclusion, it may be proper to men- 

 tion, that, notwithstanding the measures that were for- 

 merly taken to convince the labouring class of their folly 

 and injustice in opposing improvements, a third and 

 more numerous mob assembled in 177ft> by which all 

 the machinery for spinning by power, and all the jen- 

 nies above a certain size, within eight or ten miles of 

 Blackburn, were destroyed. These and similar disturb- 

 ances in other parts of the country retarded, but could 

 not stop the progress of the manufacture. 



The yarn produced by Sir Richard Arkwright's sys- Wat^r* 

 tern of spinning is denominated water-twist ; and from tw ' 8t - 

 its strength and wiry smoothness, was found peculiarly 

 applicable to the longitudinal part of webs, called 

 warp, whilst the yarn produced by the jenny of Har- 

 greaves, from its woolly fulness and softness, was better 

 adapted for the woof or weft of coarse goods. These 

 systems of Hargreaves and of Arkwright, for some years 

 after their introduction, produced (with the exception of 

 the small quantity that would be spun on the one-thread 

 wheel ) the whole of the cotton, twist and weft, used in 

 the kingdom. But during the term of Sir Richard Ark- 

 wright's first patent, a third system of spinning by ma 

 chines called mules was invented, which has almost en- 

 tirely superseded that of Hargreaves, and has even in vented 

 part superseded the mode of spinning invented by Ark- 

 wright. We say spinning, because his mode of prepara- 

 tion (which expression includes carding, drawing, and 

 rovins) is retained in mule spinning, and indeed the es- 

 sential part of his s}'stem, the rollers producing the effect 

 of the finger and thumb. On the application of this part 

 of the system to the jenny of Hargreaves, the merits of 

 the third mode of spinning (by the mule) in a great mea- 

 sure depends. Its utility has, however, been very great, 

 and the variety of qualities of yarn produced by it is 

 much greater than is possible by any of the former 

 modes, at the same time that much finer yarn has been 

 spun in this way than was before practicable. As an in- 

 stance, we may mention that one pound of fine cotton 

 has been spun on the mule into 350 hanks, each hank 

 measuring 840 yards, and forming together a thread 167 

 miles in length. 



The mule seems to have taken its name from having 

 been the offspring of the two machines in use at the time 

 of its invention. This compound machine was invented 

 by Mr Samuel Crompton, formerly of Hall in the wood 

 near Bolton, in Lancashire, a person of very great inge- 

 nuity, and to whom the public is indebted for many 

 other valuable improvements in the cotton manufacture. 

 He also seems to have laboured under many disadvan- 

 tages in his outset, as may be inferred from the follow- 

 ing extract of a letter from him to the writer of this ar- 

 ticle : " In regard to the mule, the date of its being 

 first completed was in the year 1779- At the end of 

 the following year, I was under the necessity of making 

 it public or destroying it, as it was not in my power to 

 keep it and work it, and to destroy it was too painful a 

 task, having been 4| years at least, wherein every mo- 

 ment of time and power of mind, as well as expence 

 which my other employ would permit, were devoted* 



