A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



almost immediately surpassed by Arkwright's idea of spinning a cotton thread 

 from a ' roving ' drawn out by rollers, the special merit of which machine lay 

 in the production of a cotton thread (styled a water twist) of superior even- 

 ness which could be used as warp in place of linen.'" 



As soon as the Lancashire manufacturers grasped the epoch-making 

 character and profitableness of Arkwright's invention they set about copying 

 it as fast as possible. Machines of a similar kind were rapidly produced in 

 defiance of the inventor's patent until, in self-defence, Arkwright engaged in 

 business at Manchester."' To promote the sale of the new cotton cloth the 

 legislature had to be set in motion, and the Repeal Act of 14 George III,"* 

 enacted that 'stuffs made entirely of cotton spun in this kingdom' were 'a 

 lawful and a laudable manufacture ' and were ' permitted to be used on paying 

 3^/. a square yard when printed, painted or stained with colours.' As a proof 

 of the impetus given to the cotton manufacture by these wonderful discoveries 

 we need only quote the figures of the imports of cotton wool, which between 

 the years 1750 and 1764 had increased by a million bales — from 3,000,000 

 to 4,000,000, ' betokening,' as says Mr. Ure, ' the auspicious noonday of the 

 cotton trade of England.''" Lancashire's remaining ambition was happily 

 attained after 1776, when the inventive genius of a third great Lancashire 

 mind produced that combination of the spinning jenny and of Arkwright's 

 roller spinner, known as the spinning mule of Samuel Crompton, a Bolton 

 man, by which, as perfected for public use in 1784, could be produced 

 threads of a fineness sufficient for the weaving of muslins which rapidly 

 rivalled those of India. By the nineties the muslin manufacture was 

 established at Stockport,'" and soon afterwards at Manchester'" and elsewhere. 

 The introduction of ' mule ' spinning, Mr. Ure assures us,''' made England able 

 to outstrip and crush all foreign competitors in the manufacture of muslins. 



Thus was Lancashire launched upon its career as the world's first great 

 cotton manufactory, and in order to meet the demands of the European and other 

 markets which the disorganization of French industry in the nineties had 

 thrown open to her, nothing was lacking but sufficient speed and power 

 to drive the machinery as fast as it could be made to go. 



One of the facilities possessed by Lancashire to a greater extent than 

 many counties, was the abundance of water power, for producing sufficient 

 falls to work the mills that now began to be erected in increasing numbers 

 on the river banks.''' 



Arkwright had used horse and water power for his machines, but an 

 enormous and undeveloped force was at this time brought into play, destined 

 further to revolutionize the whole manufacturing system. By the year 1787 

 steam was introduced to drive the spinning machinery at Warrington,"" and 

 in 1789 in a calico mill at Manchester.'" In 1793 the mules in Drinkwater's 

 mill in Piccadilly, Manchester, were run by steam power."'' But it remained 

 for the experimenters of the nineteenth century to apply power to the working 

 of the loom, which was obviously only a deferred invention. 



"' Ct. Baines, Hist, of Cotton Manu,. 163. 



*" 1783, Arkwright and Simpson had a mill at Shude Hill, Manch. ; ibid. 226. 



"' Statues of the Realm, 14 Geo. Ill, cap. 72. '" Ure, Cotton Manuj. 222. 



"* Ibid. 289. «' Ibid. 292. '" Ibid. 298-9. 



^' Baines, Hist, of Cotton Manuf. 186. «" Ure, Cotton Manuf. 288-9. 



"'Ibid. Alio Biines, Hist. 0/ Cotton Manuf. 226. "' Ure, op. cit. 292. 



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