A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



note in Baines' History of the Cotton Manufacture 

 (published in 1835): — 



On the river Irwell from the first mill near Bacup, 

 to Prestolee, near Bolton, there is about 900 ft. of 

 fall available for mills, 800 of which is occupied. On 

 this river and its branches it is computed that there 

 are no less than three hundred mills. A project is in 

 course of execution to increase the water-power of 

 the district, already so great and so much concen- 

 trated, and to equalize the force of the stream by 

 forming eighteen reservoirs on the hills, to be filled 

 in times of flood, and to yield their supplies in the 

 drought of summer. These reserv'oirs, according to 

 the plan, would cover 270 acres of ground and con- 

 tain 241,300,000 cubic feet of water, which would 

 give a power equal to 6,600 horses. The cost is 

 estimated at j^5 9,000. One reservoir has been com- 

 pleted, another is in course of formation, and it is 

 probable that the whole design will be carried into 

 effect.'" 



The economical application of steam ulti- 

 mately reversed the trend of events, and con- 

 centrated the scattered throstle-spinning in groups 

 on the slopes of the hills rising to face the west, 

 for in the towns all the external economies con- 

 nected with a collection of businesses could be 

 enjoyed, and these were great in days of imper- 

 fect machinery and cost!)- transport. As early as 

 1788 there were 143 water-mills in the cotton 

 industry of the United Kingdom which were 

 distributed as follows among the counties which 

 had more than one : — '"^ 



occupied by 



Preston got its first power-factory in 1777, 

 but no considerable industry was carried on 

 there until the undertakings of John Horrocks. 

 Oldham's first power-factories were started just 

 before that date. The earliest in Manchester 

 were the following: — '°* 



Messrs. J. & R. Simpson's Mill, erected 1782 

 Mr. Thackeray's Mill, erected 1785 

 Messrs. Fog & Hughes, Portland Street, erected 1791 

 Messrs. B. & W. Sandford, New Islington, erected 

 1791 



"»Op. cit. 86 n. 



'"' These figures are quoted from a pamphlet pub- 

 lished in 1788, entitled ^n Important Crisis in the 

 CaRco and Mus/in Manufactory in Great Britain Ex- 

 plained. Many of the estimates given in the pamphlet 

 are worthless, but there seems no reason why the 

 figures quoted should not be at least approximately 

 correct. 



""Printed in an appendix to the pamphlet, An 

 Examination of the Cotton Factory Question, 1 8 1 9. The 

 pamphlet is reprinted in Earwaker's Local Gleanings, 

 i, 80. 



Mill, Holt Town, ditto, 



Messrs. Smith & Townlcy, Oak St 



present ten.Tnts in 1792 

 Mr. Wm. Mitchell, Old 



1792 

 Mr. Wm. Mitchell, New Mill, Holt Town, ditto, 



1792 

 Messrs. Phillips & Lea, Salford, erected 1793 

 Messrs. Parry, Seaton & Co., Oak Street, erected 



'79+ 



Some of these factories may have been used 

 for jennies or other cotton machinery, to be 

 referred to later. Baines speaks thus of the 

 introduction of the steam-engine : — ^"^ 



The first engine which they (Boulton & Watt) 

 made for a cotton mill w.is in the works of Messrs. 

 Robinsons, of Papplewick, in Nottinghamshire, in 

 the ye.ir 1785. An atmospheric engine had been 

 put up by Messrs. Arkwright & Simpson for their 

 cotton mill on Shude Hill, M.inchester, in 1783 ; but 

 it was not till 1789 that a steam-engine was erected 

 by Boulton & Watt in that town for cotton-spinning, 

 when they made one for Mr. Drinkwater, nor did 

 Sir Richard Arkwright adopt the new invention till 

 1 790, when he had one of Boulton & Watt's engines 

 put up in a cotton mill at Nottingham. In Glasgow, 

 the first steam-engine for cotton-spinning was set up for 

 Messrs. Scott & Stevenson in 1792. . . . The number 

 of engines in use in Manchester before the year 1 800 

 was probably 32, and their power 430 horse. 



Apart from Baines, the earliest reference that 

 we can find to a steam-engine is in a paper read 

 before; the Literary and Philosophical Society of 

 Manchester by Thomas Barnes, on 9 January, 

 1782, from which we quote the following 

 extract : — '"^ 



The power of steam in producing effects to which 

 hardly any powers of mechanism are equal, has long 

 been observed in the fire engines. . . . But we have not 

 heard till lately that this active and potent principle 

 has been applied in any other instances, though there 

 are many in which a principle so powerful, and it is 

 presumed so manageable, would be of unspeakable 

 advantage. The extension of it to machines for 

 spinning cotton and for grinding corn, is now, I am 

 informed, under contemplation. 



In a foot-note the writer adds : — 



A machine for spinning cotton has now been 

 worked for some time upon this principle at Man- 

 chester, and the other for grinding corn is said to be 

 in considerable forwardness, near Blackfriars Bridge, 

 London. 



It would appear from the context and other 

 evidence set forth above that Barnes refers to 

 the atmospheric engine and not the steam-engine 

 of Boulton & Watt. The steam-engine was 

 introduced into Oldham about 1798, according 

 to Mr. S. Andrew.!"' By 1 825 the mills in Staly- 



"° Op. cit. 226. 



"" Mem. of the Lit. and Philosophical Soc. of Man- 

 chester, i, 79. 



^"^ Annals of Oldham — a series of extracts from Row- 

 bottom's diary, with notes, which began to 

 in the Oldham Standard ovi i Jan. 1887. 



appear 



386 



