MANUFACTURE OF COTTON. 
127 
HISTORY OF THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
A few remarks on the history of spinning and weaving 
machines will not be out of place. 
One hundred years ago James Hargraves invented the 
spinning jenny, in which eight spindles at first were set in 
a frame and made to spin as many threads at one operation, 
the ends passing from the spindles through a fluted wooden 
clasp which was held in the left hand, and could be made 
to close upon the threads and hold them fast as it was 
moved to and from the spindles. The number of spindles 
was afterward increased to eighty. Richard Arkwright 
soon afterward came forward with a new invention of spin- 
ning by rollers, the effect of which was to draw out the rolls 
as they came from the carding machines, and by the slight 
pull elongate and straighten the fibres left crooked or 
double in the carding. By combining several fleeces or 
card ends and passing them through together, and causing 
them to unite in one roll, a fleecy ribbon is obtained of 
great uniformity, and by repeating the process the quality 
is still farther increased. From this fine, uniform roll, 
Arkwright produced an even and firm thread, suitable as 
well for the warp as the woof. About the year iVVO he 
built the first mill in which the machinery was run by a 
water-wheel. Factories were afterward rapidly established 
throughout England. The first machines for carding and 
spinning were made in the United States in 1786. The 
Beverly Company commenced operations in Massachusetts 
in 1*787, and they succeeded in manufacturing cotton 
goods, but with very imperfect machinery. In 1788 the 
Providence (R. I.) Company commenced making homespun 
cloth, but their machinery was also imperfect, and they 
