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obtained a patent for his self-acting mule, dated 1827. This 
mule was worked with moderate success for some years. We 
next come to tire patent of Mr. Peter Ewart, dated in 1833, 
in which he very accurately describes all the movements 
required to render “ the mule independent of the attention and 
skill of the spinner,” viz. — (1) The backing off; (2) guiding 
the faller wires ; (3) putting up the carriage ; and (4) the 
winding-on : which last “I consider the most important move- 
ment of the machine.” Mr. Ewart’s mules were established 
in his mill, in East-street, Lower Mosley-street, and continued 
in regular operation until after he left Manchester. The 
next self-actor was patented by Mr. James Smith, of Deanston, 
in 1834. There was much novelty and some good properties 
in Mr. Smith’s mule, so that it and Mr. Robert’s second mule 
were the chief competing machines for many years. Besides 
the foregoing a patent was obtained by Messrs. J. and J. 
Potter for a self-acting mule, dated in 1836. The specifica- 
tion of this patent “ being out of print” at the Patent Office, 
no account can be here give of it. 
It was not until after the expiration of the second patent 
of Mr. Roberts, and that of Mr. Smith, that a really good 
working mule was constructed, as all the former plans 
becoming public, any of them might be combined to produce 
a better machine than those before patented, and which 
appears to have been realised in the patent obtained, in 1847, 
by Mr. Matthew Curtis and Mr. Robert Lakin. Thus thirty 
years had elapsed from the time when Mr. Eaton gave the 
true principles for constructing a self-acting mule to that of 
their being carried into practical effect as above stated. 
The advances made in the wealth-creating powers of the 
people are more conducive to the public welfare than even 
the accumulation of wealth produced by their exercise. 
These powers of adding to the fixed capital of the nation 
come mainly from the use of labour-saving machines in our 
manufactories, and especially in those of the cotton and other 
