Previous to the introduction of Ark wright's inventions the cotton manufac ture was of small importance, as is evident from the quantities of the raw material then brought into the country. Arkwright's first patent for the mode of spinning by rollers was taken out in 1769, and the following account of the importations of cotton at different periods preceding and speedily following that event will show how rapid was the progress occasioned by it, and by the other inventions for which it prepared the way :— The system under which this manu facture was long carried on was very dif ferent from that which is now pursued. It was the custom fbr the weavers who were dispersed in cottages throughout the district to purchase the material with which they worked, and having con verted it into cloths to carry their wares to market and sell them on their own ac count to the dealers : but about 1760, the merchants of Manchester began to em ploy the weavers, furnishing them with yarn for warp, and with raw cotton, which was spun by the weaver's family for the weft, and paying a fixed price for the labour bestowed in weaving.
The application of machinery to the preparation and spinning of raw cotton for weft preceded by some years the in ventions of Arkwright. In the year 1760, or soon after, a carding engine not very different from that now used was con trived by James Hargreaves, an illiterate weaver, residing near Church in Lanca shire ; and in 1767 the spinning-jenny was invented by the same person. This ma chine as at first formed contained eight spindles, which were made to revolve by means of bands from a horizontal wheel. Subsequent improvements increased the power of the spinning-jenny to eighty spindles, when the saving of labour which it thus occasioned produced considerable alarm among those persons who had em ployed the old mode of spinning, and a party of them broke into Hargreaves' house and destroyed his machine. The great advantage of the invention was so apparent, however, that it was soon again brought into use, and nearly superseded the employment of the old spinning wheel, when a second rising took place of the persons whose labour was thus super seded by it. They went through the country destroying wherever they could find them both carding and spinning ma chines, by which means the manufacture was for a time driven away from Lanca shire to Nottingham.
The cotton-yarn produced both by the common spinning-wheel and spinning jenny could not be made sufficiently strong to be used as warp, for which pur pose linen-yarn was employed. It was not until Arkwright's spinning-frame was brought into successful operation that this disadvantage was overcome. Yarn spun with Hargreaves' jenny continued for some time to be used for weft. At first, the manufacturers of cloths com posed of cotton only were subject to much annoyance from the determination of the revenue officers to charge them with double the duty paid upon calicoes woven with linen warp and printed for exportation ; and also by prohibiting their use at home. With some difficulty an act of parliament was obtained for re moving these obstacles to the develop went of the manufacture, which from that time was prosecuted with a great and continually accelerated rate of in crease.
The earliest attempts at producing muslin were made about the year 1780, but without much success, although India spun yarn was substituted as weft for that produced by the spinning-jenny : the greatest degree of fineness to which yarn spun with Arkwright's frame had then been brought, was eighty banks to the pound, and even this degree was not at tainable by means of the jenny. This disadvantage was overcome by the inven tion of Mr. Samuel Crompton, which came into general use about the year 1786, and which partaking of the nature of both Hargreaves' and Arkvrrighfs machines, was aptly called the mule-jenny. By means of this piece of mechanism, yarns were produced of a much greater fineness than had before been attained. Mr. Cromp ton's invention was made several years before it could be openly used, because of its interference with the patented inven tion of Arkwright: but when this patent was annulled, the mule-jenny was brought rapidly and extensively into use, so that in 1787, 500,000 pieces of muslin were made at Bolton, Glasgow, and Paisley, with yarn of British production. The price paid at that time by the manufac turers for these fine yarns was 20 guineas per lb ; but such have been the improve ments since made in the machine and the manner of working it, that yarn of the same fineness has been sold at 14 shillings per lb. Mr. Crompton did not secure to himself the benefit of his invention by taking out a patent ; he carried on a spinning and weaving busi ness on a small scale at Bolton, and worked his mule-jenny with his own hands in an attic. In a brief memoir of
Crompton, Mr. Kennedy has stated, that about 1802 he, in conjunction with Mr. Lee, set on foot a subscription which amounted to 5001., and with this Cromp ton was enabled to increase his manu facturing establishment, and to set up several looms for fancy work at Bolton. In 1812 he made a survey of all the cot ton-manufacturing districts in the king dom, and ascertained that the number of spindles then at work upon his principle amounted to between four and five mil lions : since that time the number has been doubled. The kind friends already named assisted him in making an applica tion to parliament for some reward, and the great merit of his invention having been established before a Committee of the House of Commons, he received a grant of 50004 which was paid to him in full without any deduction for fees or charges. This money was employed by Crompton in putting his sons into busi ness, but they proved unsuccessful, and he was reduced to poverty, when Mr. Kennedy again interfered in his behalf, and raised a second subscription, with the produce of which a life annuity of 631. was purchased. He lived only two years to enjoy this small provision. The first mule-jennies consisted of not more than thirty spindles each, but the number has been progressively increased, and they now frequently contain more than 600 spindles each. With one of these ma chines, a good workman can produce in a week consisting of sixty-nine working hours, thirty-two pounds of yarn of the fineness of 200 hanks to the pound, and as each hank measures 840 yards, the produce of his week's work if extended in a line would measure 3050 miles. This work, extraordinary as it may seem, does not afford a full conception of the degree of tenuity to which cotton is capable of being one pound of raw cotton having been converted into 350 hanks, forming a continuous thread 167 miles in length. Mules have been put to work which carry each 1100 spindles. The greatest recent improvement made in the construction of this machine has been effected by Messrs. Sharp, Roberts, and Co., machinists, of Manchester. These machines, which are called self-acting mules, do not require the manual aid of a spinner, the only attendance necessary being that of children, called piccers, who join such threads as may be acci dently broken. Self-acting mules were contrived at different times by Mr. Wil liam Strutt of Derby, Mr. Kelly of Lanark, Mr. De Jongh of Warrington, and others ; but none of these were brought successfiilly into use, owing no doubt in some measure to the inferior skill of the machine-makers as compared with the perfection which they have since attained.
The first successful attempt to weave by means of machinery was made in 1785 by Dr. Cartwright, who secured the in vention by patent. In a commercial point of view Dr. Cartwright did not draw any advantage from his power-loom : but in 1809 he obtained from parliament a grant of 10,0001. as a reward for his ingenuity. Mr. Monteith, of Pollokshaws, Glasgow, who fitted up 200 power-looms in 1801, was the first person who brought them to profitable use. A great obstacle to their success was presented by the necessity for the frequent stopping of the machine in order to dress the warp. This difficulty was removed in 1804 by the invention of a machine for dressing the whole of the warp before it is placed in the loom, which was made the subject of a patent by Mr. Radcliffe, the inventor. In the use of this machine the warp in its progress to the weaving beam is passed through a dressing of hot starch; it is then com pressed between rollers to free it from the superfluous quantity of starch taken up, and is afterwards, in order to dry it, drawn over a succession of cylinders heated by passing steam through them ; during this last part of the operation the warp is " lightly brushed as it moves along, and is fanned by rapidly revolving fanners." The flour used for this dress ing operation throughout the cotton fac tories of this kingdom amounts in the year to at least 650,000 bushels. The number of power-looms used in cotton factories throughout the kingdom at the end of the year 1835 was stated by the inspectors of factories in a return laid before parliament to be 109,626. The number in England was 90,679 ; Scot land, 17,531 ; Ireland 1416. In Lanca shire the number of spindles was Cheshire, 22,491 ; Lanarkshire, 14,069.