CARTWRIGHT, Edmund, English cler gyman and inventor: b. Marnham, Notting hamshire, 24 April 1743; d. Hastings, Sussex, 30 Oct. 1823. He was educated at University College, Oxford,. and having taken orders in the Church, obtained first the living of Bramp ton, near Chesterfield, and afterward that of Goadby-Marwood, in Leicestershire. It was, however, only after he had reached 40 years of age that his attention was first turned to the subject on which his claim to remembrance is founded. In the summer of 1784 he began to investigate the subject of mechanical weaving, and experiment regarding improvements. His efforts were crowned with success, and in April of the following year he brought his first power-loom into action. It was not, in fact, in respect of economy of labor, any advance upon the ordinary hand-loom; but the idea which subsequent improvements have carried so far in advance of hand-loom weaving was there. The introduction of Cartwright's loom
was opposed both by manufacturers and work men; and the first mill erected for them, con taining 500 looms, was burned down. His at tention once turned in the direction of mechan ical improvement, he continued to make prog ress in discovery. He not only perfected his power-loom, but took out 10 patents for dif ferent inventions, among which was one for combing wool. He also assisted Robert Fulton in his steamboat experiments. He expended much of his means in these investigations, and in 1809 he received as an acknowledgment of their value a grant from Parliament of 110,000, which relieved him from straitened circum stances, although, it is said, it did not cover his expenditure. He also received premiums for various improvements from the Society of Arts and the Board of Agriculture. His life was published by his daughter (London 1843).