COTTON MANUFACTURE. Cotton was woven by the Hindoos and Chinese many centuries before the Christian sera. The Egyptians are supposed to have im ported woven cotton before the plant had begun to be cultivated in their country; and the Romans received woven cotton from India long before the cotton-plant was known in Europe. The first Europeans who spun and wove cotton were the Italians of the commer cial republics, who had become familiar with the material while exercising their trade as merchants between Europe and the East. From the 10th to the 13th centuries, cotton goods were manufactured to a large extent by the Moors of Spain, especially a coarse variety to which they gave the name of Ask, whence our ' fustian.' The other nations of Europe learned the manufacture of cotton, not from the Moors of Spain, but from the Christians of Italy. The art travelled from Italy to the Netherlands, and thence to England, where it was first practised in the beginning of the 17th century.
The extension of this manufacture has been far more rapid in England than in any other country. Before Arkwrigkt's time, it was the custom for the weavers, who were dispersed in cottages throughout the manufacturing districts, to purchase the material with which they worked, and, having converted it into cloth, to carry their wares to market, and sell them on their own account to the dealers ; but about 1760 the merchants of Manchester began to employ 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 be stowed in weaving. The Factory System, now so closely connected with the cotton manufac ture, arose out of the invention of complicated pieces of machinery which could not be worked in the cottages of the weavers. About 1780 James Hargreaves invented a carding-engine, to assist in straightening the fibres of cotton. In 1767 the same ingenious man invented the Spinning Jenny, by which a number of threads could be spun as easily as one thread by the old spinning wheel. The saving of labour which this machine effected roused the jea lousy of the spinners, who for a time pre vented the new machine from coming into general use. This opposition however being
overcome, the Spinning Jenny became gene rally used for spinning weft threads in the manufacture of cloth, wherein linen thread formed the warp. Arkwright patented in 1769 his Spinning Frame, by which cotton yarn could be woven strong enough for warp threads. All attempts to produce fine muslin, although India-spun yarn was used as weft, were for many years fruitless ; but in 1786 Samuel Crompton invented the Mule Jenny, by which yarn could be produced much finer and softer than any before wrought in this country.
This train of inventions led to an astonish ing increase of manufacture. But the manu facturers were for a time subjected to much discouragement from the determination of the revenue officers to charge for cloth composed wholly of cotton double the duty payable 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 removing these obstacles to the development of the maufac ture, which from that time was prosecuted with a great and continually accelerated rate of increase. Of the inventors who gave the spur to this industry, Hargreaves and Cromp ton died comparatively poor, while Arkwright was enabled to accumulate enormous wealth. Some of Crompton's finest yarns were sold by him at 20 guineas per lb.: they can now be produced of the same fineness for 15 shillings ! Arkwright brought out a succession of im provements in the various processes of the manufacture ; and since his time every year has added to the number, until the preparing and spinning machinery has reached an extra-. ordinary degree of perfection. The first suc cessful attempt to weave by machinery was made in 1785 by Dr. Cartwright; and Mr. Monteith of Glasgow was the first person to make use of the new method on a large scale. Radcliffe added efficiency to the power looms by the invention in 1804 of the Dressing or Starching Machine.