Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/157

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and wafted the articles made at its manufactories. from the ports of Britain to the most distant shores of both hemispheres. These consist of patterns from the cotton and silk of such immense variety, that the shew-cards of some of the merchants contain above two thousand samples of different Manchester goods. One of these grand cotton- works, belonging to Messrs. Atkinsons, we laid an opportunity of examining, in which all the pro- cesses, from cleaning the raw cotton to manufac- turing the thread for the weaver, are carried on. It is scarcely possible to conceive a more animated or curious scene than this work; where fifteen hundred people, young and old, are busily em- ployed under one roof, directing the operations of machines of the most beautiful contrivance, which move with a rapidity that prevents the eve from detecting their rotations. Indeed, nothing can convey so wonderful an idea of the present per- fection of machinery at Manchester, as the ope- ration of those parts oi : it called the Mules: one ot which, worked by two people, will perform in the same mven time the labour of :8o women. A newly-invented carding-machine, also, just fixed up here, has a high claim to praise, lormed entirely ol cast-iron and brass, which give it the greatest pos- sible accuracy in its movements, vm<.\ prevent it

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