Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/95

Arkwright which was accomplished by spindles or flyers placed in front of each set of rollers. The original invention of Arkwright has neither been superseded nor substantially modified, although it has of course undergone various minor improvements.

The first spinning-mill of Arkwright was driven by horses, but finding this method too expensive, as well as incapable of application on a sufficiently large scale, he resolved to call in the aid of water-power, which had already been successfully applied for a similar purpose, notably in the silk mill erected by Thomas Lombe on the Derwent at Derby in 1717. In 1771 Arkwright therefore went into partnership with Mr. Need of Nottingham and Mr. Strutt of Derby, the possessors of patents for the manufacture of ribbed stockings, and erected his spinning-frame at Cromford in Derbyshire, in a deep, picturesque valley near the Derwent, where he could obtain an easy command of water-power from a never-failing spring of warm water, which even during the severest frost scarcely ever froze. From the fact that the spinning-frame was driven by water, it came to be known as the water-frame; since the application of steam it has been known as the throstle. As the yarn it produced was of a much harder and firmer texture than that spun by the jenny, it was specially suited for warp, but the Lancashire manufacturers declined to make use of it. Arkwright and his partners, therefore, wove it at first into stockings, which, on account of the smoothness and equality of the yarn, were greatly superior to those woven from the hand-spun cotton. In 1773 he began to use the thread as warp for the manufacture of calicoes, instead of the linen warp formerly used together with the cotton weft, and thus a cloth solely of cotton was for the first time produced in England. It met at once with a great demand, but, on account of an act passed in 1736 for the protection of the woollen manufactures of England against the calicoes of India, it was liable to a double duty, which, at the instance of the Lancashire manufacturers, was speedily enforced. Notwithstanding their strenuous opposition, Arkwright, however, in 1774 obtained an act specially exempting from extra duty the ‘new manufacture of stuffs wholly made of raw cotton wool.’ Up to this time more than 12,000l. had been expended by Arkwright and his partners on machinery with little or no return, but after the new act the cotton manufacture created by his energy and genius developed with amazing rapidity, until it became the leading industry of the north of England.

While struggling against the mingled inertness and active opposition of the manufacturers, Arkwright had all the while been busily engaged in augmenting the capability and efficiency of his machinery, and in 1775 he brought out a patent for a series of adaptations and inventions by means of which the whole process of yarn manufacture—including carding, drawing, roving, and spinning—was performed by a beautifully arranged succession of operations on one machine. With the grant of this patent every obstacle in the way of a sufficient supply of yarn was overcome, and, whatever might happen to Arkwright, the prosperity of the cotton manufacture was guaranteed. Afterwards the invention was adapted for the woollen and worsted trade with equal success.

Meanwhile Arkwright, besides building several additional cotton mills, sold grants of his patents to numerous cotton spinners in the northern and midland counties. By 1782 he concluded that a business had in this way been formed which employed upwards of five thousand persons and a capital on the whole of not less than 200,000l. New difficulties, however, began to arise in his path. In 1779 serious riots occurred in Lancashire, and a mill which Arkwright had erected at Chorley at great expense was completely sacked. Up to this time the incompetency of his workers and mechanics and the slow sale of his yarn had almost daunted his energy. The destruction of his mill, happening when it did, strained his resources, therefore, to their utmost limits, while the increasing infringements of his patent threatened to extinguish one of his most valuable sources of profit. For a time he was baffled in his attempts to proceed against the infringers, on account of the precautions they made use of to conceal their operations, for they took care that none but persons sworn to secrecy should be employed as workmen. At last in 1781 he brought an action against nine firms. The first cause selected for trial was that against Colonel Mordaunt, who at once admitted his use of Arkwright's machine, but pleaded insufficiency of specification in the patent, and on that ground Arkwright was nonsuited. In the following year Arkwright dissolved his partnership with Need and Strutt, retaining in his own hands the mill at Cromford. Shortly afterwards he drew up a statement of his ‘Case,’ in which, after recording his difficulties and disappointments, he concluded by praying that the ‘legislature would be pleased to confirm, connect, and consolidate the two letters patent so as 