Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/603

Rh covered a valuable chemical process for dyeing Lair, lie was in consequence enabled to amass a little property. It is unfortunate that very little is known of the steps by which he was led to those inventions that have immortalised his name. His residence in a district where a considerable manufacture of linen goods, and of linen and cotton mixed, was carried on, must have given him ample opportunities of becoming acquainted with the various processes that were in use in the cotton manufacture, and of the attempts that had been made and were then making to improve them. His attention was thus naturally drawn to this peculiar department ; and, while he saw reason to conclude that it was likely to prove the most advantageous in which he could engage, he had sagacity and good fortune to invent and improve those extraordinary machines by which, unlike most inventors, he amassed vast wealth, at the same time that he added prodigiously to the demand for labour, and to the riches and comfort of the civilised world.

The spinning-jenny, invented in 1767 by Hargraves, a carpenter at Blackburn in Lancashire, gave the means of spinning twenty or thirty threads at once with no more labour than had previously been required to spin a single thread. The thread spun by the jenny could not, however, be used, except as weft, being destitute of the firmness or hardness required in the longitudinal threads or warp. But Mr Arkwright supplied this deficiency by the invention of the spinning-frame which spins a vast number of threads of any degree of fineness and hardness. It is not difficult to understand the principle on which this machine is constructed, and the mode of its operation. It consists of two pairs of rollers, turned by means of machinery. The lower roller of each pair is furrowed or fluted longi tudinally, and the upper one is covered with leather, to make them take a hold of the cotton. If there were only one pair of rollers, it is clear that a carding of cotton, passed between them, would be drawn forward by the revolution of the rollers ; but it would merely undergo a certain degree of compression from their action. No sooner, however, has the carding, or roving as it is techni cally termed, begun to pass through the first pair of rollers, than it is received by the second pair, which are made to revolve with (as the case may be) three, four, or five times the velocity of the first pair. By this ingenious contrivance the roving is drawn out into a thread of the desired degree of tenuity, a twist being given to it by the adaptation of the spindle and fly of the common flax wheel to the machinery. Such is the principle on which Arkwright constructed his famous spinning-frame. It is obvious that it is radically different from the previous methods of spinning either by the common hand-wheel or distaff, or by the jenny, which is only a modification of the common wheel. The idea was entirely original, and was perfected and reduced to practice with consummate skill. Arkwright stated that he accidentally derived the first hint of his great invention from seeing a red-hot iron bar elongated by being made to pass between rollers ; and though there is no mechanical analogy between that opera tion and his process of spinning, it is not difficult to imagine that, by reflecting upon it and placing the subject in different points of view, he might be led by it to his inven tion. The precise date of the discovery is not known ; but it is most probable that the idea had occurred to his mind as early as the period when Hargraves was engaged in the invention of the jenny, or almost immediately after. Not being himself a practical mechanic, Arkwright employed John Kay, a watchmaker at Warrington, to whom we shall afterwards have to refer, to assist him in the preparation of the parts of his machine. An application in 17G7 to Mr Atherton of Liverpool for pecuniary assistance was unsuccessful, though he is said to have sent some workmen to assist in the construction of the machine, the first model of which was set up in the parlour of the house belonging to the Free Grammar School at Preston. His inventions being at length brought into a pretty advanced state, Arkwright, accompanied by Kay, and a Mr Smalley of Preston, removed to Nottingham in 17G8, in order to avoid the attacks of the same lawless rabble that had driven Hargraves out of Lancashire. Here his operations were at first greatly fettered by a want of capi tal. But Mr Strutt of Derby, a gentleman of great mechanical skill, and largely engaged in the stocking manufacture, having seen Arkwright s inventions, and satisfied himself of their extraordinary value, immediately entered, conjointly with his partner, Mr Need, into part nership with him. The command of the necessary funds being thus obtained, Arkwright erected his first mill, which was driven by horses, at Nottingham, and took out a patent for spinning by rollers in 17G9. But as horse power was found too expensive, he built a second factory, on a much larger scale, at Cromford in Derbyshire, in 1771, the machinery of which was turned by a water-wheel, after the manner of the famous silk-mill erected by Sir Thomas Lombe. Having made several additional dis coveries and improvements in the processes of carding, roving, and spinning, he took out a fresh patent for the whole in 1775 ; and thus completed a series of machinery so various and complicated, yet so admirably combined and well adapted to produce the intended effect in its most perfect form, as to excite the admiration of every one capable of appreciating the ingenuity displayed and the difficulties overcome. When the vast importance of these discoveries became generally known, it is not surprising that every effort should have been made to have the patents set aside, and Arkwright deprived of the profit and honour to be derived from them. But an attentive consideration of the various proceedings relative to this subject will show that there are no good grounds for crediting the statement made in the Court of King s Bench in 1785, and again repeated by Mr Guest in his work on the cotton manufacture, which ascribes the invention of spinning by rollers to Highs, or Hayes, from whom Arkwright is said to have learned it. Arkwright's first patent for spinning by rollers, which is the essential part of his inventions, was obtained, as we have previously stated, in 17G9; and its value and importance were no longer doubtful after the establishment of the factory at Cromford in 1771. The success which attended this novel method of spinning naturally excited the strongest desire on the part of the Lancashire manu facturers to participate in the advantages to be derived from it ; and the fair presumption is that, instead of attempting clandestinely to pirate the invention, they would, had they conceived there were any good grounds to go upon, have at once contested the validity of the patent. But no such attempt was made till 1781, twelve years after the date of the first patent, and six years after the date of the second. And even then, Arkwright s opponents came forward only in consequence of his having resolved to vindicate his rights, which had begun to be invaded on all sides, by raising an action against Colonel Mordaunt for an infringement of his patent. Mordaunt was supported by a combination of manufacturers and, as they felt the question to be of the greatest importance, it is all but impossible to suppose that anything would be omitted on their part which was conceived likely to contribute to their success. The case having been tried in the Court of King s Bench, after Trinity term, July 1781, the decision was unfavourable to Arkwright. But it is of import ance to observe, that no attempt was made at the trial to charge him with having purloined the inventions of others, 