Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/531

Rh COTTON 499 by the year 1812 it had advanced to two hanks per day. and in 1830 to 2f. The effect of this increase of produc tion upon the cost of the article was very great, as will be seen by the following statement of the reduction of the cost of spinning, and in the price of yarn. We have already noticed that, until the cancelling of Arkwright s patent, by which the mule spinner became at liberty to use his improved mode of preparation, the few fine wefts required were spun on Hargreaves s jenny. In the year 1786 this yarn was sold in Glasgow and Paisley at 31s. per pound for No. 90, 7s. per pound being the price of spinning it; the warp, spun upon the water or throstle frame, was sold at 47s. 6d. the pound for No. 90. It was stated by Crompton that, immediately upon completing his invention of the mule in the year 1775, he obtained 14s. per pound for the spinning and preparation of No. 40 ; that a short time after he got 25s. per pound for No. GO ; and that to show that it was not impossible to spin yarn of so fine a grist, he then manufactured a small quantity of No. 80, for the spinning and preparation of which he got 42s. per pound. For some little time after the mule came into general use, in the year 1786, it was the practice in many places for the spinner to purchase the wool in a prepared state ; and separate concerns for preparing cotton were established and carried on. At that time 10s. per pound was paid for spinning No. ] 00 ; but soon afterwards the cost for this number was reduced, first to 8s. and then to 6s. 8d. In 1790 the price of spinning No. 100 was 4s. per pound. In 1792 it was brought to 3s. Id., and in 1793 to 2s. 6d.. at which price it continued till 1795, when, the mule coming to be worked by machinery, and an increase being made in the number of spindles, the spinner was enabled so to extend the quantity of his produce as to admit of another considerable reduction in cost. The price of spinning No. 100 was in the course of a few years brought down to 8d, per pound, and continued so until 1826, when it was further reduced to 6|d. per pound. Notwithstanding this extraordinary diminution of the price of spinning, such have been the effects of the improvements in machinery, in the selection and preparation of wool, and in the skill and tact brought to bear on the work, that the spinner is able to earn more money now than he did when the wages were at the highest. The sale prices of the yarn during this period were as follows : In 1786, for No. 100 ... 88s. 1788 35s. 1791 29s. 9d. 1793 15s. Id. 1795, spun from Bour- Lon cotton wool. ... 1 9s. In 1797 19s. 1799 10s. lid. 1801 8s. 9d. 1803 8s. 4d. 1805 7s. lOd. 1807 6s. 9d. After 1807 the price of yarn underwent various fluctua tions; it fell in 1829 to 3s. 2d., and in 1831 to 2s. lid., at which price it remained in 1832. Since 1832 the fluctua tions have not been extreme, the price never rising above 5s. 6d., at which it stood in 1836, nor falling below 2s. 9d., as in 1842. Prices for No. 100 at the close of 1876 were warp-twist 2s. 10d., medium 2s. 6d.. and weft Is. lOd. But the benefits of improved machinery have not been confined to the reduction of the cost of the yarn; they have at the same time considerably increased the quantity which a workman can produce in the same hours of labour. Application of Steam Power. During the time that the machines for the different processes of cotton spinning were advancing towards perfection, James Watt had been employed in maturing and reducing to practice his concep tions for extending the powers of the steam-engine. Among the engines erected by Bolton and Watt in 1785 was one for Messrs Robinsons, at Papplewick, in Nottinghamshire, for spinning cotton, the first instance of the application of steam to this manufacture. In 1787 they put up one for the Messrs Peel, at Warrington, for cotton spinning, and three others for the same pur pose at Nottingham. No rotative engine had yet been erected at Manchester; and it was seven years after Bolton and Watt had received their patent that they constructed for Mr Drinkwater the first engine used there for spinning cotton. In 1790 they erected one for spinning cotton at Nottingham for Sir .Richard Arkwright, another at Man chester for Mr Simpson, and a third at Papplewick for Messrs Robinsons. Some time before this Sir Richard Arkwright and others, from an ill-judged economy in the first cost, had introduced into their spinning factory atmo spherical or Newcomen s engines, with rotative -motions applied to them. But quickly perceiving their error, they abandoned them ; and Bolton and Watt s engines soon came to be universally used among cotton spinners and all other manufacturers. Cotton Supply Improved. In an account of the means which contributed to the fall in the price of spinning we must not overlook the progressive improvement in the cultivation of the raw material which has taken place, and in the application of its different qualities to their most profitable uses. Previous to the year 1793. the cotton used in the coarser articles of the manufacture, with the exception of a small quantity imported from India and from the Levant for the fustian trade, was wholly the growth of the British and French West India Islands. That for the better kind of goods was raised in Demerara, Surinam, and Berbice. The wool for fine goods was grown in the Brazils ; and that for the few very fine muslins then manufactured, in the isle of Bourbon. In 1787 the descriptions of cotton imported into Britain appear to have been as follows : From the British West Indies ..[.&quot;.77 6,800,000 ft From the French and Spanish colonies 6,000,000 From the Dutch do 1,700,000 From the Portuguese do 2,500,000 From the Isle of Bourbon, by Ostend 1 00, 000 Smyrna and Turkey 5,700,000 22,800,000 Had we continued to derive our sole supply of cotton from these countries, the progress of the manufacture would have been greatly retarded, not only from the difficulty of making the production keep pace with the increasing consumption, but from the impossibility of obtaining the qualities suited to the finer descriptions of goods, which the improved machinery enabled us to undertake. But as we have already seen, more abundant supplies were pro cured from America, and of qualities before unknown. It was soon found that the Sea Island cotton grown in the small islands extending along the American coast from Charleston to Savannah was so exquisitely fine, long, and strong in staple as to surpass any cotton previously obtained from any part of the globe. After a succession of trials its superiority was fully admitted, and it soon came into use for the purposes for which Bourbon cotton had been em ployed before 1796, and ia a short time entirely sup planted it. Progress of Cotton Manufacture in England. Nottingham, where Arkwright commenced operations, stocking was the seat of the stocking manufacture, in which more- yam. over his partner Need was largely engaged, and the whole produce of his spinning was therefore at first devoted to that industry. The cotton yarn for stockings requires to be particularly smooth and equal ; and to secure these