Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/754

 718 ARKWKIGHT a dye by the sale of which he accumulated a little property. His first experiments in me- chanics were attempts to solve the problem of perpetual motion; but he soon directed his attention to improvements in the cotton manu- facture. At that time English cottons were made with only the weft of cotton, the warp being of linen, and it was considered impossi- ble to spin cotton fine and strong enough for the warp. Moreover, the supply of weft was short of the demand, though Hargreaves of Lancashire had shortly before invented his jenny, and had several machines at work in Nottingham. In 1768 Arkwright produced the model of his famous cotton-spinning frame, by which the thread could be spun of any required fineness and strength and with im- mense velocity. Fearing the same hostility that had driven Hargreaves out of Lancashire, he proceeded at once to Nottingham. There he met with Messrs. Wright, bankers,^ who en- gaged to furnish the capital necessary to per- fect the invention, but soon became frightened and retired. Arkwright then applied to Messrs. Need and Strutt, and the latter (the celebrated inventor of the stocking frame) saw at once the value of the invention, and the firm took an in- terest in it. Arkwright was profoundly igno- rant of mechanics, but a few suggestions of Mr. Strutt about the wheel work overcame the last difficulty, and* a machine driven by a horse was soon in operation. In 1771 another mill, driven by water power, was established at Cromford, in Derbyshire. The first patent was granted in 1769, and unsuccessfully con- tested in 1772. In 1775 Arkwright obtained a new patent for improvements, but it seems he had included in it things discovered before, and six years later it was declared void by the courts; but in 1785 he obtained a decision in his favor, and was reinstated in the monopoly. The object of Arkwright's invention was to spin cotton fine, with a hard twist, and fit for warp. This was done by the use of drawing-roll- ers, by sets of two, the second set moving faster than the first, and by a fast-revolving spindle giving a twist to the cotton as it came out from between the second pair. The introduc- tion of this machine, which was far superior to that of Hargreaves, caused the latter to die of grief. Arkwright encountered the bitterest hostility, not so much from the working class as from the manufacturers, who at one ,time even refused to buy his yarns, and tried to ruin him by mischievous legislation in parliament. His energy and perseverance, however, triumphed over all obstacles. In the management of his mill he showed a remarkable capacity for or- ganization, and his labors were rewarded with a fortune of 500,000. He acquired the rudi- ments of learning after he was 50 years old, was knighted in 1786 on occasion of pre- senting an address to the king, and in 1787 served as high sheriff of Derbyshire. His in- vention enables one man to do as much work as 130 could do before, and it is calculated that ARULNOODBT 40,000,000 hands would scarcely be sufficient to accomplish the spinning now done by ma- chinery in England alone. AKLKS (Celtic Ar-lait, near the waters; Lat. Arelate), a town of France, in Provence, department of Bouches-du-Rh6ne, on the left bank of the lower Rh6ne, at the point where the river divides and forms the island of Camargue, 46 m. N. N. W. of Marseilles ; pop. in 1866, 26,367. It is an ill-built and somewhat un- healthy place, though situated amid beautiful environs. Its ancient amphitheatre, although not as well preserved as that of Nimes, is su- perior in size and magnificence. An obelisk, consisting of a single block of granite about 50 feet high, is yet standing on one of the public thoroughfares, while the ruins of an aqueduct, of two temples, of a triumphal arch, an exten- sive cemetery, and numerous fragments of granite and marble columns, are to be seen in different parts of the city. The statue known as the Venus of Aries, a rival to the Venua de' Medici, now in the national museum of Paris, was discovered here in 1651. The Ro- land tower and the Byzantine church of St. Trophimus deserve mention, as also the town hall, designed by Mansard. Aries contains a school of navigation, a college, a collection of natural history, a museum of antiquities, a public library, and a theatre. Silk, soap, and glass bottles are manufactured, and the sau- sages of Aries are held in high esteem. The ancient Arelate was an important town at the time of Ceesar's invasion, became a prosperous Roman colony, was for a time the residence of Constantine, became the capital of the Gothio king Euric, was plundered by the Saracens in 730, and 150 years later became the capital of Cisjurane Burgundy, and in 930 of both Cisju- rane and Transjurane Burgundy, united as the kingdom of Arelate or Aries. (See BUBOUN- DT.) In 1251 it came into the possession of Charles of Anjou, count of Provence. It was united to the crown of France under Louis XI. Several important ecclesiastical synods were held here in the 4th and 5th centuries. 1RLINCOUKT, Victor, viscount <P, a French poet and novelist, born in 1789, died Jan. 22, 1856. His father, a farmer of the public reve- nue, died by the guillotine in the revolution. Victor commended himself to Napoleon's no- tice by publishing in 1810 an allegorical poem in his honor, entitled line matinee de Charle- magne, for which he was rewarded with two court offices. He afterward undertook an epic, the hero of which was still Charlemagne, or rather Napoleon, but it was unfinished on the fall of the empire. D'Arlincourt easily trans- ferred his political allegiance to the Bourbons, but did not meet with favor from Louis XVIII. The publication of his CaroUide was soon fol- lowed by several novels, Le Solitaire, ISfitran- gere, Le Henegat, Ipsiboe, and Ismalie, the last being in rhyme. These eccentric works acquired an equivocal sort of celebrity, Le Soli- taire, of which Charles the Bold was the hero,