The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century. by Edward W. Byrn

TEXTILES. SPINNING AND WEAVING AN ANCIENT ART--HARGREAVES’ SPINNING JENNY-- ARKWRIGHT’S ROLL-DRAWING SPINNING MACHINE--CROMPTON’S MULE SPINNER--THE COTTON GIN--RING SPINNING--THE RABBETH SPINDLE--JOHN KAY’S FLYING SHUTTLE AND ROBERT KAY’S DROP BOX--CARTWRIGHT’S POWER LOOM--THE JACQUARD LOOM--CROMPTON’S FANCY LOOM--BIGELOW’S CARPET LOOMS--LYALL POSITIVE MOTION LOOM--KNITTING MACHINES--CLOTH PRESSING MACHINERY--ARTIFICIAL SILK--MERCERIZED CLOTH. Far back in the obscuring gloom of a prehistoric antiquity, man wore probably only the hirsute covering which nature gave him. As he emerged from barbarism, sentiments of modesty marked the evolution of his mind, and this, together with the need for a more sufficient protection against cold and heat, suggested an artificial covering for his body. At first he robbed the brute of his fleecy skin and wore it bodily. Later he learned to spin and weave; next to food and drink, clothing became a fundamental necessity, for without it his life could not extend outside of the limited zone of the tropics. Food and drink were to be found as nature’s free gifts, but clothing had to be made, and its manufacture constituted probably the oldest of all the living arts. The making of cloth may be said to be coeval with history. The Old Testament of the Bible is replete with references to spinning and weaving, and the cloths wrapped about the mummies of ancient Egypt, although thousands of years old, were of exceeding regularity and fineness. So old an art, and so great and continuous a need for its products necessarily must have resulted in much development and progress. When the Nineteenth Century began, the world already enjoyed the results of Hargreaves’ spinning-jenny, Arkwright’s roll-drawing spinning machine, the mule spinner, the cotton gin, and the power loom, all of which were most radical inventions, equaling in importance, perhaps, any that have followed. Prior to the invention of the _spinning-jenny_, the loose fibre was spun into yarns and thread by hand on the old-fashioned spinning wheel, each thread requiring the attention of one person. In 1763 Hargreaves invented the spinning-jenny (see Fig. 285), in which a multiplicity of spindles was employed, whereby one person could attend to the making of many threads simultaneously. For this purpose the spindles were set upright at the end of the frame, and the rovings or strips of untwisted fibre were carried on bobbins on the inclined frame. The rovings extended from these bobbins to a reciprocating “clasp” held in the left hand of the workman, and thence extended to the spindles at the end of the frame. The workman drew out the rovings by moving the clasp back and forth, and at the same time turned the crank with his right hand to rotate the spindles. Hargreaves’ machine is shown and described in his British patent, No. 962 of 1770. [Illustration: FIG. 285.--HARGREAVES’ SPINNING JENNY.] The next important step in spinning was the introduction of drawing rolls, which were a series of rolls running at different speeds for drawing out or elongating the roving as it was spun into a thread. This was mainly due to Arkwright, a contemporary of Hargreaves. The principle of the drawing rolls had been foreshadowed in the British patents of Louis Paul, No. 562, of 1738, and No. 724, of 1758, but Arkwright made the first embodiment of it in practically useful machines, which were covered by him in British patents No. 931, of 1769, and No. 1,111, of