The Distaff and the Spindle, without a Change from Ancient Days to Middle of Fourteenth Century.--Ancient and Modern Cloth Making.--Woman the Natural Goddess of the Art.--The Ancient and Isolated Weavers of Mexico.--After 40 Centuries of Hand-Weaving Comes John Kay, of England, 1733.--The Spinning Machines of Wyatt and Hargreaves.--1738-1769, Richard Arkwright.--The “Spinning Jenny” and the “Throstle.”--The Steam Engine and Weaving.--1776, Crompton and the “Mule.”--1785, Cartwright and Power Looms.--1793, Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin.-- 1793-1813, Samuel Slater, Lowell, and Cotton Factories of America.--The Dominion of the Nineteenth Century.--What it Comprises in the Art of Spinning and Weaving.--Description of Operations.--Bobbins of Asa Arnold and the Ring Frame of Jenks.--Spooling Machines.--Warping and Dressing and other Finishing Operations.--Embroidery.--Cloth Finishing.--The Celebrated Jacquard Loom.--Jacquard and Napoleon.--Bonelli’s Electric Loom.--Fancy Woollen Looms of George Crompton.-- Bigelow’s Carpet Looms.--Figuring, Colouring, Embossing.-- Cloth Pressing and Creasing.--Felting.--Ribbons.--Comparison of Penelopes of Past and Present.--Knitting Days of our Grandmothers and Knitting Machines.--A Mile of Stockings.-- Fancy Stocking and Embroidery Machines.--Netting and Turkish Carpets.--Matting.--Spun Glass, etc.--Hand, and the Skilled Labour of Machinery. 292 CHAPTER XIX. GARMENTS. “Man is a Tool-using Animal, of which Truth, Clothes are but one Example.”--Form of Needle not Changed until 1775.-- Weisenthal.--Embroidery Needle.--Saint’s Sewing Machine, 1790.--John Duncan’s Tamboring Machine, 1804.--Eye Pointed Needles for Rope Matting, 1807.--Madersperger’s Sewing Machine, 1814.--France and the Thimonnier Machine, 1830-1848-50, Made of Wood.--Destroyed by Mob.--English Embroidering Machine, 1841.-- Concurrent Inventions in Widely Separated Countries.--Thimonnier in France, Hunt in America, 1832, 1834.--Elias Howe, 1846.-- Description of Howe’s Inventions.--Recital of his Struggles and final Triumphs.--The Test of Priority.--Leather Sewing Machines of Greenough and Corliss, 1842-43.--Bean’s Running Stitch, 1843.--The Decade of 1849-1859, Greatest in Century in Sewing Machine Inventions.--Hood’s “Song of the Shirt,” a Dying Drudgery.--Improvements after Howe.--Blodgett and Lerow’s Dip Motion.--Wilson’s Four-Motion Feed.--Singer’s Inventions, their Importance, his Rise from Poverty to Great Wealth.--The Grover and Baker.--The Display in 1876 at the Centennial.--Vast Growth of the Industry.--Extraordinary Versatility of Invention in Sewing and Reaping Machines, and Breech-Loading Fire-arms.-- Commercial Success due to Division of Labour and Assembling of Parts.--Innumerable Additions to the Art.--Seventy-five Different Stitches.--Passing of the Quilting Party.--Embroidery and Button-hole Machines.--Garment-cutting Machines.--Bonnets