The early English cotton industryDaniels, George W. (George William)
History
The early English cotton industry
Daniels, George W. (George William)
Cotton machinery; Cotton trade -- Great Britain
Paul’s carding-machine did not find its way into Lancashire until
about 1760, when it was introduced by a man named Morris, who lived
in the neighbourhood of Wigan.[258] Soon afterwards it was adopted,
or one based upon it made, by the founder of the famous Peel family
at Blackburn, who, in carrying on his experiments, employed James
Hargreaves, best known in connection with the “spinning-jenny.” For a
long time it was supposed that the credit for the crank and comb was
due to Hargreaves, but later it was recognised that it more properly
belonged to Arkwright.[259]
[Footnote 258: Kennedy, _Brief Memoir of Samuel Crompton_, p. 326.]
[Footnote 259: Baines, _ibid._, pp. 177-179.]
By 1760 the need for improvements in spinning had become more than
pressing, and this decade marks a period of great activity and great
achievements, though, as already suggested, it was not so much a
period of new achievements as one in which efforts extending over
more than a generation attained success. In 1754 a patent for a
spinning-machine had been taken out by a man named Taylor, but it does
not appear to have come to anything.[260] In 1761 the Society of Arts
issued an advertisement offering rewards “for the best invention of
a machine that will spin six threads of wool, flax, hemp, or cotton
at one time, and that will require but one person to work and attend
it,” and several were forthcoming, but apparently none was completely
satisfactory. One six-thread machine, however, was examined by the
Committee of Manufacturers in 1763 and a reward granted to the person
who had presented it.[261]
[Footnote 260: Espinasse, _ibid._, p. 320.]
[Footnote 261: Brown, _The Basis of Mr. Samuel Crompton’s Claims_
(reprint, Manchester, 1868), p. 28.]
In the year following the grant of this reward, James Hargreaves is
supposed to have conceived the invention of the “spinning-jenny,”[262]
though it did not become prominent before 1767 and was not patented
until 1770. In the meantime, Arkwright had brought the method of
spinning by rollers to a stage at which he could apply for a patent,
which he obtained in 1769. When the two methods of spinning are
compared, it may be seen that spinning by rollers was the greater
departure from the customary method of spinning cotton.
[Footnote 262: Baines, _ibid._, p. 156.]
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