The prejudices and opposition which Dr. Cartwright’s invention encountered from the manufacturers, stood greatly in the way of any general adoption of his loom during the period of his patent rights. Other causes, however, were concerned in this. A mill, containing five hundred of his looms, was burnt down almost immediately after its erection. He engaged in a concern for manufacturing with power-looms at Doncaster; but this proved unsuccessful. And it is not improbable, though we have not found it expressly stated, that the machine itself was not at this time able to compete, in respect of economy and beauty of workmanship, with hand labour: for during the period of his exclusive rights, two or three other persons took out patents for power-looms, without being able to make them answer. But about the year 1801, in which his patent expired, he had the pleasure of finding that his invention was coming into use to a very considerable extent; and the mortification of seeing others reap the fruit of his unrequited ingenuity. The increased demand during the war for English cotton goods, with the necessity for working up at home the cotton yarn which had hitherto been exported to the Continent, had given an impulse to the manufacture favourable to the introduction of machinery; and at the same time the power-loom was rendered much more economical by a very ingenious method, invented by Mr. Radcliffe of Stockport, about 1804, of dressing or sizing the warp, before it was placed in the loom. A cotton manufacturer of Stockport, named Horrocks, took out a patent for another power-loom in 1803. He failed; but his loom, with various modifications, is that which has now come into general use. The following estimate, taken from ‘Baines’s History of the Cotton Manufacture,’ of the number of power-looms in Britain at various periods, though literal exactness in such a matter is unattainable, affords probably a tolerably correct measure of the rapid multiplication of these engines. In 1813. In 1820. In 1829. In 1833. Not exceeding 2,400. England 12,150 45,500 85,000 Scotland 2,000 10,000 15,000 ——————— ——————— ——————— 14,150 55,500 100,000