CHAPTER XV. Inventions of the Power-Loom-Dr. Cartwright. W. Edwards. R. Walker. MACHINERY, in addition to being used in the spinning, is now, as we noticed in our last chapter, extensively applied to the weaving of cotton; and we now propose to give a short account of the Reverend Dr. CARTWRIGHT, to whose ingenuity our great national manufacture is indebted for the introduction of this crowning improvement. We have been supplied with the materials of the following sketch from a quarter which enables us to supply some original and authentic information. Edmund Cartwright was born in the year 1743, and was the fourth son of William Cartwright, Esq. of Marnham, in Nottinghamshire. One of his elder brothers was the late Major John Cartwright, so well-known for his steady devotion through a long life to what he believed to be the cause of truth and patriotism, and for many public and private virtues which commanded the respect even of those who differed most widely from him in politics. Being intended for the church, Edmund at the usual age was entered of University College, Oxford, from whence he was subsequently elected a Fellow of Magdalen College. He early distinguished himself by his literary attainments, an evidence of which he gave to the world while yet a young man by the publication of a small volume of Poems, which was very favourably received. About the year 1774, also, he became a contributor to the Monthly Review; for which he continued to write during the following ten years. For the first forty years of his life he had never given any attention to the subject of mechanics; although, as was recollected long afterwards, his genius for invention in that department had once displayed itself, while at his father's house during one of his college vacations, in some improvements which he made on an agricultural machine which happened to attract his notice. But this exercise of his ingenuity, being out of the line of his pursuits at that time, led to no other attempts of the kind, nor to any further application of his thoughts to such matters. The circumstances which many years after this led him to the invention of his weaving machine, or power-loom, as it is commonly called, cannot be better described than they have been by himself in the following statement,-first printed in the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica. "Happening," he says, "to be at Matlock in the summer of 1784, I fell in company with some gentlemen of Manchester, when the conversation turned on Arkwright's spinning-machinery. One of the company observed that as soon as Arkwright's patent expired, so many mills would be erected, and so much cotton spun, that hands would never be found to weave it. To this observation I replied, that Arkwright must then set his wits to work to invent a weaving-mill. This brought on a conversation upon the subject, in which the Manchester gentlemen unanimously agreed that the thing was impracticable; and in defence of their opinion they adduced arguments which I was certainly incompetent to answer, or even to comprehend, being totally ignorant of the subject, having never at the time seen a person weave. I controverted, however, the impracticability of the thing by remarking that there had been lately exhibited in London an automaton figure which played at chess. Now you will not assert, gentlemen, said I, that it is more difficult to construct a machine that shall weave, than one that shall make all the variety of moves that are required in that complicated game. Some time afterwards a particular circumstance recalling this conversation to my mind, it struck me that, as in plain weaving, according to the conception I then had of the business, there could be only three movements, which were to follow each other in succession, there could be little difficulty in producing and repeating them. Full of these ideas, I immediately employed a carpenter and smith to carry them into effect. As soon as the machine was finished I got a weaver to put in the warp, which was of such materials as sail-cloth is usually made of. To my great delight, a piece of cloth, such as it was, was the produce. As I had never before turned my thoughts to mechanism, either in theory or practice, nor had seen a loom at work, nor knew anything of its construction, you will readily suppose that my first loom must have been a most rude piece of machinery. The warp was laid perpendicularly, the reed fell with a force of at least half a hundred weight, and the springs which threw the shuttle were strong enough to have thrown a Congreve rocket. In short, it required the strength of two powerful men to work the machine, at a slow rate, and only for a short time. Conceiving in my simplicity that I had accomplished all that was required, I then secured what I thought a most valuable property by a patent, 4th of April, 1785. This being done, I then condescended to see how other people wove; and you will guess my astonishment when I compared their easy modes of operation with mine. Availing myself, howof what I then saw, I made a loom in its general principles nearly as they are now made. But it was not till the year 1787 that I completed my inven ever, tion, when I took out my last weaving patent, August the 1st of that year." Dr. Cartwright's children still remember often seeing their father about this time walking to and fro apparently in deep meditation, and occasionally throwing his arms from side to side; on which they used to be told that he was thinking of weaving and throwing the shuttle. From the moment indeed when his attention was first turned to the invention of the power-loom, mechanical contrivance became the grand occupying subject of his thoughts. With that sanguineness of disposition which seems to be almost a necessary part of the character of an inventor, he looked upon difficulties, when he met with them in any of his attempts, as only affording his - genius an occasion for a more distinguished triumph; nor did he allow even repeated failures for a moment to dishearten him. Some time after he had brought his first loom to perfection, a manufacturer, who had called upon him to see it at work, after expressing his admiration of the ingenuity displayed in it, remarked that, wonderful as was Mr. Cartwright's mechanical skill, there was one thing that would effectually baffle him, the weaving, namely, of patterns in checks, or, in other words, the combining, in the same web, of a pattern, or fancy figure, with the crossing colours which constitute the check. Mr. Cartwright made no reply to this observation at the time; but some weeks after, on receiving a second visit from the same person, he had the pleasure of shewing him a piece of muslin, of the description mentioned, beautifully executed by machinery. The man is said to have been so much astonished that he roundly declared his conviction that some agency more than human must have been called in to assist on the occasion. After this Dr. Cartwright exercised his ingenuity in a variety of other contrivances; and introduced valuable improvements in the combing of wool by machinery, in rope-making, and in several other departments of agriculture and manufactures. For some of these inventions he took out patents, and for others premiums were bestowed upon him by the Society for the encouragement of Arts, and the Board of Agriculture. Even the steam-engine engaged his attention; and an account of some improvements which he proposed in its mechanism may be found in Rees's Cyclopedia *. Indeed, so long as forty years ago, while residing at Eltham in Lincolnshire, he used frequently to tell his son that, if he lived to be a man, he would see both ships and landcarriages impelled by steam. It is also certain that at that early period he had constructed a model of a steam-engine attached to a barge, which he explained about the year 1793, in the presence of his family, to Robert Fulton, then a student of painting under his countryman West, and whose zeal and activity afterwards, as is well-known, brought the project of steam-navigation to such perfection in America, from whence it has extended all over the civilized world. Even so late as the year 1822, Dr. Cartwright, notwithstanding his very advanced age, and although his attention was much occupied by other philosophical speculations, was actively engaged in endeavouring to contrive a plan of propelling land-carriages by steam. His death, however, at Hastings, in October 1823, prevented the completion of this, as well as of many other designs in the prosecution of which he had been employed. His enthusiasm for mechanical invention continued unabated to the last; and indeed his general energy both of mind and body was very little VOL. II. *See article. 2 H |