Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/416

his patents was rapidly acquiring a great fortune. In 1779 the invention of a machine was completed by Samuel Crompton of Bolton, which combined the jenny of Hargreaves with the roller spinning of Arkwright, and was called the mule, or mule jenny. The spindles in this were attached to a carriage or mule, which was run out on wheels about five feet, drawing out and stretching the roving as it was twisted at the same time into thread. As the mule was run back the spun threads were wound on the spindles, the processes of spinning and winding thus alternating. The original machines were designed for only 20 or 30 spindles; but as afterward enlarged they carried 2,200 spindles each, all of which were kept in operation by one attendant. This statement alone exhibits the enormous advance made upon the best method in use previous to these inventions, when a spinner with his wheel managed but one spindle. Single mills contain as many as 15,000 spindles, and from 300 to 400 looms for weaving. The demand for cotton produced by this increased capacity of working it off could never have been met except by the invention of a machine like Whitney's cotton gin, for cleaning the raw article with expedition, and thus preparing it for market. The inventions of the English gave them the monopoly of the manufacture, and were guarded with most scrupulous care, lest they should reach other countries.—The first machines for carding, roving, and spinning made in the United States were the work of two mechanics from Scotland, Alexander and Robert Barr, employed by Mr. Orr of East Bridgewater, Mass. The state made a grant in 1786 of £200 lawful money for the encouragement of the enterprise. The Beverly company in the same state commenced operations in 1787, and after expending £4,000 obtained in 1790 a grant of £1,000 from the legislature, by the aid of which they succeeded in introducing the manufacture of cotton goods, but with very imperfect machinery. In 1788 a company was formed in Providence, R. I., for making “home-spun cloth;” and they constructed their machinery from the best drawings to be obtained of the English models and plans, which were afforded them by Mr. Orr and the Beverly company. The carding and roving with these machines was effected in a very imperfect and slow manner by hand labor; the spinning frame with 32 spindles differed little from a common jenny, and was worked at first by a crank turned by hand. The machinery was sold to Moses Brown of Providence, who, together with Mr. Almy, had several hand jennies employed in private houses in Providence making yarns for the weft of mixed linen and cotton goods. Such operations could accomplish little in competition with the Arkwright machinery; and all attempts to procure plans of this failed. In November, 1789, there arrived in New York Samuel Slater, a young man just 21 years of age, who had spent about seven years in the cotton mills in Derbyshire, England, in various capacities up to that of general superintendent. He had qualified himself for the express purpose of removing to this country, and establishing the cotton manufacture by Arkwright's processes, even without the use of plans, which could not be passed through the custom house in England. To him the country is indebted for the introduction of the means of successfully conducting this manufacture. He repaired to Providence in January of the next year, and immediately formed an engagement with Messrs. Almy and Brown to construct the improved machinery. In December, 1790, the first Arkwright machinery was set in operation, consisting of three cards, drawing and roving, and a frame of 72 spindles, worked by the water wheel of an old fulling mill. By this machinery a large stock of yarns was accumulated in less than two years, besides what could be woven and disposed of. In 14 months from the time they began to work Mr. Brown advised the secretary of the treasury that machinery and mills could now be erected in one year of capacity to supply the whole country with yarn, and render further importation unnecessary. A new mill of small size was built in 1793 by Almy, Brown, and Slater, at Pawtucket, which commenced with 72 spindles, and was afterward considerably enlarged. Mr. Slater must have failed for want of experienced workmen in constructing his machinery, particularly the cards, if he had not himself been thoroughly competent to do all the varieties of the work. From this beginning other mills were added in Pawtucket by the same parties and others also, with whom Slater associated himself; and the hands employed carried the processes to Cumberland, R. I., where another factory was built in 1798. In 1806 Slater was joined by his brother, John Slater, from England; and soon after the village of Slatersville, R. I., was projected, a place which has since continued to prosper like many others in New England established at later periods for the purpose of prosecuting the same branch of industry. By a report made to congress in 1816, it appears that the business had increased from the consumption of 500 bales of 300 lbs. each in 1800, to 10,000 in 1810, and 90,000 in 1815; that 81,000,000 yards of cotton cloth, costing $24,000,000, were then manufactured, about 100,000 operatives, men, women, and children, were employed, and an aggregate capital of $40,000,000 was invested in the business. The importations of foreign cottons in 1815 and 1816, amounting, notwithstanding this home production, to the value of about $180,000,000, greatly checked the progress of the American manufacture; but this was subsequently encouraged by the tariff acts of 1824, 1828, and 1832, which imposed an ad valorem duty of 25 per cent. upon imported cotton goods. Up to the year 1813 the mills that had been put in operation were designed only for spinning; and the