The early English cotton industry

by George W. Daniels

I

The statement made at the close of the last chapter, that a new cotton manufacture arose in Lancashire in the latter years of the eighteenth century is justified, notwithstanding the fact that goods made entirely of cotton had undoubtedly been manufactured in the county before, possibly to a larger extent than there is positive evidence to show. From 1770 the cotton industry, as it is now known, began its growth, and this event must always be attributed in large measure to the inventions associated with the names of James Hargreaves, Richard Arkwright, and Samuel Crompton. Their inventions represent a culmination of a series of endeavours to improve the processes of cotton manufacture which reach back to the thirties of the eighteenth century—the time, it may be noticed, when the “Manchester Act” was secured. Generally these endeavours had reference to spinning and the processes preparatory to it, but it was in weaving that the first invention appeared which attained much success.

At this time, in the Manchester district, there were two types of loom in use, the “Dutch” loom and the ordinary hand-loom. The first was introduced, apparently about the beginning of the century, for narrow fabrics of which it could weave several at once.[233] In this loom the shuttle was sent through the warp by the action of cog-wheels, which was a slow and cumbrous process, and unsuitable for the weaving of wider fabrics.[234] In the ordinary hand-loom, the shuttle was sent to and fro through the warp by hand. The invention referred to was that of the “flying shuttle” by Kay, of Bury, for which he took out a patent in 1733.[235] This invention, which was for use in the ordinary hand-loom, consisted mainly of a “picking-peg” contrivance, by means of which the weaver could jerk the shuttle through the warp, using only one hand.[236]

Although exceedingly simple, the invention, when combined with other improvements, was of great importance, as it enabled the weaver to work more quickly, with a less expenditure of effort, and weave a width of cloth which had required two weavers before. For some reason, the invention does not appear to have been used much in the cotton industry for about thirty years after its appearance, although it was used in the Yorkshire woollen industry, regardless of the claims of the inventor.[237] Besides his invention of the “flying shuttle,” Kay effected a considerable improvement in the reeds for looms, and in 1745 took out a patent for a power-loom, and also applied his ingenuity to carding and spinning, but in these latter efforts he apparently attained little success.[238] In 1760 his son Robert effected another improvement in the loom by his invention of the “drop-box,” which enabled the weaver “to use any one of three shuttles, each containing a different coloured weft, without the trouble of taking them from and replacing them in the lathe.”[239] In 1764 the elder Kay made an appeal to the Society of Arts for recognition of his work, and claimed to have many more inventions that he had not put forward, owing, as he said, to the treatment he had received from those engaged in the cotton and woollen industries, and from Parliament. The story of his difficulties, of his emigration to France, and of his death there, is so well known as not to require repetition.[240]

The inventions of the flying shuttle and the drop-box, with the introduction of Dutch looms, were the most important developments in weaving in the first part of the eighteenth century. But there was another development which should be noticed, referred to by Ogden, which, he states, gave rise to a new and important branch of trade in the Manchester district. Owing to the greater variety of patterns attempted in figured goods, a more complicated loom became necessary, as well as the employment of a boy to manipulate the treadles for the raising and lowering of the warps which was required in the weaving of such goods. The goods produced were consequently known by the name of “draw-boys.” But the complicated loom was also more expensive, and it is significant that, at this time, weavers were having “looms mounted for them at great expense which the employers advanced.”[241]

With this progress in weaving, and with an expanding market, it was inevitable that efforts would be made to effect improvements in the methods of preparing the raw material, and in spinning. In 1736, before the Committee of the House of Commons which reported in favour of the petition to allow printed fustians to be freely manufactured, the statement was made that four spinners were required to supply one weaver with material, and all the authorities substantiate the statement and emphasise the difficulties which existed owing to the discrepancy.[242]

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, in this country, the only thing that could be called a machine used in the operations necessary in transforming raw cotton into yarn was the spinning-wheel. One or other of two wheels was commonly used for cotton-spinning: the “Jersey” wheel or the “Brunswick” wheel, the latter differing from the former mainly in the fact that it had a treadle, so that it could be worked by the foot. On these wheels only one thread was spun, and the spinning was intermittent with the winding of the spun thread. The “Saxony” wheel was an improvement upon these, but was most commonly used for flax and wool spinning. With this wheel there was a contrivance known as a “Flier” which enabled the processes of spinning and winding to proceed simultaneously, and sometimes two spindles were attached to it, the spinner thus forming a thread with each hand. The “Saxony” wheel, however, was not so suitable for cotton-spinning as the others.[243]

The cotton, before spinning, was cleaned by hand or, at most, by lightly beating it with a cane, while the carding operation was performed by means of hand-cards.[244] These cards were little more than two brushes with wire bristles, the cotton being placed on one brush, and by the other being drawn over it, the fibres were straightened out ready for the next process. Some progress was made in carding by increasing the surface of the cards, making one a fixture, and hanging the other round a pulley with a weight to balance it. Thus the workman was left with the task of moving this card to and fro over the cotton on the fixed card as required. These cards were known as stock-cards as distinguished from the hand-cards.[245]

It was particularly to carding and to spinning that the inventors gave their attention, and during more than thirty years before Arkwright took out his first patent numerous efforts were made to discover improved mechanical means of performing the operations. Apart from the invention of the “spinning-jenny,” which, though not patented until the year following Arkwright’s patent, was in use some years before, the most notable efforts were those of Lewis Paul, whose title to fame is enhanced by his friendship with Dr. Samuel Johnson.[246]

It is now generally accepted that, in the patent taken out by Paul in 1738, the idea of attenuating cotton by rollers was embodied, so that question need not be discussed.[247] Evidently Paul was born in London and died there, but during part of his life he lived in Birmingham, and it appears that the invention was carried through at this place, with the assistance of John Wyatt as workman.[248] Whatever the merits of the invention may have been, it is clear that in the hands of Paul and his friends it did not attain much success. None of them appears to have possessed the push and business instinct of Richard Arkwright, and it may have been to this lack, as much as to lack of inventive genius, that the non-success was due.

Certainly there was faith in the invention, and Paul himself claimed that, in the course of twenty years, he made more than £20,000 out of it as patentee.[249] It was used in at least one factory at London, in one at Birmingham, and in one at Northampton. The machinery at Birmingham was turned by animal-power, and at Northampton by water-power, and at the latter place fifty hands were employed in the factory.[250] It seems evident, however, that, whatever the reason, when the term of the patent expired in 1752 faith in the invention had also largely expired, and Paul attempted to get it introduced into a Foundling Hospital in London.[251] During the next six years he made improvements in the machine, and in 1758 obtained another patent for it, but shortly afterwards he died, and the honour of carrying the use of rollers in spinning to a successful issue was left to others.[252]

But it is not only in connection with spinning that Paul’s name has to be remembered. Whatever failings he may have had, he was certainly a man of an inventive turn of mind. It is recorded that in 1742 he granted a licence in consideration of £200, for the right to use a “pinking” machine he had invented.[253] But more important in relation to the cotton industry was his invention of a carding-machine, for which he secured a patent in 1748.[254] Earlier in the same year a man named Daniel Bourne had also taken out a patent for a carding-machine,[255] and after a time the principal processes of the two machines were combined in one machine, though it is to Paul’s invention that the most important method of carding the finer qualities of cotton at the present day is traced.[256] Both these machines, however, were lacking in that they had no “doffing” arrangement, which prevented continuous working, but the deficiency in this respect was afterwards removed by Arkwright with his crank and comb device, while others improved the imperfect feeding arrangement.[257]

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]

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]

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.

When cotton has been carded, its transformation into yarn consists in gradually attenuating the cotton and twisting it into a thread. In the eighteenth century, the whole process could be definitely divided into two stages. In the first, the carded cotton was made into a continuous but comparatively thick cord called roving; in the second, the roving was attenuated and spun into yarn. The spinning operation was therefore a continuation of the roving operation, and with the ordinary spinning-wheel both were performed in essentially the same way. In spinning, the roving was attached to the spindle, and the spinner with one hand extended the roving, and with the other turned the wheel, which caused the spindle to revolve, and thus gave the necessary twist to the attenuated roving. When this operation had been performed, the spinner, with one hand, again turned the wheel, the spindle again revolving, this time to wind the yarn upon it, while the other hand was engaged in giving in the yarn for the winding. Clearly this system admitted of only one thread being spun at a time.

In the invention of the “jenny” the action of that hand of the spinner which attenuated the roving and gave in the yarn for winding was mechanically reproduced, but instead of the spinner being able to operate only one spindle, as many could be operated as could be conveniently introduced. The bobbins round which the rovings were coiled, and the spindles, were fixed in a frame. The ends of the rovings were attached to the spindles, passing between a clasp arrangement which formed part of a movable carriage. While the clasp was open, the carriage was first drawn out from the spindles until the required length of rovings for spinning had passed through. Then the clasp was closed, and the rovings, thus gripped, were attenuated by the carriage being drawn further out. Simultaneously, the wheel, which caused the spindles to revolve, was turned to give the required twist to the thread. Then, as the carriage was moved back to its first position, the wheel was again slowly turned, this time to wind the spun thread on the spindles. Thus the action of one hand of the spinner remained the same, but the other was now used in opening and closing the clasp and in moving the carriage to and fro.

From the beginning, the effect of this invention was to multiply many times the amount of yarn that could be spun by a spinner, and the size of the jenny was soon increased. In 1767 it was said to contain eight spindles; when Hargreaves took out his patent in 1770 the specification mentioned sixteen or more; in 1784 the number had increased to eighty; and ultimately as many as one hundred and twenty are said to have been introduced.[263] Although the jenny did not make the rovings, and its movements depended upon hand power, it represented a great advance in spinning, and its mechanism was so simple that it could be worked by children.[264] The thread it produced, however, was not completely satisfactory for the warp in cotton goods, as it was not “capable of giving that hardness of twist and fineness which was necessary to form the threads of the warp.”[265]

This defect was supplied by the invention of spinning by rollers patented by Arkwright—the water-frame as it came to be called—as the characteristic feature of the yarn thus spun was its suitability for the warp. The jenny and the water-frame, therefore, were complementary rather than substitutional machines. When the patent for spinning by rollers was taken out in 1769, as with the jenny, it was still intended that the rovings should be made on the spinning-wheel. But with Arkwright’s method, instead of the rovings being attenuated by a long stretch, the operation was performed by their passing between rollers moving at different velocities, which had the same effect. For the twisting and the winding of the thread the “Flier” spindle mentioned in connection with the “Saxony” wheel was utilised. Consequently, the spinning and winding operations proceeded simultaneously, whereas with the jenny they were intermittent.[266]

Before Arkwright obtained his second patent in 1775, sometimes called the “carding” patent, the roller method had been extended to the rovings, and as he and others had effected the improvements, already mentioned, in the carding machine, the whole of the operations required in transforming the raw cotton into yarn could be performed by machinery.[267]

In the 1769 patent Arkwright provided for the machinery to be driven by horse-power. Two years later he erected his factory at Cromford, where water-power was available. But at this time another power to drive it was in preparation, Watt having taken out his patent for his steam-engine in the same year as Arkwright obtained his first patent.[268] It was not, however, until the last decade of the eighteenth century that Watt’s steam-engine was much used in the cotton industry, its first application in this direction being made at Papplewick in Nottinghamshire in 1785, and it was not introduced into Manchester until 1789.[269] There had been earlier efforts to utilise steam, as in 1783 Ogden could state that in Manchester a factory had been erected in which “Mr. Arkwright’s machines are setting to work by a steam-engine, for carding and spinning of cotton.”[270]

The new spinning machinery was not introduced into use without opposition, but the opposition to its use was small, compared with the opposition to the patents granted in connection with it. Before the patents were taken out, both Hargreaves and Arkwright had left Lancashire for Nottingham. As already mentioned, Hargreaves did not obtain his patent until 1770, and his removal to Nottingham followed upon a machine-breaking episode in 1767, when the jenny was the object of attention. Arkwright removed in the following year, and his machinery appears to have been immune from attack until 1779—ten years after he had obtained his first patent.

In that year a rising took place in north-west Lancashire, when an attack was made upon the factories in the neighbourhood of Chorley, particularly upon one at Birkacre, owned by Arkwright and his partners, and the machinery destroyed. Afterwards the mob intended to proceed to Bolton, Manchester, and Stockport, and finally to reach Cromford, breaking the machinery as they went along.[271] Consequently, it is hardly surprising that the inhabitants of Manchester were alarmed, and called a meeting of magistrates, merchants, and gentlemen, when it was resolved “to embody and arm a sufficient number of soldiers and proper persons to defend the town and neighbourhood.”[272] Fortunately their services were not required, as the rising terminated at Bolton. In the next year, one of Arkwright’s partners petitioned the House of Commons for redress for the destruction of the factory at Birkacre, claiming that he had suffered loss to the extent of £4400, owing, as he insisted, to lack of protection from the civil and military authorities.[273]

In the references to the risings which took place in Lancashire against machinery, there is usually an implication that they were largely due to the effects of its introduction upon the position of the operatives. Neither in 1767, nor in 1779, nor on other occasions when such risings occurred, is this implication strongly justified. Invariably, a satisfactory explanation requires attention to be paid to conditions prevailing at the time, due to entirely other causes, and at this point a slight digression may be permitted for a glance at the general situation.