| 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 |
At the present time, we are told by the same authority, the machinemakers of Lancashire are making power-looms with the greatest rapidity, and they cannot be made sufficiently fast to meet the demands of the manufacturers. This quick increase, notwithstanding the considerable expense of outfit, which by employing hand-weavers the manufacturer avoids entirely, may safely be taken as a test of the advantages and national importance of the power-loom. The following estimate is given of its productiveness as compared with hand-loom labour. A very good hand-weaver, twenty-five or thirty years of age, will weave two pieces of cloth per week, of a certain description, each twenty-four yards long. In 1833, a steam-loom weaver, from fifteen to twenty years of age, assisted by a girl about twelve years of age, attending to four looms, can weave eighteen similar pieces in a week; some can weave twenty pieces. It appears from the fuller statement given by Mr. Baines, that the comparative productiveness of steam-looms has rapidly increased up to the last-mentioned period, and therefore it may be conjectured not yet to have reached its maximum; and it is also stated, that in those descriptions of plain goods for which they have hitherto been chiefly used, “cloth made by these looms, when seen by those manufacturers who employ hand-weavers, at once, excites admiration, and a consciousness that their own weavers cannot equal it.” The set-off against these advantages is the interest on capital employed, and the expense of supplying power. It is not asserted by the more intelligent, either among masters or workmen, that the power-loom has been more than a secondary and minor cause of the lamentable depression and misery now existing among the hand-weavers; a depression which it is to be feared will never be removed but by the gradual relinquishment of that laborious and ill-paid trade.
The hardships of Dr. Cartwright’s case, his merits, and the extent to which the country was then profiting by his discoveries, had become, by 1807, so manifest to those who were best acquainted with the cotton trade, that a considerable number of the most respectable and influential gentlemen of Manchester presented a memorial to government, praying that some remuneration for his useful inventions might be taken into consideration. He petitioned the legislature himself to the same effect; and in 1809 obtained from parliament a grant of £10,000 for “the good service he had rendered the public by his invention of weaving.” The compensation thus awarded, though falling far short of the sums he had expended in perfecting his inventions, as well as in defending his patent-rights, contributed essentially to place him in comparatively easy circumstances; and being advanced in life, he was thankful to be enabled to pass the remainder of his days in tranquil retirement. The activity of his mind however was unabated. Engaged to the last in scientific pursuits, with an occasional revival of the poetic spirit of his youth, he closed his active, useful, and benevolent life at Hastings, October 30, 1823, in the eighty-first year of his age.
Like many inventors, Dr. Cartwright was negligent of his pecuniary interests: he possessed another quality less common to that class of persons, entire freedom from jealousy, and great liberality in communicating his ideas and assistance to others engaged in pursuits similar to his own. And we may fairly conjecture that the temper of mind in which such conduct originated, promoted his happiness much more than any increase to his fortune, procured by a less frank and generous spirit, could have done. It is also stated, that whether from absorption in the pursuits of the moment, or carelessness of their value, he was remarkably apt to forget his own productions, even when offered to his notice. Among other instances of this disposition, it is related, that on examining the model of one of his own machines, he expressed great admiration, and said that he should have been proud to have been the inventor of it; nor could he readily be convinced that the merit was indeed his own.
In this sketch of Dr. Cartwright’s life a limited notice only has been taken of his productions. He is chiefly known as the inventor of the power-loom; but the public are also reaping the advantage of several minor improvements in the arts of life, which emanated from his active and observing mind. It is sufficient here to state that he obtained ten patents, either for original inventions, or improvements upon his earlier mechanical attempts: and in addition to the kindred arts of weaving, spinning, wool-combing, and rope-making, he had successfully applied his talents to a variety of subjects unconnected with those manufactures.
An account of his life, containing a more detailed description of his various inventions, as well as a relation of the struggles and difficulties which he encountered, is now, we are informed, in preparation for the press. The portrait from which our engraving is taken was copied from one painted by Robert Fulton, when studying the art under his countryman, Benjamin West.
PORSON.
It is perhaps not easy to invest the memoirs of a verbal critic with the interest which attaches itself to the lives of men distinguished in other departments of literature and science: the classical scholar has little sympathy, in respect of his peculiar vocation, with the world around him, and the world for the most part repays his indifference with interest. Nevertheless, it is due to the great reputation of the subject of this memoir to relate the principal events of his life.
Richard Porson was born December 25, 1759. His father, Mr. Huggin Porson, was the parish-clerk of East Ruston, near North Walsham, in the county of Norfolk. Notwithstanding his poverty, Porson had the good fortune to obtain a first-rate education. Even in his childhood he was taught by a careful father more than is generally learned by the children of the rich; and after he had spent a short time at a village school, to which he was sent at the age of nine, his abilities attracted the notice of Mr. Hewitt, the vicar of his native place, who kindly undertook to teach the young prodigy the rudiments of Greek and Latin. In these elementary studies Porson passed his time till 1774, being also occasionally employed as a shepherd or a weaver. But his reputation had reached the ears of Mr. Norris, of Grosvenor Place, who in the summer of that year undertook the charge of maintaining him at Eton College. His name soon became favorably known beyond the circle of his admiring school-fellows. The interest which he excited was fortunate for him, for on the death of his kind patron Mr. Norris, he would have been unable to continue at Eton, had it not been for a subscription collected by Sir George Baker, then President of the Royal College of Physicians, from a number of gentlemen who had heard of Porson’s talents, and were desirous of giving him a fair opportunity to cultivate them to the uttermost. With this subscription, an annuity of 80l. for a few years was purchased for him; and thus he was enabled to finish his course at Eton, and to proceed thence to Trinity College, Cambridge.