The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century. by Edward W. Byrn
CHAPTER XXXI.
557 words | Chapter 90
TEXTILES.
SPINNING AND WEAVING AN ANCIENT ART--HARGREAVES’ SPINNING JENNY--
ARKWRIGHT’S ROLL-DRAWING SPINNING MACHINE--CROMPTON’S MULE
SPINNER--THE COTTON GIN--RING SPINNING--THE RABBETH SPINDLE--JOHN
KAY’S FLYING SHUTTLE AND ROBERT KAY’S DROP BOX--CARTWRIGHT’S POWER
LOOM--THE JACQUARD LOOM--CROMPTON’S FANCY LOOM--BIGELOW’S CARPET
LOOMS--LYALL POSITIVE MOTION LOOM--KNITTING MACHINES--CLOTH PRESSING
MACHINERY--ARTIFICIAL SILK--MERCERIZED CLOTH.
Far back in the obscuring gloom of a prehistoric antiquity, man wore
probably only the hirsute covering which nature gave him. As he emerged
from barbarism, sentiments of modesty marked the evolution of his mind,
and this, together with the need for a more sufficient protection
against cold and heat, suggested an artificial covering for his body. At
first he robbed the brute of his fleecy skin and wore it bodily. Later
he learned to spin and weave; next to food and drink, clothing became a
fundamental necessity, for without it his life could not extend outside
of the limited zone of the tropics. Food and drink were to be found as
nature’s free gifts, but clothing had to be made, and its manufacture
constituted probably the oldest of all the living arts. The making of
cloth may be said to be coeval with history. The Old Testament of the
Bible is replete with references to spinning and weaving, and the cloths
wrapped about the mummies of ancient Egypt, although thousands of years
old, were of exceeding regularity and fineness.
So old an art, and so great and continuous a need for its products
necessarily must have resulted in much development and progress. When
the Nineteenth Century began, the world already enjoyed the results of
Hargreaves’ spinning-jenny, Arkwright’s roll-drawing spinning machine,
the mule spinner, the cotton gin, and the power loom, all of which were
most radical inventions, equaling in importance, perhaps, any that have
followed.
Prior to the invention of the _spinning-jenny_, the loose fibre was spun
into yarns and thread by hand on the old-fashioned spinning wheel, each
thread requiring the attention of one person. In 1763 Hargreaves
invented the spinning-jenny (see Fig. 285), in which a multiplicity of
spindles was employed, whereby one person could attend to the making of
many threads simultaneously. For this purpose the spindles were set
upright at the end of the frame, and the rovings or strips of untwisted
fibre were carried on bobbins on the inclined frame. The rovings
extended from these bobbins to a reciprocating “clasp” held in the left
hand of the workman, and thence extended to the spindles at the end of
the frame. The workman drew out the rovings by moving the clasp back and
forth, and at the same time turned the crank with his right hand to
rotate the spindles. Hargreaves’ machine is shown and described in his
British patent, No. 962 of 1770.
[Illustration: FIG. 285.--HARGREAVES’ SPINNING JENNY.]
The next important step in spinning was the introduction of drawing
rolls, which were a series of rolls running at different speeds for
drawing out or elongating the roving as it was spun into a thread. This
was mainly due to Arkwright, a contemporary of Hargreaves. The principle
of the drawing rolls had been foreshadowed in the British patents of
Louis Paul, No. 562, of 1738, and No. 724, of 1758, but Arkwright made
the first embodiment of it in practically useful machines, which were
covered by him in British patents No. 931, of 1769, and No. 1,111, of
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