The story of textiles; a bird's-eye view of the history of the beginning and the growth of the industry by which mankind is clothed (1912) (14593608009)

Identifier: storyoftextilesb1912walt (find matches)

Title: The story of textiles; a bird's-eye view of the history of the beginning and the growth of the industry by which mankind is clothed

Year: 1912 (1910s)

Authors: Walton, Perry, 1865-1941

Subjects: Textile industry Textile industry

Publisher: Boston, Mass., J. S. Lawrence

Contributing Library: Boston College Libraries

Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

Text Appearing Before Image:

MUND CARTWEIGHT These improvements of the spinning machines so in-creased the output of yarn that there was almost a glutof the market, and more and more imperative grew thedemands for a loom that would handle the production ona greater scale, as the old hand loom proved so totallyinadequate. The problem of the power loom, therefore, receivedconsideration in many quarters. The one who succeededin working out a practical plan for power weaving, andwho did for the old hand loom what Paul, Wyatt, High,Arkwright, and Crompton had done for the spinning ma-chine, was Edmund Cartwright, a minister of the Churchof England. He knew little about mechanics when a chance conversa-tion in a public house directed his attention to the prob-lem of power weaving. As Cartwright himself describedit, Happening to be at Matlock in the summer of 1784,I fell in company with some gentlemen of Manchester,when the conversation turned on Arkwrights spinningmachinery. One of the company observed that, as soon as

Text Appearing After Image:

THE STORY OF TEXTILES 89 Arkwrights patent expired, so many mills would be erected,and so much cotton spun, that hands never could be foundto weave it. To this observation I replied that Arkwrightmust then set his wits to work and invent a weaving mill.This brought on a conversation on the subject, in whichthe Manchester gentlemen unanimously agreed that thething was impracticable; and in defence of their opinionthey adduced arguments which I certainly was incompetentto answer, or even to comprehend, being totally ignorantof the subject, having never at any time seen a personweave. I controverted, however, the impracticability ofthe thing by remarking that there had lately been ex-hibited in London an automaton figure which played atchess. Some time afterwards a particular circumstance re-calling this conversation to my mind, it struck me that,as in plain weaving according to the conception I thenhad of the business, there could be only three movementswhich were to follow each other i

edmund cartwright the story of textiles a birds eye view of the history of the beginning and the growth of the industry by which mankind is clothed 1912 book illustrations ornithology birds zoological illustration textiles industrial history high resolution history manchester images from internet archive

1912

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