Introduction.
This scanned transcription of "The Pictorial History of the County of
Lancaster," published by George Routledge, London, in 1854, is made
available through the generous loan of the book by Mr Jack Newton,
B.Sc., of Sydney, N.S.W., (formerly of Otley, Yorkshire), to whom I
extend a sincere thank you.
The book gives an eye witness account of the industrial revolution in
Lancashire. It is made available for an individual's personal research
purposes ONLY, and MUST NOT be copied, sold, or used for commercial or
profit purposes.© Credits should be given to the original publication
when references to, or quotations from this work, are used.
I apologise in advance for the poor quality of the graphics, however, it
was necessary to reduce them to a third of the original size, to included
them in this scanned edition. By doing so, the quality suffered, but to
omit them, would have meant the real value of the publication would have
been lost. As far as possible, subject to formatting requirements, this
scanned copy is exactly as as the original, and the graphics have been
placed on the same pages, therefore the "Index of Illustrations" shown at
the front will locate them.
Please Note. The footnotes in this volume often extend over two pages, so
when one appear incomplete, look at the bottom of the following
Page.
Some charts e.g. pages x & xi; xii & xii etc,, need to be read
across, as if on one page, for reason which should be obvious it
was not possible to scan them together.
Preface to Page 8.
Pages 9 to 63.
Pages 64 to 125.
Pages 126 to 175.
Pages 176 to 225.
Pages 226 to 274.
Pages 275 to 338.
Pages i to xxii.
Pages xxiii to xlviii.
Index
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THE
PlCTORlAL HISTORY
OF THE
COUNTY OF LANCASTER:
WITH
ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY ILLUSTRATIONS
AND A MAP.
TIME HONOURED LANCASTER.
LONDON:
GEORGE ROUTLEDGITE, 36, SOHO SQUARE.
MDCCCXLIV
LONDON.
PRINTED BY MANNING AND MASON, IVY LANE
PATERNOSTER ROW.
PREFACE.
The description of the County of Lancaster will be found completed in the
present volume in as concise a manner as possible for a district so rich,
extensive, and important in its manufacturing relations. As an illustrated
work, it will still impart a correct idea of not a few interesting objects,
particular of the relies of many of the dwellings of our ancestors in that
part of England, which have not until now been presented to the reader.
Some of these habitations belonging to the olden time have been sketched
in their existing state, which is one of rapidly increasing decay. 0thers
there are upon which time has less prominently his seal; but which, as many
before them have been, may soon be annihilated by the march of improvement
or the more pressing demands of manufacturing necessity. The reader
therefore not believe it a disadvantage, nor an unworthy reflection upon
the pages of the present work, if, in many portraits of what it has thus
included, some are found which have already disappeared for ever.
The assistance which the Editor has received in completing the present
volume, demands acknowledgment. The details respecting the cotton
manufacture, with the account of Manchester ----- excepting of the
Collegiate Church, ---- the mode of glass-making, and the process followed
in forging chain cables,* are Dr. W. C. Taylor. For the faithful sketches
of the hundreds of the hundreds of Salford and Blackburn, more particularly
----ð thus dividing with himself the heavier part of his task ---- the
Editor is indebted to Dr. Beard of Manchester, not previously unknown in
topographical literature. Various county and local publications consulted,
have for the most part been acknowledged in the pages where the information
obtained is to be found.
It only remain that the Editor solicit indulgence towards any defect which
the local critic may discover in this work.
* Commencing at page 4; ib, 89; ib, 131.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
SUBJECT DRAWN BY ENGRAVED BY PAGE.
1. MAP OF LANCASTER. . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2. PENDLE HILL. . . . . Sargent . . Armstrong 2
3. PATRICROFT. . . . . Sargent . . Evans . . . . 8
4. THE EXCHANGE, MANCHESTER. . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 9
5. BLOWING FAN. . . . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 11
6. LAPPING MACHINE. . . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 12
7. HARD CARDS. . . . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 13
8. CARDING MACHINE. . . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 14
9. DOFFING MACHINE. . . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 14
10. FIRST DRAWING. . . . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 16
11. ROVING. . . . . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 17
12. BOBBIN AND FLY FRAME. . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 17
13. BOBBINS PERFORMING. . . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 18
14. DELIVERING FINGER. . . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 18
15. MULE ROOM. . . . . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 20
16. WARPING MACHINE. . . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 24
17. DRESSING AND PARTING ENGINE.. Sly . . . Sly . . . . 25
18. COMMON LOOM. . . . . S1y . . . Sly . . . . 25
19. REED. . . . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 26
20. COMMON SHUTTLE. . . . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 26
21. HEALD AND REED WORK.. . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 27
22. DRAWING-IN. . . . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 28
23. POWER LOOM ROOM. . . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 29
24. THE HOIST. . . . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 30
25. THE VICTORIA BRIDGE, MANCHESTER.Sargent . . Nicholls . . . 33
26. NAT. HIST. SOCIETY'S HALL, MANCHESTER.Sargent. Evans . . . . 37
27. TOWN HALL, MANCHESTER. . . Sargent . . Wakefield . . . 38
28. APPARATUS FOR MOVING BOBBINS. Sly . . . Sly . . . . 47
29. THE DASH WHEEL. . . . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 51
30. CALENDARING. . . . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 53
31. BLIND ASYLUM & DEAF & DUMB SCHOOL.Sargent. . Nicholls . . . 54
32. CHETHAM COLLEGE. . . . Sargent . . Evans . . . . 55
33. COLLEGIATE CHURCH. . . . Sargent . . Jackson . . . 56
34. INTERIOR OF COLLEGIATE CHURCH. Sargent . . Evans . . . . 57
35. CALICO PRINTING. . . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 62
36. LANE'S NET PATTERNS.. . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 63
37. EMBROIDERY MACHINE . . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 70
38. THE ATHENAEUM, MANCHESTER. . Sargent . . Evans . . . . 71
39. MANCHESTER INFIRMARY & LUNATIC ASY.Sargent . Evans . . . . 73
40. HULME HALL. . . . . Sargent . . Evans . . . . 74
41. CLAYTON HALL. . . . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 75
42. FAIRFIELD. . . . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 76
43. ASHTON TOWN HALL. . . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 78
44. WARRINGTON MARKET-PLACE . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 8l
45. FUSTIAN CUTTER. . . . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 82
46. SANKEY VIADUCT. . . . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 87
47. WORSLEY HALL. . . . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 88
48. ST. HELEN'S. . . . . Franklin. . . Jackson. . . . 89
49. SEAL OF THE PLATE GLASS COMPANY,1773 Fairholt. Sly . . . . 90
50. DITTO, 1798. . . . . Fairholt . . Sly . . . . 90
51. RAVENHEAD GLASS WORKS. . . Anelay . . . Sly . . . . 90
52. INTERIOR OF DITTO. . . . Franklin . . Sly . . . . 93
53. CASTING GLASS. . . . . Anelay . . . Sly . . . . 95
54. SILVERING TABLE. . . . . Sly . . . Sly . . . . 98
55. ENTRANCE TO RAILWAY AT LIVERPOOL.Franklin. . Williams . . . 1O1
56. OLD LIVERPOOL. . . . . Sargent . . Evans . . . . 103
57. GOREE BUILDINGS. . . . . Sargent . . Armstrong . . . 105
58. BATHS. . . . . . . Franklin . . Williams . . . 106
59. THE EXCHANGE. . . . . Franklin . . Warmsley . . . 110
60. TOWN HALL. . . . . . Sargent . . Evans . . . . 111
61. CUSTOM HOUSE. . . . . Sargent . . Nicholls . . . 111
62. ROYAL BANK. . . . . Sargent . . Wakefield . . . 113
63. ST. JAMES'S CEMETERY. . . Franklin . . Sly . . . . 115
64. HUSKISSON'S MONUMENT. . . Franklin . . Sly . . . . 115
65. THE INFIRMARY. . . . . Franklin . . Gilks . . . . 117
66. ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. . . . Franklin . . Jackson. . . . 118
67. PRlNCE RUPERT'S QUARTERS. . Delamotte . . Delamotte . . . 119
68. ST. GEORGE'S CHURCH, EVERTON. Franklin . . Green . . . 120
69. ST. NICHOLAS CHURCH, LIVERPOOL.Franklin . . Jackson . . . 121
70. ST. LUKE'S CHURCH. . . . Franklin . . Walmsley . . . 122
71. DR. RAFFLES CHAPEL. . . . Sargent . . Mason . . . 123
72. ST. JOHN'S MARKET . . . . Sargent . . Mason . . . 124
73. MR, ROSCOE'S BIRTH-PLACE. . Franklin . . Armstrong . . . 127
74. LIGHTHOUSE AND FORT. . . Sargent . . Nicholls . . . 129
75. DUKE'S DOCK. . . . . Franklin . . Armstrong . . . 129
76. SPE1KE HALL*. . . . . Sargent . . Evans . . . 133
77. INTERIOR OF SPEKE HALL* . . Sargent . . Evans . . . 133
78. HALE HALL . . . . Delamotte . . Evans . . . 134
79. ALLERTON HALL. . . . . Franklin . . Bastin . . . 135
80. J.P. KEMBLE'S BIRTH PLACE. . Sargent . . Evans . . . 136
81. FARNWORTH CHURCH. . . . Sargent . . Mason . . . 137
82. KNOWSLEY HALL. . . . . Sargent . . Evans . . . 139
83. SEFTON CHURCH. . . . . Franklin . . Evans . . . 141
84. LYDIATE ABBEY. . . . . Delamotte . . Delamotte . . . 142
85. ORMSKIRK CHURCH. . . . . Sargent . . Armstrong . . . 143
86. RUFFORD OLD HALL. . . . Franklin . . Landells . . . 147
87. ANCIENT CANOE. . . . . Redding . . Evans . . . 148
88. MAB'S CROSS, WIGAN. . . . Sargent . . Evans . . . 153
89. MARKETðPLACE, PRESTON. . . Sargent . . Nicholls . . . 158
90. BOGGART'S CLOUGH. . . . Dodd . . Walmsley . . . 160
91. ENTRANCE TO DITTO. . . . Dodd . . Landells . . . 162
92. MIDDLETON CHURCH. . . . Dodd . . Bastin . . . 163
93. THE THRUTCH. . . . . Dodd . . Armstrong . . . 167
94. THE FAIRIES CHAPEL. . . . Sargent . . Evans . . . 168
95. INSCRIPTION AT STEANER BOTTAM. Dodd . . Wakefield . . . 174
96. THE EAGLES' CRAG. . . . Dodd . . Jackson . . . 177
97. HOLME CHAPEL. . . . . Dodd . . Evans . . . 183
98. HOLME HALL. . . . . Dodd . . Jackson . . . 184
99. HOLME CROSS. . . . . Dodd . . Wakefield . . . 185
100. TOWNELEY HALL. . . . . Dodd . . Kirchner . . . 186
101. DOORWAY, TOWNELEY. . . . Dodd . . Jackson . . . 186
102. WHALLEY ABBEY. . . . . Dodd . . Gray . . . 193
103. THE ABBOT'S STALL. . . . Dodd . . Landells . . . 198
104. ANCIENT CARVING ON SEAT. . Dodd . . Mason . . . 198
105. BRASSES. . . . . . Dodd . . Mason . . . 199
106. GATEWAY. . . . . . Dodd . . Gilks . . . 202
107. REMAINS OF CHARTER HOUSE. . Dodd . . Nicholls . . . 203
108. -------- PRIVATE, CHAPEL. . Dodd . . Landells . . . 204
109. CLITHERO CASTLE. . . . Delamotte . . Delamotte . . . 205
110. PEGGY'S WELL. . . . . Dodd . . Landells . . . 209
111. "DULE UPON DEN".. . . . Dodd . . Evans . . . 211
112. WADDINGTON BRIDGE. . . . Dodd . . Walmsley . . . 213
113. WADDINGTON HALL. . . . Dodd . . Jackson . . . 215
114. GARDEN VIEW OF DITTO. . . Dodd . . Evans . . . 216
115. GREAT MITTON CHURCH. . . Dodd . . Landells . . . 217
* From Drawings by W.H. Pyne, engraved in "Fisher's Lancashire."
116. MITTON CROSS. . . . . Dodd . . Mason . . . 218
117. ANCIENT CHEST. . . . . Dodd . . Evans . . . 218
118. LITTLE MITTON HALL. . . . Franklin . . Landells . . . 219
119. BRIDGES AT STONYHURST. . . Dodd . . Landells . . . 220
120. STONYHURST. . . . . . Dodd . . Walmsley . . . 225
121. THE HIGH ALTAR AT STONYHURST. Dodd . . Evans . . . 228
122. ROMAN ATLAS. . . . . Dodd . . Dodd . . . 231
123. GARDEN AT STONEYHURST. . . Dodd . . Landells . . . 231
124. AVENUE AT STONYHURST. . . Dodd . . Evans . . . 232
125. RIBCHESTER. . . . . . Dodd . . Whimper . . . 233
126. SAMLESBURY HALL. . . . Cardwell . . Evans . . . 233
127. ANCIENT SCULPTURE AT RIBCHESTER.Cardwell . . Gilks . . . 234
128. ALMSHOUSES, STYDD. . . . Cardwell . . Landells . . . 236
129. STYDD CHAPEL. . . . . Cardwell . . Gray . . . 236
130. GRAVESONES AT STYDD. . . Cardwell . . Evans . . . 237
131. FONT AT STYDD. . . . . Cardwell . . Mason . . . 238
132. NORMAN DOOR, STUDD. . . . Cardwell . . Gilks . . . 238
133. ANCIENT SCULPTURE AT RIBCHESTER.Dodd . . Evans . . . 238
134. ROMANS REMAINS. . . . . Cardwell . . Gilks . . . 239
135. RIBCHESTER CHURCH. . . . Dodd . . Mason . . . 240
136. GRANT'S TOWER. . . . . Dodd . . Mason . . . 244
137. RAMSBOTTOM CHURCH. . . . Dodd . . Jackson . . . 246
138. BRANDLESHOLME HALL. . . . Dodd . . Gray . . . 247
139. RUSH-BEARING. . . . . Dodd . . Andrews . . . 249
140. CHAMBER HALL. . . . . Dodd . . Jackson . . . 250
141. SIR ROBERT PEEL'S BIRTH PLACE. Dodd . . Landells . . . 251
142. THE UNSWORTH ARMS. . . . Dodd . . Evans . . . 252
143. THREE ILLUST. OF THE DRAGON LEGEND.Dodd . . Evans . . . 253
144. ENTRANCE TO BURY. . . . Dodd . . Evans . . . 254
145. ROOF OF RADCLIFFE CHURCH. . Dodd . . Evans . . . 258
146. WINDOW OF RADCLIFFE CHURCH. . Dodd . . Evans . . . 259
147. REMAINS OF RADCLIFFE TOWER. . Dodd . . Evans . . . 260
148. PRESTWICH CHURCH. . . . Dodd . . Whimper . . . 261
149. EXECUTION OF LORD DURY AT BOLTON.Dodd . . Evans . . . 267
150. HALL IN WOOD. . . . . Dodd . . Mason . . . 269
151. TURTON TOWER. . . . . Dodd . . Gilks . . . 271
152. TURTON TOWER. . . . . Dodd . . Gilks . . . 275
153. RIVINGTON PIKE. . . . . Dodd . . Whimper . . . 280
154. GREAT HALL. . . . . Dodd . . Nicholls . . . 284
155. HOUSE OF LATE SIR HENRY PEEL.
BLACKBURN. . . Cardwell . . Evans . . . 290
156. SAMPLESBURY HALL. . . . Cardwell . . Walmsley . . . 292
157. FLEETWOOD. . . . . . Franklin . . Evans . . . 296
158. LANCASTER TOWN HALL.. . . Sargent . . Walmsley . . . 300
159. LANCASTER CASTLE. . . . Sargent . . Nicholls . . . 302
160. HORNBY CASTLE IN 1643. . . Sargent . . Walmsley . . . 305
161. --------------- 1842. . . Sargent . . Walmsley . . . 305
162. CARTMEL PRIORY. . . . . Sargent . . Wakefield . . . 311
163. NEWBY BRIDGE. . . . . Sargent . . Evans . . . 313
164. STORRS HALL, WINDERMERE. . Sargent . . Landells . . . 316
165. OLD MAN MOUNTAIN. . . . Sargent . . Landells . . . 319
166. BROUGHTON CHURCH. . . . Sargent . . Landells . . . 323
167. DALTON CROSS. . . . . Sargent . . Mason . . . 324
168. DALTON TOWER. . . . . Sargent . . Mason . . . 325
169. ANCIENT ARCH. FURNESS ABBEY. Franklin . . Evans . . . 328
170. PILE OF FOULDREY. . . . Sargent . . Evans . . . 332
171. ULVERSTON CHURCH. . . . Sargent . . Landells . . . 335
The drawings on the wood are by MR. G.E. Sargent and Mr. J. Franklin.
LANCASTER.
LANCASTER,* one of the most important territorial divisions of England.
extending over a large superficies, take rank among the counties the first
in population and the first in extent of surface. Cheshire, and Derbyshire
limit this county southward, Cumberland and Westmoreland northward, and
Yorkshire upon the east. On the western side, bordering upon the Irish
Channel, the boundary line is extremely irregular, from the indentations
of the coast.
We were struck with the remarkable difference the county exhibits in the
northern and southern districts, and the same may be observed of the
eastern and western, as well its in its peculiar adaptation to the
development of the wonderful manufacturing energies it has called into
action. In an agricultural sense, the indifferent nature of the soil over
a large part of the surface effectually prevents its holding more than
secondary rank. The waste lands are still very considerable,
notwithstanding the consumption of a population which has been augmented
with a rapidity unexampled in any other district of the same extent in the
world. The returns of 1831 shewed that the increase had been eight-foldŸ
since the first year of the eighteenth century, and that in the last ten
years of that term it had augmented twenty-seven per cent. The returns of
1841, shew an increase of 24.7 per cent. The cause of this phenomenon is
found in the astonishing magnitude of its manufactures and the wonderful
activity of its commercial relations. Possessing a fine port and
exhaustless coal mines, the additions to the population and wealth of Lan-
cashire arise, as in almost all, similar cases, from the use of those of
its natural resources which are most accessible, and are to be procured
with the smallest outlay of capital.
* Or county of Lancaster, other name is said to be derived from the Saxon
Lancasterscyre, after the county town. Antiquaries say that the name of
the county town itself came from Alauna, Lancaster being situated upon
the river Lan. The latitude of Manchester, near the southern extremity
of the county, is 53 degrees 29' n.; the longitude 2ø 42 w.; the
northern end lies in about 54ø 24' N. and 3ø 7' w. The superficies
cover 1765 square miles, or about 1,129,600 acres. It is divided into
the hundreds of Amounderness, containing 145,110 acres; Blackburn,
17i,590; Leyland, 79,990; Lonsdale, 267,970; Salford 214,870; and West
Derby, 284,780.
Ÿ From 166,200 to 1,386,854; and in 1841, 1,667,064
Page 2.
One portion of Lancashire & Lonsdale, north of the Sands & presents a
superficies so different from the rest, that it belongs, from its natural
constitution, to Cumberland and Westmoreland. It is marked by very
elevated mountain summits, by deep glens and narrow lakes, by savage
wilds, and by much of the most beautiful scenery in the island. South of
the sands, the banks of the Lune are fine, yet their extent is small, and
the higher and more extended landscapes in the eastern part of the county
are indebted to Yorkshire for their noble distances. Yet there is some
bold scenery upon this border, as we see exemplified in Pendle Hill.
In the hundreds of Blackburn and Rochdale, still keeping upon the eastern
border, there are scenes which are very beautiful, particularly on the
banks of the Ribble; but these are confined to a few particular spots, and
are not sufficiently extensive to impart their own character to the county
generally. The western part of Lancashire, from Lancaster to the banks of
the Mersey, is flat and uninteresting, and near the sea exhibits more than
ordinary want of the finer sea-shore character. No bold rocks and towering
cliffs mark the ocean boundary; but in their place are treeless wastes,
bleak moors, and unprofitable and wearisome sands. It will thus be seen
that the elevated land,i s confined to the eastern side, south of Furness,
that the western is level; and that though here and there detached
portions of the surface are interesting and even beautiful, they are not
numerous enough to class the surface south of the sands very high in
picturesque beauty any more than in fertility of production.
The climate of Lancashire is mild, and may be styled wet rather than
moist. The Roman name of the Segantii, signifying, according to Whittaker,
"the country of water,"ðthough that writer presumes this was in reference
to the sea is by no means inappropriate in reference to the climate. The
temperature of the summer is rarely otherwise than low. The mean has been
taken on the average of eight years at fifty-one and half degrees of
Fahrenheit. During west and south-west winds, a considerable degree of
damp cold is
Page 3.
experienced, and in the northern and eastern districts the spring season
comes in very late.*
The geological aspect of Lancashire displays little variety of formation
compared with many counties of much less extent Sandstone, of the red
species, was the most conspicuous formation which we encountered;
underneath which lies the vast bed of rock salt so well known a little
more to the south in that part of England. This sandstone spreads along the
shores of the Mersey towards Manchester, and may be detected upon the
western side of the county as far north as Lancaster and the vale of the
Lune. Over this bed of stone in many parts, particularly westward, peat-
mosses are spread, clay and marle likewise cover it to a considerable
thickness. The general appearance of the surface over this sandstone
stratum is level, or the elevations encountered are but trivial. North of
Preston the covering of peat-moss is less marked than to the westward of a
line drawn from Liverpool to Preston by Ormskirk. These depositions of
peat, called "mosses" in this county, have been brought into cultivation,
except in a few places, where they still retain their natural appearance.
Large timber trees, black as ebony, are discovered in these peat-beds, the
remnants of the primeval forests of the island; they will be more
particularly noticed hereafter under their local names. Under the sandstone
formation repose the treasures of Lancashire, in the great coal measures
upon which are laid the foundations of the wonderful superstructure of
manufactures that renders the county so reknowned. The principal coalfield
is of irregular extent, and lies between the Mersey and Ribble, extending
itself by Colne and Burn1ey, south-westwards to Blackburn, Chorley,
Upholland, Wigan, northerly to Ormskirk, and afterwards by Prescot to
Warrington. It describes a very irregular line of boundary, by Newton to
Worsley and Manchester, extending round the last-named place for a
distance of five miles, and going afterwards to the boundary of the county,
but not traversing it into Yorkshire. The high land upon the Yorkshire
limit consists of what is locally termed "millstone grit," and is found to
come out from under the coal measures. This grit is discovered also in the
basins of the Mersey and Ribble, and even in the valley of the Erwell.
Carboniferous lime-stone occurs north of the Lune, while near Kirkby
Lonsdale the red sandstone shews itself. The lofty hills of Furness,
rising in the "Old Man" mountain and others, to the height of between two
and three thousand feet above the sea, are composed of schistose, or
mountain an carboniferous slate. Sand and sand-beaches are common to the
whole of the extreme west of the county, and cover a large tract in the
bays of Morecombe and of the Leven. Traces of the metals are discoverable
in several places in Furness. Dalton possesses
* The mean annual temperature for Manchester, as observed by Dr.
Dalton for fourteen years, is 49' 52'. This is low for a maritime
county not situated further northwards. From observations made in the
same town for seven years, the mean annual quantity of rain is 36.14
inches, which is perhaps a fair average for the entire county south of
the sands, beyond which it is probable that 53.944 inches, being that
of Kendal, bordering on Furness, may approximate to the correct average.
Page 4.
rich mines of iron, the ore from which is exported. There are workings of
copper and lead, but they return only a small profit. The Cannel coal
raised in Lancashire is remarkable for bearing to be turned in a lathe,
and trinkets of it are thus made; its peculiarities in burning, are well
known. The quantity raised is not great.
Having thus briefly touched upon two or three subjects connected with the
county generally, which cannot well be attached to the description of any
particular locality, we have only to add that the Duchy and Palatinate of
Lancaster include estates and property out of that county. This Duchy was
given at the Conquest to Roger de Poitou, and by subsequent forfeiture
came into the possession of the crown. Henry III. appointed his youngest
son Earl of Lancaster. Passing afterwards through several hands, the Duchy
and estates were ultimately vested in Edward IV. as Duke of Lancaster,
being settled by act of parliament upon the prince and his heirs for ever.
Considerable additions were made to the possessions of the Duchy by Henry
VIII. out of the estates he seized at the dissolution of the monasteries;
but this situation of things did not long continue, since succeeding
monarchs greatly deteriorated the property by granting leases. The larger
part consists at present of what are called the forests of Myerscough,
Fullwood, Blaesdale, Wyersdale, and Quernmore, all in the northern part of
the county, containing respectively 2200, 907, 9000, 20,000, and 3000 acres.
The Duchy of Lancaster, being a County Palatine, or, in other words,
possessing royal privileges, contains a Court of Chancery founded by
Edward III., having an equity jurisdiction within the palatinate. The
appointments of all officers, and even of the sheriffs, emanate from the
Duchy.
We shall now, after this succinct notice of what is connected more imme-
diately with the county at large, postpone every other topic to enter upon
a description of the Cotton Manufacture that object of primary importance
in this district of gigantic industry.
A tourist in Lancashire has to search for objects of interest, different
from those which excited his attention in other lands: he has to
contemplate stupendous triumphs of science and art, instead of the
wondrous works of nature; he has to deal with the present and the future,
scarcely finding time to bestow inquiry or reflection on the past.
Whatever it may have been, Lancashire is now the home of a system of
manufactures which has revolutionized the trade of the entire world,
baffled the calculations of the wisest, falsified the predictions of the
most far-sighted, and both in its good and in its evil consequences
evolved results which contradict almost every principle received as an
aphorism in a past generation. He who visits a manufacturing district for
the first time, must prepare himself to meet a social system absolutely
new not merely in its phases, but its elements to which his past
experience furnishes no guide, and history offers, no analogy.
The steam-engine had no precedent; locomotives are equally destitute of
Page 5.
a parentage and an infancy; the rude machines which are doubtfully
exhibited as parents of the power-loom and the mule-spinner, are at best
but dwarfs that became the parents of giants. A commander in William's
army at the battle of Hastings, would be as well qualified to manoeuvre
the household brigade of Queen Victoria, or superintend the arrangement
of a park of artillery, as an agriculturist or even a merchant to
understand at the first glance the economy of mills and manufactories
"The Factory System," as it is generally called, is not only new in
itself, but it is the prolific parent of many other novelties which have
not yet received their full development; no person can contemplate the
vast interval which separates the rising generation of operatives from
that beginning to disappear from the stage, without perceiving that the
factory population is in a state of transition, and that there is a
steady progress towards further changes, the nature of which will probably
be undiscovered until they have attained their maturity.
It will be well for the traveller, as he is hurried onwards by the
railroad to those districts where brass and iron are apparently opposed to
the thews and sinews of man, but where in reality they work together in
increasing harmony, to prepare himself by reflection for the novelties he
is about to encounter. Let him remember that he is about to see a new
state of society establishing itself in an old nation. The factory system
suddenly developed itself in a land already crowded to excess with forms
and institutions its rapidity was incalculable, its energies resistless
pushing aside every thing which was likely to impede its securing for
itself a place in social existence, and it did not always exhibit delicacy
or tenderness in thrusting out and removing its opponents From the very
beginning it did not, nor does it yet wholly, harmonize with all the
ancient and hereditary institutions of the land; it has therefore
incommoded and inconvenienced many whose positions were fixed by that
system, and has received annoyances from them in turn; it resembles "the
big man forcing his way through a crowd," elbowing, jostling? and
thrusting aside his weaker neighbours, and receiving many a sly pinch in
revenge.
The factory system is established, but not yet accommodated; its existence
is recognised, but its relations to all that was previously existing have
not been settled they are indeed in the process of arrangement, but such
weighty interests are involved in the terms of agreement, that the
negotiations are not likely to be terminated by legislation or diplomacy,
but will wait the resistless current of events.
From these considerations, the traveller will see that the factory system
is in a greater or less degree intertwined with every political question
which engages public attention in the present day; and if he be weary of
the contests and struggles of parties, he will act wisely if he adopts a
firm resolution to confine his attention entirely to facts, and to leave
the opinions which will be offered to him by thousands in the quiet
possession of their natural owners.
Page 6.
He is about to investigate a subject of the deepest and yet of increasing
important, not merely to England but to the civilized world; there can be
no doubt that the system of society about to be offered to his view, will
be the agent most potent in modifying the course and progress of the next
and, many succeeding generations, and guiding their destinies, whether for
good or evil.
It is not to be expected that any traveller can give a complete account of
all the circumstances connected with the manufacturing districts of
Lancashire, and all their influences on public polity and domestic life;
for such a task no human powers of observation would be adequate. Some
influences are too extensive, others too minute, and all are in such
constant action, that it is scarcely possible to find the moment of repose
when an examination of their constituent parts might be attempted. Even
those who have resided in the manufacturing districts all their lives, and
who have been neither incurious nor uninterested spectators of the changes
which machinery has wrought, are ready to confess that there is much in
the system which either escapes their ken or baffles their comprehension;
that there are agencies at work, viewless as the wind---"they hear the
sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth;" and
this must necessarily be the ease; for, until machinery has worked out all
its results, the condition of society which it produces must be regarded
as in a state of transition.
Transition is necessarily associated with doubt we know what we are, but
know not what we may be, there are those who hope for change, and there
are those who fear it. These feelings are not always the dictates of self-
interest: hope from change often arises from nobler causes than
dissatisfaction with the existing state of things, and fear of change must
not always be attributed to the dread of seeing advantages afforded to the
many, which are now monopolized by the few; men on all sides are actuated
by better motives than those for which their opponents give them credit:
the errors most commonly attributed to principles will in the great
majority of instances be found to arise from false or imperfect perceptions
of facts.
In these preliminary observations, we have embodied the reflections which
passed through our minds while the train carried us from Birmingham
towards Manchester. We reflected how various and how contradictory were
the accounts given of a manufacturing population. The pictures which we
had seen were drawn either entirely with chalk or entirely with charcoal;
they were either all light or all dark, without a single neutral tint. But
we made these reflections without at all impugning the honesty of those
who had given these opposite delineations; we could not but remember that
our own views had been greatly modified by every successive visit to
Manchester, and that we were most positive at the time when we knew least
about the matter. There needed not the errors of others to give us a
lesson of warning; we had errors of our own in abundance for so useful a
purpose.
Page 7.
As Manchester is the capital of the manufacturing districts of Lancashire,
it will be the first place to engage the attention of a traveller. It is
the centre of a system of railroads, which soon connect it with all the
great marts of England. There are already five of these great channels of
communication radiating from the town, and measures are in preparation for
connecting them together by a junction link which will give Manchester
greater facilities of communication than London itself possesses. The
Grand Junction Railway, the route most usually traversed by visitors from
the south, enters the county by a bridge over the river Mersey, not far
from the town of Warrington. A cotton mill close to the Warrington
station announces the limits of the spinning districts on that side more
forcibly than any other landmark that could be erected; at no great
distance, a new manufactory for the construction of locomotive engines
similarly bears evidence that is the native and of steam-carriages; while
the lofty chimney of Muspratt's chemical works in the distance, explains
at the very outset the reason why church spires and monumental columns are
scarcely to be found within the precincts of Lancashire.
About four miles from Warrington the Grand Junction joins the Liverpool
and Manchester Railway at the Parkside station. Here also is North Union
(Preston and Lancaster) Railway comes upon the same line, so that Parkside
would seem likely to flourish as a railway village; but from some cause or
other its capabilities are neglected, and those who are compelled to stop
at it when changing from one line of railway to another, will find it like
"the Baron of Bucklivie's town," which had neither " horse's meat nor
man's meat, nor a place to sit down."
Few railroads have any charms for the lovers of the picturesque, and that
between Parkside and Manchester may compete in dullness with any in the
kingdom. A great part of it passes over Chat Moss, which, until the
formation of the railroad, was one of the most dangerous and treacherous
bogs in the three kingdoms. Indeed, when the railroad was first proposed
to be made between Liverpool and Manchester, the notion of carrying it over
Chat Moss was scouted by several of the most eminent surveyors and
engineers, who spoke of the attempt was little short of insanity. Just
where the railroad crosses the Duke of Bridgewater's Committee, a foundry
has been erected by Messrs Nasmyth and Gaskell, which is perhaps the most
favourably situated of any such establishment in Europe. It has a frontage
both to the railway and the canal; it is built on a level that admits of
minor railway communication between its several workshop, and thus averts
the danger of accidents which arise from the removal of heavy engines from
one part of an establishment to another, according to the several processes
required for their completion; and it is surrounded by green fields, which
from their situation are not likely to attract speculators in brick and
mortar. Neat cottages for the workmen are erected in the vicinity, and
slight as in a glance which the
Page 8.
traveller catches of the establishment as the train sweeps past, it is
sufficient to impress him with a belief that in such a locality
manufacturing horrors must be greatly abated in their intensity.
A visit to the establishment at Patricroft, or the Bridgewater Foundry, as
it is called from its vicinity to the canal, may easily be effected, as
the second-class trains from Manchester stop at a station in the
immediate neighbourhood. The proprietors liberally afford access to every
respectable stranger, and the overseers willingly explain those processes
which are most perplexing to the uninitiated.
From Patricroft into Manchester there is scarcely anything to attract
notice. The train stops on an eminence, just above the junction of the
Irwell and the Medlock, whence there is a pretty extensive view over the
townships of Hulme and Chorlton. The prospect is anything but cheering.
Forests of chimneys, clouds of smoke and volumes of vapour, like the
seething of some stupendous cauldron, occupy the entire landscape; there
is no sky, but a dark gray haze, variegated by masses of smoke more dense
than the rest, which look like fleeces of black wool, or clouds of
sublimated ink. It would seem as if fire and water, proverbially the best
servants and the worst masters, were here the recognised despots of
humanity, and that smoke and steam were the visible signs of the tyranny
they exercised over suffering victims. There is little in the Liverpool-
road to dissipate these gloomy illusions; it is not until the traveller
reaches Mosley-street, that he begins to think that Manchester is a place
which may possibly be inhabited from choice.
Page 9.
The Exchange is the first great object of 
curiosity to a visitor of
Manchester. It stands at the lower
end of Market street, which is the
best street in town not unworthy of
ranking as a provincial Regent
street: the front is a semi-circle
of ample dimension, erected in a
bold but chaste style, an
surrounded by an open space, which
enables the visitor to appreciate
the noble proportions of the
building. The lower put of the
building is almost exclusively
occupied by the room in which the
merchants meet; its area is more
than four thousand square feet, and
it is lighted principally by a
semicircular dome. The Exchange may
be regarded as the parliament house of the lords of cotton; it is their
legislative assembly: the affairs of the executive are entrusted to a
smaller body, which meets in the Chamber of Commerce, located in a
different part of the town. This parliament assembles every Tuesday, and
the attendance is greatest at about one o'clock, being the hour of "high
change." There is perhaps no part of the world in which so much is done
and so little said in the same space of time. A stranger sees nothing at
first but a collection of gentlemen with thoughtful intelligent faces, who
converse with each other in laconic whispers, supply the defects of words
by nods and signs, move noiselessly from one part of the room to another,
guided as if by some hidden instinct to the precise person in the crowd
with whom they have business to transact. A phrenologist will nowhere meet
such a collection of decidedly clever heads; and the physiognomist who
declared he could find traces of stupidity in the faces of the wisest
philosophers, would be at a loss to find any of its presence in the
countenance assembled on the Exchange at Manchester. Genius appears to be
not less rare than folly; the characteristic features of the meeting
collectively and individually, are those of talent in high working order.
Whether trade be brisk or dull, "high change" is equally crowded, and the
difference of its aspect at the two periods is sufficiently striking. In
stirring times, every man on change seems as if he belongs to a community
of dancing dervishes, being utterly incapable of remaining for a single
second in one place: it is the principle of a Manchester man, that "nought
is done while aught remains to do;" let him but have the
Page 10.
opportunity, and he will undertake to supply all the markets between China
and Peru, and will be exceedingly vexed if he has lost an opportunity of
selling some yarn at Japan on his way. When trade is dull, the merchants
and factors stand motionless as statues, or move about as slowly as if they
followed a funeral; the look of eagerness is exchanged for that of dogged
obstinacy; it seems to say, "my mind is made up to lose so much, but I am
resolved to lose no more." An increase of sternness and inflexibility
accompanies the decline of the Manchester trade, and foreigners declare
that the worst time to expect a bargain is a season of distress. "High
change" lasts little more than an hour; after the clock has struck two the
meeting gradually melts away, and before three the building is as silent
and deserted as one of the catacombs of Egypt.
Suppose, gentle reader, what is not very far from the fact, that we have
made an appointment with a mill-owner to see his factory this evening. We
are to spend some days in Manchester together, and as the entire social
economy of the town depends on its cotton manufactures, we must endeavour
to form some adequate notion of their nature, in order to prepare ourselves
for rightly comprehending their effects.
More than one visit to a cotton mill is necessary to overcome the
confusion created by its novelty and its complication, so as to obtain any
notion of the several processes to which the material is subjected before
it assumes the shape of yarn. The din of the machinery, which, if there
be any power-looms at work, beats the Falls of Niagara all to nothing; the
rapid motions of the several wheels and shafts the variety and
complication of the several processes which pass under view, distract the
mind, and at first produce a sense of weariness which it is not easy for a
visitor to overcome. On the present occasion it will be better not to
distract ourselves by entering into an examination of the Steam-Engine;
its only connexion with cotton spinning is as a moving power, and its
place is often beneficially supplied by the water-wheel. We need only
remember that steam, or water, turns the horizontal shafts which we shall
see revolving close to the ceiling of every room, and that the straps
which play over these shafts communicate motion to the several machines
we shall inspect.
Silk, flax, wool, and cotton, may be regarded as the basis of all textile
or woven fabrics: the process of weaving is in principle the same for all,
but there is a great variety in the spinning of these several substances,
occasioned by the great difference of their staple. Silk indeed, of which
the substance is already one of continuous thread, is more properly said
to be thrown than spun; cotton has the shortest staple of any material
used in spinning, and consequently there is most difficulty in procuring
from it a perfectly smooth yarn. Mechanical ingenuity is therefore taxed,
not merely to increase the amount, but also to secure uniformity of
production, and the contrivances for the latter purpose are far more
minute and curious than those for increasing the quantity.
Page 11.
Cotton is a vegetable wool, which adheres to the seeds of certain plants,
shrubs, and trees the cotton produced from annual vegetables is far the
most valuable, on account of the length and fineness of its staple, but
shrubs yield the most abundant produce The plants may, with very little
attention, be grown in this country, and the yellow flower of the cotton
is no despicable ornament to the greenhouse. It is indeed frequently
cultivated by horticulturists, and need not therefore be further described.
The seeds round which the wool grows are very oily, and were they packed
with the wool they would render it mouldy and dirty It is therefore
necessary that the seeds should be removed before the cotton is packed for
exportation; and the inferiority of the Hindoos in this process is one of
the reasons why Indian cotton bears so low a price when compared with
American.
Those immense wagons, that are met incessantly traversing the streets of
Manchester, drawn by horses which can alone be matched by the drays of
London, are for the most part laden with bales of cotton in the raw or
manufactured state. Our present concern is with the former; and as some of
the loose particles constantly fall from the bags into the street, it may
be advisable to cast a brief glance at the raw material.
The relative value of raw cotton depends on the length of its staple, the
delicacy of its fibre, and its freedom from dirt and seeds. An unpractised
eye does not easily detect the differences which a manufacturer perceives
at a single glance, and one is apt to conclude that in the sale of cotton
there is great scope for fraud, by mixing the inferior kinds with these of
superior quality. On inquiry, we were informed that there were many
opportunities for such deception, but that it was rarely if ever practised.
Raw cotton is sold by sample, and so high is the sense of commercial
honour among the cotton dealers that a contract is rarely voided by
supplying an article inferior to the sample. Previous to the opening of
the railroad the cotton dealers formed an important part of the merchants
of Manchester, but since that period many manufacturers prefer making
their purchases in Liverpool.
However careful the Americans may be, cotton never comes to England in a
state fit for immediate use; some seeds remain after the most careful
cleaning, and the pressure to which it is subjected in packing, forms hard
matted lumps, and some of the coarser and heavier wool is unavoidably
mixed with that of superior quality. The first operation in the process
of manufacture is consequently the cleaning of the cotton.
It is put into the blowing machine, where the cotton is
torn open by revolving spikes, and subjected to the action
of a very powerful blast, produced by the rapid turnings
of a fan; the light wool is thus blown to some distance
from the heavier portions, the dirt, seeds, etc. This
process is continued in the scutching machine, where the
cotton is beaten by metallic blades making from 3000 to 5000
Page 12.
revolutions in the minute; these completely open the fibre, and separate
the fine wool from the waste, which falls to the ground through a frame of
wire work.
The cleaning process is generally called "willowing," which is either a
corruption of winnowing, or perhaps derived from the willow frame's on
which the cotton was cleaned by beating, before blowing machines were
invented. Previous to this improvement the cotton was placed upon willow
hurdles, or upon cords stretched over a wooden frame, and then beaten with
smooth switches. This operation, technically called batting, though very
fatiguing, and we believe unwholesome, from the dust, etc. which was
scattered about, was usually performed by women: it is now very rarely
practised, except when some remarkably fine cotton is required for the
manufacture of lace, when it is of importance to preserve the length of
the staple, which might be injured by machinery.
The Hindoos open the fibres of their cotton by a bow similar to that which
hatters use in raising wool; the same contrivance appears to have been em-
ployed in America, for we find the term "bowed cotton" still employed in
the language of commerce. Judging from its effects on wool and fur, we
should think that the bow is an effective machine for cleaning and opening
the fibres, but it would be far slower and less productive than the willow.
When cleaned the cotton is brought to the lapping or spreading machine,
where a given weight of the wool is spread over a determinate surface of
cloth, and being then slightly compressed by a cylinder, it is lapped
round a cylindrical roller so as to be in a fit
state for feeding the carding machine. It is a
singular fact, illustrating the accuracy with
which machinery works, that the weight of the
cotton spread on the cloth in this process
regulates the fineness of the thread
ultimately produced, and that there is rarely
any great amount of error in the calculation.
The next process, that of carding, is one of the most beautiful in the
whole of the cotton manufacture. An explanation of the object to be
attained, is necessary for those who have not paid some attention to the
subject. In order that any material should be spun, that is, should have
its fibres twisted together, it is essential that these fibres should be
straight and parallel with each other. After having been subjected to the
action of the willow, the
Page 13.
fibres of the cotton are blown about in every direction, and if compressed
would be entangled with each other. This, which is the object to be gained
for the process of felting, is precisely that which must be carefully
avoided for spinning. In order to straighten the fibre, the cotton is made
to pass between cards or brushes of wire, one of which is stationary and
the other in motion, the wire teeth catch the fibres, and by their
continued action pull them into nearly parallel directions.
This process was anciently, and in same rural districts both of England
and Ireland is still, effected by hand-cards, which might be described as
two brushes with handles, having short wires instead of hairs. 
The labour
was usually performed by women, who placed one of the
cards on the knee, holding it firm with the left hand;
and then spreading the cotton or wool in small
quantities over the wire, drew the other card
repeatedly over it with the right hand until the
fibres were deemed sufficiently straight. When thus
prepared, the cardings were taken off in a roll by
the hand, and laid so as to be united into a
continuous roving by the spinning wheel.
The first great improvement in this process was to fix one of the card to
a table and suspend the other from the ceiling, so that the workman could
move it without having to sustain its weight. Such a contrivance allowed
"stock-cards," as they were called, to be made of double the size of hand-
cards, and consequently to double the quantity of work produced. We have
seen stock-cards in some rural districts, where there is still a domestic
manufacture of woollens, but they are daily becoming of more rare
occurrence. In nearly all manufactures, they have been superseded by the
cylindrical cards, which Mr. Baines has shewn to be the invention of Mr.
Lewis Paul of Birmingham, about the year 1748. About 1760, the process,
which seems to have been either neglected or disused, was revived by Mr.
Morris of Wigan, and applied to the carding of cotton. The perfecting of
the machine has been claimed for Sir Richard Arkwright, but the
originality of his invention has been very fiercely contested. Without
entering into the controversy, we shall proceed to describe briefly the
machine in its present state.
The carding machine has the appearance of a cylindrical box, into which
cotton is given by the roller, round which it was wrapped in the spreading
operation. Its wooden covering is a series of narrow pannels; and if one
of these be lifted, it will be seen that each of them is a card, and that
a cylinder covered with cards occupies the interior of the box, between
which and the
Page 14.
pannel-cards the cotton is rapidly passed. At the opposite side of the box
is a second cylinder, the cards on which, instead of being placed
horizontally,
are wound spirally round the cylinder, which is called a doffer, so as to
remove the carded cotton in a continuous fleece. The cotton is slipped
from the doffer by the action of a slip of metal, finally toothed like a
comb, which being worked against the cylinder by means of a crank, beats
or brushes off the cotton in a fine filmy fleece. The cloud-like appearance
of the carded cotton, as it is brushed from
the doffer or finishing cylinder by the
crank and comb, is singularly beautiful a
breath seems to disturb the delicacy of its
texture, and to the touch it is all but
impalpable. The filmy fleece is gradually
contracted as it passes through a funnel,
by which it is forced to assume the shape
of a roll or sliver. It then passes between
two rollers, by which it is compressed into
the shape of a riband of considerable
tenacity, in which state it coils itself up
in a deep tin can.
Looking at the various parts of this interesting machine, the attention is
first engaged by the feeding cylinder, which supplies the cotton to the
cards
Page 15.
more regularly and continuously than could be effected by hands. The
successive cards on the concave and convex cylinder are seen to subject
the wool to several successive cardings at each revolution of the wheel;
and to prevent the necessity of stopping the machine to remove the carded
cotton, it is stripped off by the doffer, which removes the cotton, not in
successive portions, but in one continuous fleece. Again, the removal of
this fleece from the doffer, which would be both tedious and imperfect if
attempted by hand-cards, is completely accomplished by the simple agency
of the crank and comb.
The construction of the cards well deserves the attention of the visitor.
Each card consists of a band of leather, pierced with teeth of iron wire,
each bit of wire bearing two teeth l-l. The teeth must be perfectly alike
in size and shape, and they must be equally distributed over the surface
of the leather. It may be deemed easy to bend the wire at right angles, so
as to make it penetrate the leather, but a second and more difficult
operation remains; each tooth must be bent to a given obtuse angle \ \,
which must not have the slightest variation in the whole of the same l-l
system of cards. Were any one tooth to vary from the angle formed by the
rest, it would lay hold of more or less cotton, and thus render the
carding irregular. Again, the leather must be of uniform thickness, for
any inequalities would be equivalent to a variation in the length of the
teeth; the holes with which it is pierced to receive the double tooth must
also have the same inclination to the plane of the leather; and finally,
the cross part of the wire at the back must be held fast, so as to prevent
the teeth from easily shifting their position.
A card-making machine, invented by Mr. Dyer of Manchester, was exhibited
at the meeting of the British Association in Birmingham in 1839; it split
the leather, pierced it, cut the wire, formed the teeth, gave them the
requisite inclination, and fixed them in the leather, with a precision and
rapidity which excited the admiration of all the mechanists who saw it.
The cards which it produces, are not however so highly valued as those in
which machinery is more partially employed, but its inventor does not
despair of bringing it to complete perfection.
Carding is not the only operation employed to straighten the fibre of the
cotton. It may easily be conceived that the teeth of the cards will
frequently lay hold of a fibre by the middle, and thus double it together,
in which state it is unfit for spinning. This evil is corrected in the
drawing frame an important part of the spinning machinery, for it executes
work which could scarcely have been effected by human hands. The essential
parts of the drawing frame may be easily understood from description. Each
drawing head consists of three pairs of rollers; the upper one of each pair
being smooth and covered with leather, the lower being fluted
longitudinally. They are placed at a distance from each other, which is
regulated by the staple of the cotton; that is to say, the distance
between each pair of wheels is generally a very little more than the
length of the fibres subjected to their action. The
Page 16.
loose riband formed by the carding machine is pulled through these rollers
and as they revolve with different velocities the fibres pull out each
other, and reciprocally extend each other to their full length.
But not less important object of the drawing frame is to equalize the
consistency of the cardings. One
carding, notwithstanding all the
precautions that have been taken, will
be found to have more or less of
substance than another, and it is
necessary to counteract this
inequality by combining several of
the carded ribands, technically called
"card-ends" into one sliver. Eight
card-ends are usually brought to the
first drawing head, and after passing
through the rollers they combine to
from one sliver of the same density
as each of them separately, thus
increasing eight-fold the chances of
uniformity in the sliver. Four of these slivers are again subjected to
the same process, and thus the chances of uniformity are thirty-two-fold
those of the original card-ends; and this is continued until the last
sliver may be regarded as containing parts of 300 card-ends but for very
fine spinning, the doubling of the fibres, as the process is called, is
multiplied more than 60,000 times.
The drawing frames are fed from the tin cans containing the card-ends, and
the chief duty of those who attend them is to mend or piece the feeding
slivers when one of them is broken, or when one of the cylindrical cans is
exhausted. A contrivance has been recently introduced to abbreviate this
labour; a cylindrical weight is made to fall at intervals into the
receiving can, and by pressing down the sliver, to force it to hold more
than double the quantity which it would contain if the sliver were left to
coil itself loosely. In the mills for fine spinning, great attention is
paid to this process, because any defects left by the drawing frame cannot
be cured in subsequent operations. The labour of attending to the machines
is the lightest in the cotton mill, but there are few parts which require
more violence and care.
As a casual visitor is very likely to pass by a drawing frame without
perceiving its construction, it may be well to mention that there is a
mahogany bar faced with flannel over every drawing head, and a similar bar
pressed
Page 17.
gently by a weight against the lower tier of rollers; these remove all
loose fibres, and it is necessary to displace the upper bar in order to
see the action of the machinery.
The next operation is the making of a roving or thin sliver, about the
thickness of candlewick, and giving it only so much of a twist as 
will
enable it to hold together. The attenuation of
the sliver is accomplished by rollers acting
in the same way as in the drawing process, but
various contrivances have devised to give the
roving just so much tension as is necessary
and no more. Arkwright invented the can-roving
frame, in which a slight twist was given to
the roving by making the receiving can revolve
upon a pivot. It is as necessary that the
rovings after this operation should be wound
off upon bobbins, a process injurious to
their delicate texture; to obviate this evil,
the jack-frame, or jack in the box was
contrived, which wound the roving on a bobbin
as it received its twist instead of leaving
it to coil in the can. At present the process
of roving is generally performed by the bobbin and fly frame, an ingenious
but complex piece of mechanism, though its principles admit of easy
explanation.
Page 18.
Two objects are to be effected: first, the roving is to receive a slight
twist, and, secondly, it is to be then wound on the bobbin. For the first
purpose the motion of the spindle is
sufficient, the chief difficulty lies in
effecting the second. The sliver passes from
the roller to the bobbin through the hollow
arm of a flyer attached to the spindle, the
other arm of the spindle is solid, and serves
only to balance the machinery. In the most
perfect spindles there is a brass ring
attached to the end of the hollow arm of the
flyer, acted upon by a spring, for the
purpose of compressing the roving; there is
also a delivering finger, round which the roving takes a turn which
prevents its being improperly stretched by the centrifugal force produced
by the rotation of the flyer. The amount of twist given to the roving
depends upon the ratio between the speed of the roller by which it is
delivered and that of the spindle, and this ratio, of course, is
invariable during the process. The winding-up however presents many
difficulties fiche delivering finger of the flyer must glide up and down
under regulated pressure, so as to lay the roving evenly over
the entire surface of the bobbin; and as each coil of roving
increases the periphery or thickness of the bobbin, there is
a necessity for a corresponding change of motion to
accommodate the receiving powers of the bobbin to the quantity
of roving given out by the delivering arm of the flyer.
Were the bobbin at rest, every revolution of the spindle would
wind round it a length of roving equal to its circumference;
but as the revolutions of the spindle are determined by the
degree of twist necessary to be given to the roving, and not by
the amount which the bobbin can take up at each revolution,
it becomes necessary to make the bobbin revolve in the same
direction with the flyer, but at a speed so much less as will
enable it to take up the exact amount of roving given out by
the feeding rollers. Suppose that quantity to be six inches,
and that the circumference of the bobbin is at the same time
six inches, if the spindle makes nine revolutions while the bobbin makes
only eights it will have gained one revolution, and by that means will
have wound round the bobbin the exact quantity of roving issued by the
delivering rollers; now as the circumference of the bobbins is constantly
increased by the roving
Page 19.
wound upon it, there is a perpetually recurring necessity for a series of
adjustments, which were found in practice to be beyond the capacity of the
persons employed to superintend the working of these frames. The thicker
that the bobbin becomes in consequence of the roving wound upon it, the
more must its motion be increased in order to diminish the difference of
velocity between it and the spindle: this is effected by causing the
driving strap to act on a conical, instead of a cylindrical drum, thus
giving to the movement a variable instead of an equable velocity. It is
not necessary to enter into any examination of the many ingenious
contrivances which have been devised to render the roving machines more
perfect and automatic; the reader will best appreciate the difficulty of
the operation, by bearing in mind that the process of twisting by the
spindle, and winding on the bobbin, though connected in fact, are quite
independent in principle, and that there is therefore a necessity for the
nicest adjustment, in order that the one should be accommodated to the
other.
It may be noticed that two slivers from the drawing frame are combined in
a roving, and consequently that we are, after this, to double the amount
of the combinations from the original cardings. We may add that the
compressing apparatus attached to the delivering arm of the flyer is not
yet universally used, but is chiefly found in new mills. The roving process
is repeated for the finer kinds, or as they are technically called, the
higher numbers, of yarn. When it is completed, the rovings are taken to be
spun either by the throstle or the mule; but the rovings for higher
numbers are previously worked on the stretching frame, which in all its
essential parts is the same as the mule, and may therefore be included in
the description of that machine.
Twist of low numbers, called water-twist, because it was originally worked
in Arkwright's water-frame, is spun by the throstle, a machine probably
deriving its name from its singing noise. It is in principle nearly the
same as the drawing frame which has been just described; it extends the
rovings by the action of rollers into slender threads, and twists them by
the rotation of spindles and flyers. The machinery however is far more
simple, because the hard-twisted throstle thread does not require such
tender manipulation as the delicate roving. The chief interruption which
takes place in throstle spinning is caused by the necessity of removing
the full bobbins and supplying empty bobbins in their place. The person
employed in this duty is called a "doffer;" and if he is very dexterous
the delay will not average more than half an hour per day. The Danforth
throstle, for which a patent was obtained some years ago, has been
rejected by many eminent spinners, because the bobbins of yarn it affords
being smaller than those turned off by the common throstle, there is a
greater delay in the doffing. It is also objectionable for another reason;
the yarn it produces is softly wound, and is liable to considerable waste
when reeled upon the bobbins in the warping mill. The yarn, however, is
said to possess a greater degree of elasticity, and is therefore
preferred for the weaving of certain kinds of calico.
Page 20.
Mule-spinning is both more common and more interesting than throstle-
spinning. Let the reader imagine himself in the room, a part of which is
represented in the accompanying cut, and it is probable that the
circumstances
worthy of his notice will present themselves in nearly the following order.
He will see a carriage about a yard in height, and of very considerable
length, varying in different mills, bearing a row of spindles between its
upper rails: it has generally three wheels, which traverse on the same
number of iron guiding bars, so as to allow of its drawing out to a
distance of more than four feet from the stationary frame; as it recedes
from the frame, it draws with it, and elongates the threads or rather
rovings delivered to it through rollers, by a series of bobbins in the
creels or stationary rails. The threads as they are elongated are twisted
by the spindles; and should any of them break, it is the duty of a boy or
girl, called a piecer, to join the disunited ends as the carriage moves
from the upright frame. A girl in the act of piecing the yarn is
represented in the cat. When the carriage has receded to its full extent,
the spindles continue to revolve until the requisite quantity of twist is
communicated to the yarn. The spinner then causes the spindles to revolve
backwards until he has unwound the portion of thread which has coiled
spirally round it from the point to the nose of the cop, and at the same
time he lowers a faller wire, supported by hooks, as seen in the cut, so
as to regulate the winding of the yarn on the cop in a proper spiral. There
is great nicety required in regulating the pushing back of the carriage,
for it is necessary that its rate of travelling should be commensurate
with the revolution of the
Page 21.
spindle. Three simultaneous and delicate movements have thus to be
effected by the spinner as the carriage returns: he must guide the faller
wire so as to ensure the regular winding of the yarn one cop; he must
regulate the rotation of the spindles, of which there are often a thousand
to one mule; and he push the carriage at such a rate as to supply
precisely the exact amount of yarn that the spindles can take up.
The little piecers can only take up the ends when the carriage is within a
foot or two of the delivering roller, and they have therefore an interval
of rest while the carriages traverse backwards and forwards. The spinner
too has a brief respite while the carriage is moving outwards from the
frame. The time taken to make a stretch, that is to draw out a thread
equal in length to the range of the carriage, increases with the fineness
of the yarn, and varies also according to the completeness of the machinery
and the skill of the operative. The breaking of the threads depends not
merely on the machinery, but to a very great extent on the atmosphere and
temperature. We were in a mill during the prevalence of a sharp drying
east wind, and found that it produced such an effect on the fibres of the
cotton that the threads broke faster than the piecers could mend them, and
that the spinning of very high numbers at such a time was all but
impossible. The rooms in which fine yarn is spun are kept at a temperature
of from 70 f to 80 f which is not so high as to produce much inconvenience.
It is obvious that the spinner is a very important workman when such
mules as that we have described are employed on him depend not merely the
machinery and its work, but the employment of the young piecers and the
"scavengers" or "cleaners," do are constantly employed removing the waste
cotton or "fly" as is shewn in the cut. The spinners knew their strength,
and though they received very large remuneration, frequently turned out
for higher wages, by which they not only threw their assistants, ie
piecers and cleaners, out of employment, but also the operatives engaged
in the several processes for preparing the cotton previous to its being
spun. To remedy this evil, many attempts were made to construct self-facing
mules, that is, mules which would not require the attention of a spinner,
but could be wholly managed by his subordinates Mr. Roberts, of the firm
of Sharp, Roberts and Co, was the first, and is still the only inventor
that can be said to have succeeded in this desirable object; his self-
acting mules are very generally used in the mill where low-numbers are
span, but I believe that they have not been found applicable to the
spinning of the finer yarns. After being spun, the yarn, if not destined
for weft or doubling, is wound of on a hexagon reel, one yard and a half
in circumference; the reel strikes a check after every eighty revolutions,
which form a what is called a ley, that is 120 yards of yarn, seven leys
form a hank of 840 yards of yarn, and the thread is known by the number of
these hanks that weigh a pound.
The finest yarn ever yet produced was spun in the mill of T. Hoddsworth,
Page 22.
Esq.: there were 450 hanks in the pound, which at 840 yards to the hank
gives a length of 378,000 yards, or about 215 miles. This is, however, a
very unusual degree of fineness: it is very rare that higher numbers than
300 are used in any manufacture.
The hanks of yarn are ranged according to their numbers, and are packed
in cubical bundles of from five to ten pounds weight. These packages are
closely compressed by a simple machine called the bundling-press, and being
neatly wrapped in paper are ready to be sent to market.
The yarn designed for making bobbin-net lace and the finer species of
hosiery, is subjected to another process called gassing, which is in fact
the singeing off the loose fibres, or any other unevenness of the thread,
by a flame of gas. The machine consists of a series of jet flames of gas,
through each of which the thread passes several times with a velocity
proportioned to the number of the yarn. The machinery is set in motion by
the winding and unwinding of bobbins, each of which revolves from 2000 to
3500 times per minute. Each thread passes through a cleaner, slit in a
lever; and when a knot or rough point occurs too large to pass through the
slit, the whole mechanism for singeing and winding that thread is thrown
out of gear by the jerk given to the lever. The attention of the gasser or
tenter of the machine, who is generally a female, being thus directed to
the defect, an instant remedy is applied without stopping the action of the
rest of the machinery.
The ashes of the fibres singed off form a red and almost impalpable powder
like Spanish snuff, which it would be perilous to inhale; the operation is
therefore conducted in a room protected from the effects of sudden drafts
by double doors and a long entrance passage secured by an additional door.
The gassing process is usually carried on in a detached building, partly
to prevent the danger of fire, and partly to guard against any disturbance
by the opening or shutting of doors.
Yarn is formed into thread by the doubling process: two or more mule-
spindle cops, or throstle bobbins, deliver their yarn through a pair of
rollers to a spindle and fly, similar to that of the common throstle, which
twists the double yarn in a direction opposite to the twist which the yarn
received in spinning. The operation is usually facilitated by previously
passing the yarn through a weak solution of starch, which renders it more
tenacious and compact. Doubling, until within the last few years, was a
business distinct from spinning, but it is now common in the mills where
high numbers are spun. The process is most delicate when applied to the
very fine yarns used in the manufacture of lace, varying from number 140
to number 350, the extreme delicacy of which requires the most tender
manipulation.
Having now reached the conclusion of the spinning processes, it will be
convenient to recapitulate them briefly, and point out the general
principle that pervades the whole. In all the machines, from the carding
frame to the mule, it will be seen that the cotton is continually
attenuated by being passed
Page 23.
through rollers, until a roving is made perfectly even and continuous,
after which it receives the torsion or twist that makes it into yarn. The
card end is like a thick rope, which is reduced more and more as it passes
through each successive system of rollers, until it becomes as fine or
even finer than a human hair. It is precisely on the same principle that
plates of metal are made smooth and thin, by being passed successively
through several systems of cylinders. Before the invention of spinning by
rollers, this process of attenuation, now so complex, was effected by the
finger and thumb of the spinner. Hence arose the great superiority of the
Hindoos, especially in the finer fabrics, such as muslins; they possess a
delicacy of touch, which apparently compensates for their want of muscular
strength, beyond any other nation on the face of the earth. We possess a
piece of Dacca muslin woven of hand-spun yarn, and it requires the
assistance of the microscope to discover that the sensitive fingers of the
Hindoo spinner have failed to produce a thread equal in evenness and
regularity to that wrought by the multitudinous rollers of a Manchester
factory.
A power-loom shed, or room, is very commonly attached to spinning mills,
so that the visitor may see the two processes of spinning and weaving in
one establishment. We should, however, recommend the examination of the
processes on different days, because the multitude and variety of their
several details are likely to fatigue the mind and perplex the memory. The
first step in the process of weaving is the formation of the warps, that
is, the longitudinal threads of the web which lie parallel to each other
through the breadth of the cloth. Warp yarn, or twist, is more firmly
twisted and harder than the weft, which is shot through it horizontally by
the shuttle; and hence we find in the economy of Indian manufactures that
the warp yarn was usually prepared by the Mohammedans and weft by the
Hindoos. The warp yarn is wound from off the cops of the mule, or the
bobbins of the throstle, on very large bobbins, by means of the winding
frame. The threads pass through glass hooks fixed on the guiding frame,
which traverses laterally to the right and left, so as to distribute the
yarn evenly over the surface of the bobbin In this operation the yarn is
passed through water to increase its tenacity.
The bobbins are then transferred to the warping mill, and their yarns are
wound off on a wooden cylinder. The working of the warping machine
requires very little explanation. As the yarns are unrolled from the system
of bobbins, they pass over and under a set of cylinders which bring all the
threads into one horizontal plane; they are then conducted through guide
wires, fixed like the teeth of a comb to the receiving cylinder, which, in
addition to its rotatory motion is capable of being raised or depressed as
diameter of its barrel is increased or diminished by the winding on or
off of the yarn. Great care is requisite in this process to take up and
join any threads which may be accidentally broken; hence the machinery is
painted black, so that the warper, usually a female, can at once perceive
the
Page 24.
deficiency of any of the white threads on the dark ground. If she allows a
broken thread to escape, she must unwind the warp again until she discovers
it; and though machinery is provided to facilitate this process, and
prevent any of the other threads receiving injury while she is searching
for the broken thread, yet there is much delay if the unwinding has to go
far back, and as the warper is paid by the piece, neglect or delay sadly
impairs her wages.
Though this is really a very simple process, yet it is one which always
attracts the notice of strangers, because the number of bobbins giving out
yarn from the bobbin frame produces a very pleasing pictorial effect. The
simplicity of the mechanism does not, however, diminish the interest of
the operation. A visitor who is anxious to witness skill and training in
the attendant, as well as power and ingenuity in the machine, will be
struck with the extraordinary vigilance and quickness of sight displayed
by the warper. Though perhaps a thousand threads are winding before her,
if one, whether near or remote, should happen to break, she at once throws
the machinery out of gear, and proceeds to piece the ends together. In the
warping machine, the entire warp is distributed on eight cylinders, and
from them it is rolled upon a single cylinder in the dressing frame.
In the dressing frame, the warp is wound from the eight cylinders on to
the weaving beam. In its progress it passes through a warp reed of brass
wires, and by means of a small roller is spread into a horizontal plane.
Sizing, that is, paste or starch, is then applied to it by a cylinder
turning in a wooden trough filled with cold paste, the superfluous
moisture is squeezed out by the action of a second cylinder, and the
moisture which it had imbibed with the sizing is squeezed out; as the warp
advances it passes between flat brushes, so
Page 25.
constructed they only touch the yarn in one direction of their movement.
It is then dried by being passed over a series of tin cylinders heated by
steam,
and the process is accelerated by a fan of three wings, which directs a
powerful stream of hot air against the warp. When dry, the threads pass
through a system of looped twines, called heddles, and through a reed to
the weaving beam. The dressing machine is double, four warping cylinders
giving out the yarn at one end and four at the other, but the threads from
both pass through the same heddles and reed to the weaving beam. The
general outline of the operation of weaving is familiar to most persons;
but it will perhaps be best to explain it by reference to a common loom.
The warp is wound round a weaving beam placed
at the extremity of the loom, remote from the
operative. The alternate threads of the warp
are kept separate by rods, and each alternate
set of warp yarns passes through a heddle. In
very complicated work, several heddles are
employed, but only two sets are used for the
weaving of common cloth. Heddles are thin slips
of
Page 26.
wood from which twines looped in the middle are suspended, through which
the warp yarns are alternately drawn, half through the front and half
through the back heddle. They are so suspended from the framework of the
loom as to be alternately raised or depressed by treddles, or levers,
connected with the heddles, which the weaver moves by the pressure of the
foot. In front of the heddles is a light wooden frame suspended from the
top of the loom so as to swing freely;
this is called the batten or lay.
The lower bar of the frame is the reed, an oblong frame
divided into numerous compartments, by brass or heavy
iron wires wires fixed at equal intervals. These divisions were formerly
made of split reeds, and hence the instrument takes its name. One thread
of the warp passes through each interval or dent of the reed. In front of
the weaver is the cylinder round which the cloth is wound as fast as it is
woven. The weaver is provided with a shuttle, which is shaped like a
canoe, and holds within it a cop or bobbin of weft yarn, which revolves
and gives out thread as it is wanted through a hole in the side. This
side. This is placed between the alternate yarns of the warp, and a string
being fastened to each end, in the middle of which is a
kind of handle called the picking peg, it can be shot
backward and forward by a jerk.* The weaver sitting down
at the front of the loom presses with one of his feet on the treddle,
which brings down the corresponding heddle with its share of warp and
raises the other. He then, by a smart jerk, drives the shuttle between the
warp yarns from one side of the loom to the other, and the cop of yarn
within the shuttle gives out a shoot of weft in its passage. He then
depresses the other treddle, which of course reverses the position of the
heddles, and then yarns and jerks the shuttle back again, throwing out in
its passage a second shoot of yarn. After every cast of the shuttle, he
pulls toward him the batten, or lay, with its reed, which drives home to
the rest of the web the weft yarn given out by the preceding easts of the
shuttle. As the web is woven it is wound off on the cylinder.
The fineness or coarseness of the web is obviously measurable by the
number of dents in the reed; and it is equally obvious that any
irregularity in the intervals between the dents would produce an unsightly
inequality in the cloth. Hence the reedmaker is a very important mechanist
in furnishing the implements for weaving, particularly for very fine and
close textures. A
* The shuttle was formerly thrown by the hand as it still is in
the finer processes of weaving. The picking-peg was invented by
Mr. John Kay of Bury, in 1738, and simple as the contrivance may
appear, it more than doubled the productiveness of the loom. Instead
of being rewarded for his invention, Kay was persecuted as a
dangerous innovator; he was driven from his native land by those who
thought that his invention would diminish the demand for labour, and
he died in Paris a heartbroken exile.
Page 27.
very ingenious machine for the construction of reeds has been recently
made by Mr. Chapman of Manchester. It supplies the wire, cuts it to the
requisite length, fixes and binds it at the required intervals with the
most perfect accuracy, and performs all this with a rapidity and precision
which can scarcely be surpassed by any other machinery. As it is necessary
that the wires for the dents should be of equal thickness throughout, the
machine draws and flattens the wire through cylindrical rollers; and there
is a contrivance for throwing the machinery out of gear when any
imperfection or inequality occurs in the wire. The mode of counting the
dents in a reed varies in different localities; Mr. Chapman distinguishes
his by the number of hundred dents in a yard. He shewed us one reed which
contained the amazing number of 4800 dents in the yard, that is to say,
133 in an inch so that his machine had actually made 266 divisions of a
single inch, mathematically exact, both in parallelism and equality.
In order that the weaving should be perfect, great care is necessary in
all the preliminary arrangements of the warp yarn, which must be extended
on the loom in parallel lines, and with an equal degree of tension. The
rods which separate the alternate threads, technically called lease-rods,
are to be set so as to keep the threads which are to go through one heddle
quite distinct from those belonging to the other. Having received his yarn
in a bundle, the weaver first rolls it regularly on the yarn cylinder,
keeping the threads distinct by an instrument called a ravel, which is in
fact a coarse kind of reed. After the warp is wound on the cylinder, the
operation of "drawing-in" commences; that is, the alternate threads are to
be drawn through their respective healds or heddles, and all the threads
through the dents of the reed. The instrument used in this process is
called a sley, or reed-hook, and is so constructed as to take two
threads through every dent or interval of the reed. In
reeds of very high number, for weaving the finest muslins,
the "drawing-in" is an operation of great nicety, requiring
both sharpness of sight and delicacy of manipulation; and the
reed-hooks employed are made of the finest and best tempered
steel; but in ordinary cloth the process is simple, and is
usually performed by women.
The lease, or separation of the alternate threads in the warp yarn, is
made by the pins in the warping mill, and is preserved by the lease rods.
These rods being tied together at the ends, secure the permanency of the
lease and the operative in drawing the alternate yarns through the heddles.
To facilitate the process the beam on which the warp yarn has been wound
is suspended a little above the heddles, so as to allow the yarn to hang
down perpendicularly. The operative then opens the loop in each of the
twines of
Page 28.
the heddles successively, and through each draws a warp thread. This is
therefore an operation not very unlike threading a needle, having its eye
in the middle instead of the end. After the threads have
been passed singly through the loops or eyes of the
heddles, they are drawn in pairs through the dents of
the reed. The heddles are then mounted with the cords
by which they are moved, and the reed being placed in
the batten, every thing is ready for the weaver to
commence his operations.
The power-loom is now generally used for the weaving of
plain cloth, and for various kinds of twilled and
figured goods Mr Roberts is the patentee of the power-
loom most commonly used; but many other mechanists have produced various
contrivances for weaving by machinery, and there can be no doubt that
manual labour, at least for the coarser kinds of goods, must rapidly fall
into disuse. In one respect the power-loom has a very obvious advantage
over the hand-loom the batten, lay or lathe, to which the reed is attached,
drives home the weft to the rest of the web after it has been shot from
the spindle; now a weaker or stronger blow of this lathe alters the
thickness of the cloth, and after any interruption, the most experienced
weaver finds it difficult to commence with a blow of precisely the same
force as that with which he left off. In the power-loom the lathe is
easily adjusted to give a steady certain blow, and when once regulated
by the engineer, it moves with unvarying precision from the beginning to
the end of the piece. Hence power-loom cloth is always of a more equable
and regular texture than that woven by hand.
Power-looms are generally placed in sheds, and lighted from the top by a
single range of windows to every row of looms. The weavers, or rather the
tenters, have very little to do besides watching the machinery and
correcting any defects in the materials to be woven. As the labour is
light, it is usually performed by women or young persons; and we were
informed that the business is so simple as to be easily learned in a month
or six weeks.
The cloth when woven is either made up for sale in an unbleached state, or
sent to the bleach-works, where, as we shall hereafter see, it goes through
a
Page 29.
series of processes not less ingenious, and scarcely less complicated than
those which have been just described. Having noticed the several processes
displayed in a cotton mill, it remains to examine the structure of the
edifice in is various and complicated machinery is contained. This is a
subject of much greater importance than is generally supposed, for the
architectural arrangements of the mill exercise very great influence, not
only on the perfection of the manufacture, but also of the health and
morals of operatives. Mr. Fairbairn of Manchester, in addition to his
great eminence as an engineer, is the most distinguished authority in
factory architecture, and the mills erected under his superintendence may
fairly be taken as models.
The moving power may either be the steam-engine or the water-wheel, or
a combination of both. There are few opportunities for the erection of
water-wheels in the immediate vicinity of Manchester, and I believe that
all the town mills are set in motion by steam. But in the romantic valleys
and dales, north and east of the town, at a distance of some ten to thirty
miles, waterfalls are brought to aid steam and save the consumption of
coals. Formerly, the steam-engine was imbedded in the structure of the
building in which it was placed, so that when it was necessary to be
removed, a great part of the masonry had to be taken down; modern engines
are usually constructed more like those used in steam-packets, they are
secured by bolts to the floor and walls, and can be taken away without
any displacement of the structure. The boilers which supply steam are
usually placed in an external shed. The engine or engines, for two are
sometimes combined, work by cranks and cogs,
Page 30.
so as to set in motion the horizontal shaft to which the fly-wheel belongs.
From this shaft, motion is communicated to the main upright shaft, which
extends from the foundation to the upper story of the mill. This again sets
in motion horizontal shafts extending along the ceiling of each story in
the building. The advantage of having two engines arises from the working
of them in such a way that the one exerts its greatest force when the
other has the least, so that the joint operation of both gives an equable
motion to the shafts, which being smooth, highly polished, and fixed in
firm bearings of brass work, silently and evenly, without producing any of
those vibrations which those who only know the working of steam-engines
from the experience of a steam-packet might expect, and which I am
informed was frequently felt in the older factories.
Though water may not be wanting to drive a wheel, the vicinity of a river
or canal is almost essential to a mill, in order to facilitate the
conveyance of fuel, to supply the boilers, and to afford good drainage.
Hence, most of the mills in Manchester are close either to the Irwell or
the Medlock; and the noble Mersey is studded with factories for miles upon
miles of its course.
Compactness is a very important consideration in the construction of a mill.
It is desirable that as little time as possible should be lost in removing
the cotton from the scene of one set of operations to the stage of its
next process. Hence, mills are erected of seven or eight stories in
height, even in those localities where the saving of ground need not be
taken into consideration.
The stairs are now, almost without exception, of
stone; the staircase is of the kind usually called a well,
that is, it winds spirally round a hollow shaft in the
centre. As communication by the stairs would in many cases
be tedious and fatiguing, the centre of the well is
occupied by a contrivance called the hoist, which may be
briefly described as a movable closet that can ascend or
descend at pleasure through the shaft of the well, and
land the persons in it on any of the floors of the mill,
through doors which open from the shaft on the lobbies:
A A and B B are the walls of the well shaft, C is part
of a door in the wall B, leading to the floor or some
lobby of the mill; E is the hoist, which is raised by the rope G. This
rope passes
Page 31.
over a system of wheels and pulleys, being worked by the counterbalancing
weight F, which ascends as the hoist descends, and vice versa. H is a
passage leading to apartments in the mill; I I is the double rope pulley,
by pressing on which the persons in the hoist can either ascend or descend
as they please. This very economic and benevolent contrivance for saving
the fatigue of ascending and descending stairs, was the joint invention of
Messrs. W. Strut and Frost, of Derby.
The most scrupulous attention is paid to cleanliness in almost every mill;
those which were exceptions are fast disappearing. But cleanliness is found
in Manchester where it would be least expected, among the firemen and
attendants on the boilers. The coals are raised from their bins in a yard
by a series of buckets, similar to those of the dredging machines used for
deepening the beds of rivers, thence they are emptied into a wagon with a
drop-bottom, which moves on a railway over the feeding-hoppers attached to
each furnace, and are supplied to the fires in the exact proportion
required to generate steam necessary for the work.
Not only are the floors and walls kept free from the slightest impurity,
but the overseers take care that the children should keep themselves neat.
They go around every morning and reprove those who have failed to wash
themselves after breakfast; the delinquents are without excuse, as soap,
water and towels were provided gratuitously for their use. In many mills,
boxes and nests of drawers are provided, in which the female operatives
deposit their street dresses, and put on their working clothes before they
begin their labours. There is also a separate washing and dressing room for
the women, from which as well as from their other places of retirement, the
male operatives are carefully excluded. We have been much interested by
observing the difference of appearance between the females when at work,
and when they are going home to dinner; they do not exhibit any trace of
their occupation when they appear in the street; many of them indeed
display in the arrangement of their dress and person a neatness and taste
not unbecoming a higher walk of life.
The proper ventilation of the rooms is now regarded as an object of
primary importance in the construction of mills Taylor's mill, near
Preston, is in this respect a perfect model; it has in every room a double
system of ventilators; the series at the top of each room removing the foul
air, while fresh air is supplied by those near the floor.
The mills are warmed by steam-pipes, from which some portion of the steam
is permitted to escape and mix with the surrounding atmosphere. We have
already noticed that a moist warm temperature is essential to the perfec-
tion of cotton manufactures, and especially to the spinning of the finer
yarns; but the influence of such an atmosphere on the health of the
operatives appearing questionable, we have sought information from various
medical gentlemen who had enjoyed long opportunities for observing the
vital statistics of factories. They unanimously condemned the system of
warming apartments by stoves or
Page 32
hot-air pipes; they declared that a dry, heated atmosphere is pernicious, and
referred to the experience of the calico-printers, and of those who are in
the habit of using Arnott's stoves. We subsequently found that bleachers
and calico-printers have generally adopted the system of heating by steam,
in consequence of the ill effects produced by dry hot air on the health of
the operatives.
Regularity and precision are required in all the operations of a cotton
mill, and these are enforced by the accurate working of the machinery.
Accidents from the machinery are of very rare occurrence; the most
dangerous parts of the turning shafts, which almost alone are perilous to
the incautious, are either protected by wooden boxes or placed where there
is rarely occasion to pass them. The driving-straps are dangerous only to
those who voluntarily encounter peril. Were the proprietors to leave the
dangerous parts of their machinery so exposed as to produce great liability
to accident, they would not only be needlessly cruel, but stupidly blind
to their own interests. Any accident would produce a derangement of
machinery, the repairing of which would cost infinitely more than the cases
or boxes necessary to prevent its occurrence. In one mill, we are told
that slight cuts and bruises were frequently occasioned by the tricks
which young operatives played upon each other when employed to oil the
machinery, but in most of the instances in our inquiry from the operatives
respecting the frequency of accidents, they laughingly asked if we thought
workpeople were such fools as to hurt themselves designedly.
Most modern mills are built fire-proof; those which are not so, have gene-
rally a fire-engine of their own, in the use of which the operatives are
occasionally exercised. It is now also the favourite plan to have the
cotton raised by a crane in its raw state to the upper story; it then
descends from floor to floor in the successive stages of its manufacture,
until on the ground-floor it is woven into cloth by the power-loom.
The amount of capital invested in a spinning mill is usually calculated by
the number of spindles required, which not unfrequently amounts to one
hundred thousand. Some years ago the cost of a mill was estimated at a
pound per spindle; but in consequence of the progress of mechanical
improvement, the cost is not now rated higher than 13s. 4d. per spindle.
The rapidity with which the great engineering houses can stock a mill with
all its engines and machinery is scarcely credible; they are enabled to do
so by having accurate wooden models of all the several parts, from which
castings are easily taken, and the framework is thus got ready with the
greatest expedition.
Having gone through a cotton mill, let us now breathe a little fresh air,
or at least the atmosphere that bears the name in the manufacturing
districts. Manchester is watered by the Irwell and its tributaries, the
Medlock and the Irk, and no three streams in the universe are forced to do
such an amount of work and scavengering in proportion to their size. The
Irwell separates Manchester from the borough of Salford, as the Thames
divides Southwark from
Page 33.
London; but the connexion between Manchester and Salford almost amounts
to identity; the same occupations are pursued in both; many who have
places of business in one, reside in the other, and the boundary between
them is so narrow that it is crossed in a moment. This facility did not
always exist: the old bridge over the Irwell, which was steep, narrow, and
inconvenient, was continued from the fourteenth century until the
September of 1837, when it was stopped by order of the authorities, and a
temporary wooden bridge erected preparatory to the taking down of the
ancient structure, and the building of a new bridge more suited to the
exigencies of the locality. This was chiefly owing to the exertions of the
Manchester Improvement Committee: at their instigation the venerable bridge
was indicted at the Quarter Sessions of Salford, October 1836, for
insufficiency of footway, roadway, and water-way; not a single legal
antiquarian appeared to plead for the antique pile; it was taken down, and
the new bridge was opened on the 20th of March 1839, the anniversary of
her Majesty's accession, in whose honour the bridge received the name of
Victoria.
The view of and from the Victoria Bridge offers many objects of interest
to the spectator. On the Manchester side we catch a glance of
the old
Collegiate Church and Cheetham College, both of which
we shall subsequently visit; while in the direction of
Salford we see the best constructed and tallest
chimneys of factories that are to be found in the
district. Indeed some of them have a good
architectural effect, and were they built of stone
instead of brick, when they cease to vomit forth
smoke they might pass for triumphal columns.
The river is really unsightly. Gas draining, the refuse of factories,
unite with countless other abominations to contaminate the stream, and
render it equally fatal to animal and vegetable life. The barges which
pass up and down add to the sombre effect of its dark colour, they are
clumsy, heavily constructed vessels, and are generally propelled by poles
or shafts. The eye accustomed to the dashing steamers and trim-built
wherries of the Thames, receives little pleasure from contemplating the
navigation of the Irwell. The aspect of the Medlock is still worse,-ðas
seen from the bridge leading into Chorlton, it is like nothing but an
overgrown puddle. It is, however, unfair to judge of these rivers in their
artificial state. The upper vale of the Med
Page 34
lock offers a most tempting excursion to geologists. If we cross the
bridge and visit the crescent of Salford, we shall have a delightful
landscape view, exhibiting what the Irwell might have been had not its
waters been enslaved to cotton.
Manufactures haunt us even here; but the immense pile of building seen to
the right is not a cotton mill, it is a bleach-work, erected there on
account of the valuable supply of water afforded by the river. In spite of
our tolerance, or rather our liking for manufactures, we could wish that
the Dales Bleach-works were erected in any other place. The entire plain
formed by the winding of the Irwell at this spot, would have formed a
noble park for the recreation of the wearied operatives af Manchester and
Salford; they would have been enabled to compare their condition with that
of rural life for a considerable farm and many detached cottages are
within the field of view while their love of picturesque landscape, which
strange as it may seem is stronger in no class than the operatives of
Manchester, would have been gratified by the rising grounds of Kersall and
Broughton, studded as they are with mansions and villas of varied
architecture.
There are a number of book-stalls in Manchester. One of great celebrity
stood near the entrance into Salford, which is now chiefly remembered on
account of its connexion with an interesting personal history we shall
take the liberty to narrate, suppressing, for obvious reasons, the name of
the hero.
Some thirty or forty years ago a young carpenter, in a Welsh county, was
drawn for the militia; he had no taste for a soldier's life, with its great
dangers and small pay. In addition to the ordinary mysteries of his own
trade, he had acquired great skill in turning, was a tolerable wheelwright,
and when no more experienced workman could be had, was found able to mend
the machinery of a mill, and even to suggest some mechanical improvements
which his neighbours were too obstinate to adopt. After a very brief
period of service he deserted and came to London, where he obtained
employment in a lathe manufactory. Here he soon became conspicuous for his
mechanical skill, and the ingenuity of his contrivances to diminish labour
and perfect the machines he constructed. While he was rapidly advancing in
the confidence of his employer and the estimation of his comrades, he
happened to meet in the street a sergeant belonging to his former
regiment, by whom he was recognised. It was necessary for him to quit
London in order to escape the consequences of his desertion; he sought
shelter and employment in several provincial towns, and at length came to
Manchester. He had no acquaintances in the town, and was for some time
unable to procure work; during this interval of reluctant leisure, his
attention was attracted by the sight of some mathematical books on the old
stall in Salford; he stopped to look at them, entered into conversation
with the proprietor, who was an intelligent humourist, and soon inspired
him with an interest in his fortunes.
One morning as the adventurer went to consult his friend at the book-stall
Page 35.
on his chances of obtaining employment, a gentleman came up to purchase
some work on practical mechanics. As he turned over the plates, which
appeared complex, he got a little puzzled, and said to himself in a half-
whisper, "I cannot understand this!" His perplexity and anxiety were so
evident that the young stranger was induced to come to his assistance; he
explained the diagrams in such lucid and simple language, that the
gentleman was prompted to inquire into his history. The tale was soon
told; and the keeper of the book-stall added to it, that since the young
man had come to Manchester he had been very anxious to procure work, and
that he had employed the interval in the study of mathematics.
"Do you understand anything of the management of lathes, young man?"
asked the gentleman.
"Yes, sir, for lathe-making was the business in which I was engaged."
"Well; come to my house to-morronv. I have got down a lathe from one of
the first makers in London, but owing to some peculiarities in its construc-
tion, I fear that I cannot easily find a person qualified to set it up."
On the morrow the young man went at the appointed time to the house of
his new employer. The lathe was unpacked, and he at once recognised it as
one of his own construction. He mentioned the fact to the gentleman, and
identified his work by specifying some private marks on the machinery.
When his task was accomplished, the young man solicited and obtained
leave to try some experiments on turning spindles. He produced some
specimens so obviously superior to the spindles then in use, that his
patron was influenced to advance him a sum sufficient to set him up in the
turnery business. The new spindles were soon eagerly sought; their maker
at the same time gained opportunities of becoming acquainted with the
several processes of a cotton mill, and as he studied them, improvement
after improvement was opened to his mind. His fame as a mechanist rapidly
increased; men of wealth sought a partnership with the man of talent;
capital was supplied to carry out the suggestions of ingenuity; and at the
present moment the hero of this history is at the head of an
establishment, the future of which extends through both hemispheres. After
having heard this history, it was impossible to avoid feeling some regret
for the disappearance of the old book-stall in Salford.
In rambling through the old streets round the Collegiate Church, the
traveller will be amused to find that one of them bears the ominous name
of "Hanging Ditch." Local tradition declares that it derived this name
from having been the scene of the execution of several Romish clergy and
recusants in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. It is now chiefly remarkable
for the Corn Exchange, one of the most chaste and elegant of the many
structures for which Manchester is indebted to the taste of Mr. Lane. It
is an Ionic structure, adapted from the Temple of Ceres in Attica;
unfortunately, its situation, in a narrow street, prevents it receiving
all the admiration which it merits.
Page 36.
At the dining hour in Manchester one o'clock mills are closed, warehouses
deserted, shops turned into solitudes, and business of every kind
suspended. Many writers have attempted to delineate the impetuous rush
which at the stroke of the single hour takes place in the streets; to us
it appeared a living picture of the French in the Russian campaign flying
before the hourras of the Cossacks, or speeding in their half-famished
state to plunder the magazines of Smolensko. The rush is fierce while it
lasts, but in a few minutes it is over, and Manchester for half-an-hour is
the City of the Silent. As two o'clock approaches the diners are seen
returning, individually or in groups, with slow and measured steps, to
their respective duties; but it is full three o'clock before the full
career of business is resumed, and thus the two best hours of the day are
all but wholly wasted in Manchester.
Some efforts have been made and are making to conquer this tyrant custom,
but it appears inveterate, for it is regularly observed by many of those
who condemn it most loudly. It cannot be ascribed to indolent or luxurious
habits: in no part of the world do men of business allow themselves such
little recreation as in Manchester; they commence their toil at an early
hour in the morning, they continue it to a late hour of the night: the
dining hour is their only interval of relaxation, and though it is
productive of many inconveniences, it will, we think, be found unalterable.
Entering Piccadilly from Market-street, attention is directed to the im-
mense warehouses just behind the Infirmary, in George-street and Mosley-
street: the largest, and most appropriate in its style of architecture,
being a plain substantial building of brick, belongs to Sir T. Potter and
Co.
Oldham-road is nearly a continuous street the whole way to Oldham, a dis-
tance of about seven miles, but since the opening of the Leeds and
Manchester railway, its importance as a thoroughfare has been greatly
diminished. The road or street passes through the district of Ancoats,
which is the chief abode of the operative population, and is therefore
worthy of a visit, which shall be paid at a future opportunity. Continuing
along the London-road, we reach the new terminus of the Manchester and
Birmingham railway, which is now in process of erection. No railroad on
which we have travelled possesses a terminus so favourably circumstanced;
it is almost in the centre of the business part of the town, and yet it
has facilities of ingress and egress, equal if not superior to those which
are located in the outskirts. This railway is a singular monument of
enterprise and speculation: Manchester has already a railway communication
with Birmingham by the Grand Junction line, and the saving of time by the
new line will not at most exceed an hour.
In the centre of Ardwick Green, there is a pretty miniature lake; the
houses round the green are plain substantial dwellings, but those on the
south side are detached buildings, each surrounded with a little
ornamental plantation, which with the like produces a very pleasing effect.
At Victoria Park, an attempt has been made to combine domestic comfort
Page 37.
with architecture taste. The rapid conversion of the private residences in
Mosley-street and many other parts of Manchester into warehouses, induced a
company of gentlemen to purchase this park, which contains about 140 acres
of land, in order to stud it with villas, which would unite the advantage
of vicinity to the town with a freedom from the smoke of factories and with
the privacy of a country residence. The plan was well arranged; the park
has been laid out so as to make the most of the space, for it contains
five miles of walks, and the villas already erected are for the most part
in good taste.
The Oxford-road, adjoining Victoria Park, is adorned on each side with
villas and private residences, superior on the whole to those on any other
outlet from the town. At some short distance from it, is the suburb of
Green Heys, occupied for the most part by a colony of Germans.
Oxford-strect deteriorates as we get back towards Manchester, and near its
upper end reveals a nest of filthy hovels, called Little Ireland. A large
brick building near All-Souls Church is used as a college, principally for
the education of Unitarian ministers.
Oxford-road leads us into Mosley-street, near St. Peter's Church and the
Scottish Kirk, which are so placed as to destroy their architectural
effect. The hall of the Natural History Society, in Peter-steet, contains
the finest zoological collection of any museum in the
empire, and probably Europe. It is particularly rich
ornithology: the birds are well preserved, and arranged
with great taste and skill.
The field of Peterloo, now covered with buildings in the
immediate vicinity of the museum; was the scene of a collision between the
yeomanry cavalry and a multitude assembled to hear Mr. Henry Hunt in the
year 1817. Though many years have since elapsed. the angry feelings to
which the sad event gave rise have not yet wholly subsided, and the
stranger who makes
inquiries on the subject will be pained to find that any reference to it
awakes a bitterness of tone and sentiment which he could not have
anticipated.
The Town-hall of Manchester is a very-handsome stone building, from a
design of the late Mr. Goodwin. The interior arrangements have been
sacrificed to obtain one large room for public meetings. This hall is 180
long by 38 feet wide. Its central dome is copied from the Athenian Temple
of the Winds, and is a truly classical structure. The walls and dome are
covered with fresco paintings, executed by Mr. Aglio. The first view of
the frescoes is very striking, but they will not bear a close
examination; the drawing
Page 38.
is generally incorrect, and the designs verge on the very consummation of
absurdity. Some are allegorical, some mythological, and some historical,
while in others, the three styles are incongruously blended.
For instance, the dome represents Britannia commanding
Peace to descend on Europe and restore the reign of
Art and Virtue. We have a young urchin with a little
ship in his hand, such as a boy might take to float
in a pond and this is the allegorical representation
of the commercial enterprise of Manchester! A female
bearing the fasces overthrows two figures; and this is not, as we
should have supposed, a village maid terrifying impudent assailants with a
fagot, but represents constitutional liberty defeating tyranny and
hypocrisy! It will be sufficient to enumerate the subjects of some of the
other paintings: we have Lord Macartney and the Emperor of China; the
Argonautic Expedition; the supposed discovery of America by Sebastian
Cabot; the British Empire protected by Strength, Wisdom, and Justice,
really embodies Mrs. Malaprop's "allegory on the banks of the Nile," that
river appearing in the group under the significant symbol of an African
mounted on a sphynx; Nadir-Shah giving audience to an English Embassy; the
Deities of Olympus in council; the four Cardinal Virtues; and the
formation of Man by Prometheus! These frescoes are not the only nor even
the worst defect of the hall: it has been built with such a disregard to
acoustics, that in whatever position a speaker may be placed, his voice
can only be heard at a short distance.
Our attention was directed more than once to the number of wholesale
houses for the sale of "small wares." On inquiry we found that by this
phrase was meant tapes, bobbins, etc.; for the manufacture of which,
several mills exist in Manchester. The machinery used does not differ
materially from that employed in other cotton factories; but the
quantities produced are truly surprising. We have been assured that one
mill alone weaves more than 1,000,000 yards of tape every week, which in
the course of a year would give a length of above 30,000 miles,
considerably more than the equatorial circumference of the earth.
The Old Bailey Prison, in Salford, covers several acres of ground, and is
one of the best conducted prisons in England; visitors are not very
readily admitted, but a good view of its extent and the general
arrangement of the buildings can be obtained from the Bolton railway.
Page 39.
In Salford we see evidences in every direction that it is a place of very
recent growth, and one in which population has increased with greater
rapidity than the means of accommodation. The number of low lodging houses
in several districts is truly calamitous, and the anecdotes related of the
amount of individuals found living in one crowded apartment are frightful.
We shall again have occasion to refer to this pregnant source of social
evils, at present we must content ourselves with noting the evidence that
both the wealth and the misery of Manchester have been of recent and of
rapid growth. Hence there exist abundant materials for the history of its
staple trade, and it will be interesting to glance at the particulars of
its rise and progress before investigation the few remnants of a more
remote antiquity preserved in the neighbourhood.
It has been already observed that certain woollen goods called cottons (a
corruption of "coatings") and fustians were manufactured in Manchester and
its neighbourhood before the reign of Elizabeth. Indeed so celebrated
even in that age were the Lancashire weavers, that linen yarn was imported
from Ireland and sent back after it had been woven into cloth. Cotton wool
was probably introduced as a substitute for animal wool by the Flemings
who sought shelter in England from the tyranny of the Duke of Alva, many
of whom settled in and round Manchester. During a long period linen warps
were used for all the goods in which cotton was employed, and in
consequence great quantities of linen yarn were imported from Ireland,
Scotland, and Northern Germany. The cotton weft was however usually spun
in Lancashire, generally by the family and neighbours of the weaver. About
the year 1760, though nothing but the coarse kinds of cotton, such as
fustians and dimities, were produced, yet the demand for these goods began
to exceed the supply, and the weaver became dependent on the spinner.
We have conversed with very old persons who remember when the weavers or
their factors travelled about from cottage to cottage with their
packhorses to collect yarn from the spinsters, often paying a most
exorbitant price for it, which absorbed the profits of weaving. This was
the commencement of the system of infant labour, which was at its worst
and greatest height before anybody thought of a factory. Spinning was so
profitable that every child in the cottage was forced to help in the
process picking the cotton, winding the yarn, and arranging the card-ends.
When the father was a weaver, and the mother a spinner, which was very
commonly the case, the tasks imposed upon the children were most onerous
one of my informants, a man over eighty years, declared that he never
thought of his infancy without shuddering.
The invention of the fly-shuttle by Mr. John Kay of Bury, already ment-
ioned, gave a great impulse to weaving, which was increased in 1760, when
his son, Mr. Robert Kay, added to it the invention of "the drop box," by
means of which a weaver could at pleasure use any one of three shuttles,
each containing a different coloured weft. The one-thread wheel, where
each
Page 40.
spinner could only make one roving or one thread, was inadequate to supply
the rapidly increasing demand for yarn, and the improvements in weaving
directed the inventive faculties of English mechanists to search for the
means of obtaining similar facilities in spinning.
The elongation of metal bars and plates by passing them between cylinders
appears to have first suggested the idea that carded rolls of wool and
cotton might be lengthened into rovings by the same means. This
application of the principle was first made by Mr. John Wyatt of
Birmingham, who took out a patent for the invention, in the name of his
partner Mr. Paul, in 1738. The machines constructed by Mr. Wyatt, however
excellent in principle, were so imperfect in their details, that they
could not be profitably worked; Wyatt had not the capital necessary to
carry out his plans, nor the steady application to conduct the varied
experiments by which a mechanical principle can alone be brought into
complete operation. Moreover, Wyatt was quite unacquainted with the cotton
business, and was therefore very likely to follow the analogy of
laminating metals too far, without sufficiently allowing for the great
difference of materials.
We do not pretend to such a knowledge of mechanism as would enable us to
pronounce positively on this subject; but so far as we can judge, Wyatt
does not seem to have taken into account the modifieations of his
principle required by the peculiar staple of cotton. The machine as first
constructed had but one pair of rollers, and could not therefore remedy
any defect in the arrangement of the fibre which remained after carding;
even when two pairs of rollers were used, they appear to have been
employed merely to elongate the roving without any reference to improving
the regularity of the fibres. The arranging of the spindles and bobbins in
a frame, and the turning of the bobbins and spindles by distinct wheels,
was an invention of the Italian silk-throwsters, which Sir T. Lombe had
introduced into his great mill at Derby; but in silk spinning, rollers are
not necessary, because the filament spun by the worm is a continuous
thread, incapable of being further attenuated.
It may be right to repeat what has been before stated, that the difficulty
to be overcome in mechanical cotton-spinning is not the twisting of the
yarn, for this process, or at least one very analogous to it, had been long
familiar to the silk-throwsters; the real difficulty was to get a roving
evenly attenuated, ready to receive the twist by which it was converted
into yarn. Wyatt's principle of employing rollers to effect this object,
no doubt excited the attention of many mechanists, who tried to apply it
in various forms. Thomas Highs, a reel-maker of Leigh, appears to have
made a machine in which rol