sally acknowledged; but there are other points of the story that have been stated in very opposite ways, and have given rise to much doubt and dispute.

The machinery for which Arkwright took out his patents consisted of various parts, his second specification enumerating no fewer than ten different contrivances; but of these the one that was by far of greatest importance, was a device for drawing out the cotton from a coarse to a finer and harder-twisted thread, and so rendering it fit to be used for warp as well as weft. This was most ingeniously managed by the application of a principle which had not yet been introduced in any other mechanical operation. The cotton was in the first place drawn off from the skewers on which it was fixed by one pair of rollers, which were made to move at a comparatively slow rate, and which formed it into threads of the first and coarser quality; but at a little distance behind the first was placed a second pair of rollers, revolving three, four, or five times as fast, which took it up when it had passed through the others, the effect of which would be to reduce the thread to a degree of fineness so many times greater than that which it originally had. The first pair of rollers might be regarded as the feeders of the second, which could receive no more than the others sent to them; and that, again, could be no more than these others themselves took up from the skewers. As the second pair of rollers, therefore, revolved, we will say, five times for every one revolution of the first pair, or, which is the same thing, required for their consumption in a given time five times the length of thread that the first did, they could obviously only obtain so much length by drawing out the common portion of cotton into thread of five times the original fineness. Nothing could be more beautiful or more effective than this contrivance; which, with an additional pro

vision for giving the proper twist to the thread, constitutes what is called the water-frame or throstle.*

Of this part of his machinery, Arkwright particularly claimed the invention as his own. He admitted, with regard to some of the other machines included in his patent, that he was rather their improver than their inventor; and the original spinning-machine for coarse thread, commonly called the spinning-jenny, he frankly attributed in its first conception to a person of the name of Hargrave, who resided at Blackburn, and who, he said, having been driven out of Lancashire in consequence of his invention, had taken refuge in Nottingham; but, unable to bear up against a conspiracy formed to ruin him, had been at last obliged to relinquish the farther prosecution of his object, and died in obscurity and distress.

There were, however, other parties who had an interest as well as Arkwright in these new machines, and who would not allow that any of them were of his invention. As to the principal of them, the water-frame, they alleged that it was in reality the invention of a poor reed-maker of the name of Highs or Hayes, and that Arkwright had obtained the knowledge of it from his old associate Kay, who had been employed by Highs to assist him in constructing a model of it a short time before Arkwright had sought his acquaintance. Many cottonspinners, professing to believe this to be the true state of the case, actually used Arkwright's machinery in their factories, notwithstanding the patent by which he had attempted to protect it; and this invasion of his monopoly was carried to such an extent, that at last he found himself obliged to bring actions against no fewer than nine different parties.

* So called from its having been originally moved by water power.

66

The first of these, in which a Colonel Mordaunt was defendant, was tried in the Court of King's Bench, in July, 1781. Upon this occasion, however, the question as to the originality of the inventions was not mooted; the defence taken being the insufficiency of the specification on which the patent had been obtained; and upon that ground a verdict was given in favour of the defendant. On this result Arkwright abandoned the other eight actions he had raised; and instead of attempting any longer to maintain his patent in a court of law, published a pamphlet, containing what he called his Case," with a view of inducing the legislature to interfere for his protection. It is proper we should here mention that, although the first of these actions in 1781, which decided the fate of the others, thus went off without the real merits of the case having been gone into, yet several of the defendants were prepared to dispute the claim of the patentee to the invention of the machines, and that both Highs and Kay had been summoned to give their evidence upon that point, and were actually in court during the trial of the action against Colonel Mordaunt, the former having been brought over from Ireland, where he was then residing, expressly for the occasion.

Whatever conclusion may be come to on the subject of Arkwright's claim to the invention of the machinery introduced by him into his spinning-factories, it is incontestible that to him alone belongs the merit both of having combined its different parts with admirable ingenuity and judgment, and of having, by his unvaried and invincible perseverance, first brought it into actual use on anything like an extensive scale, and demonstrated its power and value. The several inventions which his patent embraced, whether they were his own or not, would probably, but for him, have perished with their authors; none of whom, except himself, had the determination and

courage to face the multiplied fatigues and dangers that lay in the way of achieving a practical exemplification of what they had conceived in their minds, or to encounter any part of that opposition, incredulity, ridicule, of those disappointments, repulses, losses, and other discouragements, over all of which he at last so completely triumphed. When he set out on this career, he was poor, friendless, and utterly unknown. We have already stated that, on his coming with Kay to Preston, he was almost in rags; and it may be added, that when he and Kay made application immediately before this to a Mr. Atherton for some pecuniary assistance to enable them to prosecute their plans, Arkwright's appearance alone was enough to determine that gentleman to have nothing to do with the adventure. Can we have a more exciting example, then, of what a resolute heart may do in apparently the most hopeless circumstances? of what ingenuity and perseverance together may overcome in the pursuit of what they are determined to attain? And this is the grand lesson which the history of Arkwright is fitted to teach us; to give ourselves wholly to one object, and never to despair of reaching it. Even after he had succeeded in forming his partnership with Messrs. Need and Strutt, his success was far from being secured. For a long time the speculation was a hazardous and unprofitable one, and no little outlay of capital was required to carry it on. He tells us himself in his Case that it did not begin to pay till it had been persevered in for five years, and had swallowed up a capital of more than twelve thousand pounds. We cannot doubt that it required all Arkwright's dexterity and firmness to induce his partners to persevere with the experiment under this large expenditure and protracted disappointment. But it was the character of the man to devote his whole heart and faculties to whatever he engaged in. Even to the close of his

life, the management of his different factories was his only occupation, and even amusement. Although he had been from early life afflicted with severe asthma, he took scarcely any recreation, employing all his time either in superintending the daily concerns of these establishments, which were regulated upon a plan that itself indicated in its contriver no little ingenuity and reach of mind, or in adding such improvements to his machinery, from time to time, as his experience and observation suggested. And thus it was, that from a poor barber he raised himself to what he eventually became ; not merely to rank and great affluence, but to be the founder of a new branch of national industry, destined, in a wonderfully short space of time, to assume the very first place among the manufactures of his country. A very short review of what the cotton trade now is, as compared with its former state, will show what it owes to Sir Richard Arkwright.

England may be said to have been a manufacturing country for five hundred years; from the time, namely, when the clothiers of Flanders came over in great numbers and settled themselves in different parts of the kingdom, on the marriage of Edward III. to Philippa of Hainault. The manufacture of cotton cloth, however, as we have already noticed, was not introduced until the middle of the seventeenth century, and made no extraordinary progress for a hundred years afterward. As an evidence of the comparatively slight degree of interest which it excited, and of the little ingenuity which was consequently exerted in its improvement, it may be stated that the valuable invention of the fly-shuttle, which was introduced into the woollen manufacture about the year 1738, was not employed in the weaving of cottons till more than twenty years afterward; up to which period, whenever the web was more than three feet wide, two men were constant