Читать книгу A memoir of the life, writings, and mechanical inventions of Edmund Cartwright - Jane Margaret Strickland - Страница 5

Table of Contents

In the summer of 1784, Mr. Cartwright happening to be at Matlock, in Derbyshire, became, during his visit there, highly interested in the progress of those ingenious manufactures, which not many years before had been established in that immediate neighbourhood. The application of machinery to the art of spinning was at that time a novelty; and the splendid fortunes that some ingenious mechanics, who had been successful in introducing it, were supposed to be realizing,^[15] seemed to hold out extraordinary encouragement to the exercise of any inventive faculty that should contribute to the improvement of our national manufactures. Mr. Cartwright was not aware in how high a degree a faculty of this nature existed in his own mind, until it was brought into action by the accidental occurrence of a conversation at the public table, on the subject of new and ingenious inventions, especially that of Sir Richard Arkwright’s recently invented method of spinning cotton by machinery.

It was observed by some of the company present, that if this new mode of spinning by machinery should be generally adopted, so much more yarn would be manufactured than our own weavers could work up, that the consequence would be a considerable export to the Continent, where it might be woven into cloth so cheaply, as to injure the trade in England.^[16] Mr. Cartwright replied to this observation, that the only remedy for such an evil would be to apply the power of machinery to the art of weaving as well as to that of spinning, by contriving looms to work up the yarn as fast as it was produced by the spindle. Some gentlemen from Manchester, who were present, and who, it may be presumed, were better acquainted with the subject of discussion, would not admit of the possibility of such a contrivance, on account of the variety of movements required in the operation of weaving. Mr. Cartwright, who, if he ever had seen weaving by hand, had certainly paid no particular attention to the process by which it was performed, maintained that there was no real impossibility in applying power to any part of the most complicated machine, (producing as an instance the automaton chess-player,) and that whatever variety of movements the art of weaving might require, he did not doubt but that the skilful application of mechanism might produce them. The discussion having proceeded to some length, it made so strong an impression on Mr. Cartwright’s mind, that immediately on his return home, he set about endeavouring to construct a machine that should justify the proposition he had advanced, of the practicability of weaving by machinery. It may be remarked, that the incredulity expressed by those gentlemen, who were of all persons most likely to be acquainted with the fact, had any attempt been previously made to weave by machinery, is a pretty decisive proof that nothing of the kind had then been effected.

His first attempts, as might be supposed, were rude and clumsy; but as neither drawings nor models now remain of them, we have no means of tracing his earliest steps in mechanical experiment, nor of ascertaining the mode in which he proposed to overcome difficulties that had appeared insurmountable even to experienced mechanicians.

In the course of a few months, however, he had brought his loom to such a state of progress, as led him to imagine that it might eventually become profitable; and to the surprise of every one who was at all conversant with undertakings of this nature, as well as to that of his personal friends, he took out a patent in April, 1785, in order to secure to himself the expected advantages of the invention.

The patent, or, as it is now called, the power-loom, has doubtless been receiving continual additions from various hands during the last fifty years; and the beautiful machine (adapted as it is to every variety of fabric, and now in use to an immense extent) differs considerably in detail, even from the most improved form of Mr. Cartwright’s invention. But to him the merit is due of having been the first to apply power successfully to the business of weaving, and the principles by which he achieved that first great step, may be traced through every progressive improvement; and unquestionably opened the way to many of those ingenious additions by means of which later mechanists have brought the power-loom to its present state of excellence. Before we proceed further in relating the progress of Mr. Cartwright’s mechanical career, it may be necessary to give a slight sketch of the mode in which hand-weaving is usually performed; in order that the reader who is not conversant with such subjects, may be enabled to form a clear idea of the nature of the movements required, and to produce which, manual dexterity was considered indispensable.

The annexed plate represents the principal features of a common hand-loom, consisting of, A, the yarn beam; B, cloth beam; DE, treadles; dd, heddles [or healds]; G, lay or lathe, including the reed; F, seat board.

In the operation of weaving, the workman being seated on the board F, moves with his feet alternately the treadles D E, by which motion the heddles are depressed or raised. The alternate threads of the warp having been separated by passing through each respective heddle, the action of the heddle produces the shed, or space through which the shuttle has to pass. The shuttle is thrown from hand to hand, whilst the weaver with the hand last disengaged throws the lay or lathe back in an oblique direction, which being suspended from the upper frame-work of the loom, and returned to its natural perpendicular position, presses the woof or thread, deposited by the shuttle, close to the cloth already woven.

In this operation, the alternate action up and down of the heddles, the alternate action transversely of the shuttle, with the additional one of throwing back the lathe, have all to be produced by the hands and feet of the workman, without the aid of any intermediate instrument, that might have suggested to the mind of a novice in mechanics a feasible method of applying machinery to the purpose. The fly-shuttle might indeed be considered as an approximation towards a more improved practice; but that ingenious contrivance, although invented by Mr. Kay as early as the year 1738, does not appear to have been in general use when Mr. Cartwright first gave his attention to the subject.

Mr. Cartwright’s first power-loom, as described in the specification of 1785, was, as may be supposed, a somewhat rude contrivance, and differed materially from the form which he afterwards gave to it. The warp was placed perpendicularly, and the shuttle was thrown by springs connected with a cylinder placed beneath the machine. This cylinder also gave motion to two levers, one of which reversed the threads of the warp, and the other elevated the reed, which again descended by means of its own weight. The tension of the warp was produced by weights suspended from the beams, as in the common loom.

This simple apparatus rapidly received great modifications from Mr. Cartwright’s hands, as is shewn in his several specifications of 1786, 1787, and 1790. The warp was now placed horizontally, and the several parts of the machine were adjusted in a form which in its general features scarcely differs from the power-loom of the present day. The application of a crank on the axis of a wheel communicating with the moving power, was the mode by which Mr. Cartwright effected the alternate motion of the lathe. Simple and obvious as such a contrivance may now seem to those who are in the habit of seeing hundreds of power-looms in daily operation, yet before his time it does not appear to have been thought of; and in this invention alone he may be considered as having made no small progress towards weaving by machinery. It is probable that a contrivance for throwing the shuttle, so as to make it pass and repass, and yet keep within its prescribed bounds, did not so readily occur to his mind; for the compiler of this memoir has a perfect recollection of the amusement it used to afford his children to watch their father, imitating the action of a weaver throwing his shuttle, as he walked up and down the room absorbed in his new speculations.

He succeeded, however, in overcoming this difficulty, by means of tappets fixed on the axis of a wheel communicating with the moving power.^[17] These tappets give action to the treadles, which being connected by means of strings with the picker,^[18] (an apparatus placed at each end of the box in which the shuttle moves,) an impulse is thereby communicated to the picker, which causes it to throw the shuttle from side to side with an accuracy superior to that of the hand. In like manner was the requisite action of the heddles or healds produced, and those three principal actions being thus accomplished, the foundation was laid for those manifold improvements which have progressively been made in the application of mechanical power to weaving, and of which Mr. Cartwright’s invention still forms the leading principle.

The reader will find in the Appendix a figure and description of a portion of Mr. Cartwright’s power-loom, as modified by him in 1790, including a method for stopping the loom on the breaking of the thread, which is very similar to that still in use. Further improvements were afterwards introduced by him, and secured by patent in 1792; among which are a plan for weaving checks by means of a double shuttle-box—for tightening the selvage—and for making the lathe give a sharp blow. The limits of this work do not admit of our entering into greater detail respecting these less important features of Mr. Cartwright’s mechanical labours.

That he had early imparted to some of his friends the hopes he began to entertain of the success of his new invention, will appear from the letters of Mr. Crabbe, to whom he communicated from time to time the progress of his mechanical labours. In December, 1784, within very few months of Mr. Cartwright’s first attempt at weaving, his friend the poet writes—“You shall not find me smiling at your loom when you grow serious in it. I have the worst mechanical conception that any man can have, but you have my best wishes. May you weave your webs of gold!”

“Belvoir Castle, Feb. 14, 1785.

“I am not a little surprised at what you tell me of your enterprise. I have a thousand good wishes for your success, without one idea of your contrivance. Mrs. Crabbe has a better conception of your plan, and no less desire that you may accomplish it. I am about my contrivances too, but mine is spinning—spinning flimsy verses. Dodsley shall manufacture them, and send you a sample.”

“Belvoir Castle, May, 1785.

“Fortune smile upon your undertaking; or, not to be heathenish on a serious subject, God bless you in it,—only remember when you grow very rich, that we were friends before, and do not look down on us as the summer birds that will then come and serenade you daily. They talk here of your machine, but they are shy of us; if they say any other than well, it is amongst themselves, and I scarcely meet with anybody who has any opinion at all upon the subject.”

Although the actual production of his loom was of a humbler texture than that anticipated in the kind wishes of his friend, yet Mr. Cartwright considered it sufficiently satisfactory to induce him to present a specimen of it to Mrs. Crabbe; for, in June, 1785, Mr. Crabbe says, “I have just time to thank you for your letter, and to present my wife’s thanks for your cloth, of which she is very proud. I need not repeat my congratulations, nor our wishes. I, who never had a mechanical idea in my life, begin to lament my want of capacity to comprehend, in some measure, how these things can be; but I comfort myself that my ignorance is not, as ignorance generally is, of the malignant kind.”

In 1785, some property in the town and neighbourhood of Doncaster having devolved to Mr. Cartwright and his family, he was induced to fix his residence principally in that place, where finding skilful workmen more attainable than in a country village, he applied himself with increasing energy to the perfecting of a contrivance in which he had already made no inconsiderable progress. Early in the year 1786, he visited Manchester, partly with the view of engaging some of the superior workmen of that place to assist him in the construction of a more perfect model of his machine than he had hitherto been able to accomplish, and also in the hope that some of the opulent and enterprising manufacturers of that flourishing town might be induced to enter into his views, and give effect to the productions of his inventive genius, by the aid of their practical knowledge. The following letter to his friend, the Rev. W. U. Wray, contains a description of his early difficulties, as well as of his subsequent expectations of success:—

“When I arrived at this place (Manchester) I found my machine not even begun upon; indeed, the workmen who had undertaken it, despaired of ever making it answer the purpose it was intended for, and therefore, I suppose, were not willing to consume their time upon a fruitless pursuit. I have, however, the pleasure to tell you, that the whole system of it is now finally adjusted, and so much so, both to mine and the workmen’s conviction, that we cannot entertain the shadow of a doubt respecting its success. I have taken some pains to make myself acquainted with the manufactures of this place, which has much contributed to the perfection of what I have been aiming at. I cannot forbear telling you, that the machine is so exceedingly simple and cheap, as not to cost (after the model is once made to work) above five or six pounds.”

By another letter to the same gentleman, written also from Manchester, in May, 1786, the fact is ascertained of his having at that time effected an improvement in his loom, which was subsequently considered of great importance—viz., the stopping of itself of the machine, on the accidental breaking of a thread: “Respecting my business, sorry am I to say that it seems very little nearer a conclusion than when you left me. Delay upon delay. It is a satisfaction, however, that the delay does not arise from any unforeseen difficulty. The apparatus for stopping when the thread breaks, either in the warp or woof, is completed, and performs its business with the greatest accuracy and facility.” A projector may overrate his own success, or an experimentalist be disappointed even in the best founded expectations; and, therefore, the ill fortune that pursued Mr. Cartwright for so many years of his life might be considered as the not unusual lot of the ingenious; but it was much more remarkable, that he should live to see his self-confidence completely justified. Twenty years afterwards, from the very place where the machine that he describes first struggled into existence, and where it was most especially decried and opposed, a memorial from several of the most influential manufacturers was offered to the legislature, in which it was stated that Mr. Cartwright’s looms were employed there to the extent of several thousands.

During his temporary residence at Manchester he continued to report the progress of his experiments to Mr. Crabbe, who expresses his participation in his success in the following pleasant terms:—

“May 8th, 1786.

“Every new hope you give me of your success makes me happy, and I believe you cannot have more zealous well wishers for it than Mrs. Crabbe and myself, nor am I disinterested, since I expect to be maintained handsomely as a decayed poet, and my wife is scheming every day to entitle herself to a pension for decayed projectors.”

“May 27th, 1786.

“I am rejoiced to hear so happy an account of your prospects. I do not think the time long that you take for the completion of your labours, in any respect, but that of your being absent. You wrong your mechanical talent, for though chance might help you at first, it must be a chance indeed that could carry you on so without skill. You only mean, I conclude, that you know mechanics practically, without having a mathematical foundation to build upon; nor had Archimedes himself, that we know of, I believe.”

The little encouragement that Mr. Cartwright met with at the time from persons already engaged in manufacturing concerns, was probably the cause of his deciding on a somewhat hazardous undertaking; no less than the establishment, under his own direction, of a weaving and spinning factory at Doncaster, and in which free scope might be given to every description of mechanical experiment. Having engaged the most skilful workmen he could procure, he continued to make repeated alterations in his loom; and one branch of mechanism leading to another, he effected important improvements in the art of spinning as well as in that of weaving.

The capability of the weaving-machine seemed now to be unequivocally proved. From the report of an aged person now living, who was employed at the factory at its first commencement, it appears that twenty looms were shortly set to work; ten for muslin, or muslinette, eight for cotton, one for sail-cloth, and one for coloured check. The machinery was at first worked by a bull, but in 1788 or 1789, he set up a steam-engine.

It may be presumed that the fabric produced in this infant manufactory was of some excellence, from the following letter from Mr. Cartwright’s old friend, Dr. Thurlow, Bishop of Durham, to whose lady he had presented a piece of muslin:—

“Dear Sir,—I am ashamed, when I look at the date of your letter, to have so long neglected to acknowledge the pleasure Mrs. Thurlow and I received from its contents. We were exceedingly glad to find that you have so happily and fully succeeded in all your machinery, and no less happy to hear that it is likely to prove so very lucrative to the ingenious mechanic. We most sincerely hope that it will prove as productive of advantage as of renown to the inventor, and that he and the public will be equally benefited by his various and ingenious contrivances.

“Mrs. Thurlow, who has been for some weeks confined, is at last come abroad, and has determined to put herself into a dress made out of the piece of muslinette you were so good as to present her, and which for its novelty, and being the first fruits of your labours and art, she prizes beyond the richest productions of the East.

“We hope to see you in Doncaster as we pass through to London, and then and there will you receive my wife’s thanks for your kind and, in many respects, valuable present, and our united congratulations on your success. At present, I conceive, you are so much taken up with your machinations (for they must not be denominated manufactures), that we must not entertain a hope of seeing you at Auckland before the Christmas holidays, soon after which we propose leaving this part of the world. If you can find leisure and inclination to take such a journey, no one can be more glad to see you (for as long a visit as you can make) than, my dear sir, your affectionate humble servant,

“Thos. Duresme.