Читать книгу A memoir of the life, writings, and mechanical inventions of Edmund Cartwright - Jane Margaret Strickland - Страница 6

Table of Contents

It is probable that a piece of muslin even such as the lady of a bishop would not disdain to wear in 1787, would, under any circumstances, be of a quality very inferior to what is now produced; but that inferiority would proceed no less from the spinning than the weaving. Notwithstanding the wonderful inventions of Hargreaves, Arkwright, and Crompton, &c., the art of cotton-spinning might be said to be in its infancy, compared with the perfection to which it has since been brought. The finest yarn then produced would hardly have made a piece of muslin such as a lady now would think fit to wear.

However gratifying to Dr. Cartwright’s feelings the progress of his new discoveries might be, it soon became evident that the establishment at Doncaster, on the whole, was far from being profitable. The “factory system” was then in its infancy, and his own want of experience in the details of business such as he was now engaged in, occasioned all the work under his direction to be done at a more than ordinary expense. And being in some cases dependent on other branches of manufacture for the completion of his own, he was continually exposed to the influence of a narrow-minded jealousy, which now began to operate against him, but which probably proceeded from a growing conviction, on the part of the manufacturing interest, of the importance of his invention.^[19] Various petty means were practised, in order to obstruct the popularity of the machine-woven goods. The cottons sent by Mr. Cartwright to be printed were frequently rendered unsaleable, by obsolete patterns and imperfect execution; and of his best and most uninjured articles, the chief consumption was in presents to his friends, or in supplying furniture for his own house. In the meantime, the extraordinary ingenuity of the invention itself, as well as the peculiar circumstances under which it first appeared, had awakened a considerable degree of interest, and Mr. Cartwright, as might have been expected, was by turns admired for the vigour of his inventive genius, and condemned for the rashness of his speculations. Attempts also were made to seduce his workmen, as well as to evade his patent right, by using his machine differently modified; and, indeed, the openness with which he frequently communicated his ideas, joined to the extreme easiness of his temper, rendered such attempts at piracy by no means difficult, and tended eventually to involve him in several vexatious disputes and expensive lawsuits.

He had not taken into the account, that ingenuity alone was not sufficient to ensure protection, for a man of his character and habits, in the path he had newly entered on; and when he ventured to emulate the successful enterprise of others, he did not consider that its most striking examples were in men who had either risen from the working, or still belonged to the manufacturing classes. Neither did he calculate on the importance of being trained to habits of industry and business, or on the necessity of a far more intimate knowledge than he possessed of the feelings and prejudices of the class of persons he had to deal with; who though shrewd and intelligent in their own immediate line of business, had no very enlarged views beyond it.

Nor was Mr. Cartwright’s new position in society altogether without its trials. By the upper class of the inhabitants of a provincial town, proud of their exemption from commerce and manufactures, his proceedings were viewed with no small degree of distrust; and so portentous an innovation as the introduction of a steam-engine, was received with expressions of general dissatisfaction. Although some few of his personal connections and friends participated in his own sanguine views, and even joined in the pecuniary part of the speculation, by others he was considered as having deserted his caste, whilst by the more rigid he was condemned for engaging so deeply in occupations unsuited to his profession. With the poor of the place, however, his establishment was far from being equally unpopular. It afforded employment to numbers, without interfering with their previous occupations; and in addition to remuneration for their industry, they were certain of assistance, when required, from his benevolence. His name is still venerated by the descendants of his ancient workmen. To men of ingenuity and talents his house was always open, and in an intelligent and intellectual, though somewhat miscellaneous society, he consoled himself for the reserve of his more fastidious acquaintance. In reverting to this period of Mr. Cartwright’s life, we are fully sensible of the change that the last fifty years have produced in the opinions of nearly every class of the community. A man of genius now, whose inventions should tend to increase that general diffusion of the conveniences of life, which marks a truly civilized people, would have more to fear from competition than from prejudice. But at the time when he first commenced his mechanical career, there was a considerable class of persons, who, dreading the advance of every degree in society below themselves, deprecated the progress of machinery, as being the means of supplying the poor with indulgences heretofore confined to the rich, and consequently tending to raise them higher in the scale of refinement than was compatible with the due subordination of society.

It is hardly necessary to combat objections which few persons now will be found to entertain; nor does it come within the object of this volume to discuss so extensive a question as the general results of machinery. But it may be observed that it is the higher classes who have been the greatest gainers by the progress of improvement in the mechanic arts. The elegances and conveniences administered through the practical science of the manufacturer have contributed to raise them from a state of feudal barbarism, in which, from the want of comforts endured by all classes alike, the actual difference of condition between the high and the low, as to many of the appliances of life, was much less decided than it is at present. At a time when the floors of the hall or castle were strewn with rushes, and when the great Earl of Northumberland considered one clean table-cloth per month a sufficient allowance for his upper servants’ table, the accommodations of the cottage could hardly have been more homely. And though the lady of rank, when jolting in her cumbrous coach without springs, might display more dignity, she certainly could not enjoy more ease than if she had been travelling in one of her tenant’s carts. In the words of the Quarterly Review, “the want of every kind of comfort within their houses leaves us nothing to envy of the enjoyments of our forefathers in those good old times, which are the sad burthen of many ‘an idle song,’ and the constant theme of repining patriots.” And when it is considered, on the other hand, how favourable to the health and habits of cleanliness amongst the poor is the cheapness, resulting from machinery, of various articles of clothing, the increase of machinery cannot on the whole be regarded as an evil. It is, indeed, true that recent investigations have disclosed a fearful state of society in some of our manufacturing districts, but we need only look at the factories of Lowell, in the United States, to be convinced that demoralization is not a necessary accompaniment of the Factory System. Had our own manufacturers been less exclusively devoted to the accumulation of wealth, and had the British Government exerted itself sooner to secure to the manufacturing population the advantages of education and of restricted hours of labour, we might have escaped much of the evil which is often, but unjustly, attributed to the progress of mechanical improvements.

In 1786, Mr. Cartwright printed a new edition of his poems. The following letter from his old friend Mr. Griffiths, seems to have concluded the literary correspondence that had subsisted between them for several years. But though from this period their correspondence ceased, their mutual regard remained undiminished:—

“My dear Sir,—I am very much obliged to you for the favour of your letter of the 8th instant, and for the further favour of six copies of your book, three of which shall be immediately disposed of according to your directions; another I propose to give to Wm. Seward, Esq., F.R.S., a very ingenious, good man. I rejoice that you have given me this proof of your not having yet forgotten your old friend—a friend who will always remember and love you.

“Your mill is now, I hope, at work, and working with success. It is kind of you to invite me to see it, which I hope to do in August, after the publication of our appendix, the said appendix always occasioning me a month of slavery in July—by doing double, and more than double duty. Notwithstanding the opinion preconceived by even the best mechanics, I cannot help feeling some apprehensions with regard to the good going of the mill, and therefore I shall be solicitous for an early account of its actual performance. By this time, I suppose, a fair trial hath been made, and I shall be very much obliged to you for the news of the result. Sincerely hoping that the success hath been, or is likely to be, fully answerable to your expectations,

“I remain, dear Sir,

“Your truly affectionate, humble servant,

“R. Griffiths.

“Turnham Green, May 22nd, 1787.

“Mrs. G. presents her very respectful compliments, as doth my son George. I hope your brother, the worthy major, is well; I do not forget that I have been obliged to him.”

As early as the year 1786, some ideas relative to an improvement in the steam-engine had suggested themselves to Mr. Cartwright’s mind; and though it was not until several years later that he took out any patent for a steam-engine, the following letter to a friend is introduced, as marking the period when he first attended to the subject, as well as illustrating his own scrupulous delicacy with regard to the invasion of other men’s inventions:—

“Dear Sir,—I am infinitely obliged to you for your attention in procuring me admission to the Albion mill. You will be surprised when I tell you that I have at present an insuperable objection either to seeing Bolton’s steam-engine, or the still more powerful one invented by Sadler of Oxford, which is now in town, and which he has promised to shew me. My reason is, that I am now making a model of one that I have invented myself. I wish to avoid temptation either to borrow or steal. The idea visited me a morning or two ago, as I was under the hands of the hairdresser. I immediately communicated it to some philosophical friends, particularly my neighbour, Mr. Gregory; none of them had the least doubt of its practicability. From the short conversation I had with Sadler, his improvement consists principally in having a double cylinder, so that the steam is condensed both above and below the piston. My improvement consists in having neither cylinder, piston, condenser, nor beam; nor, in short, any species of mechanism. When my model is finished, which will be in a day or two, you shall hear more of it. I shall leave town in a few days; my next residence, for one week, will be at Goadby, and then at Doncaster.

“I am, dear Sir, most truly yours,

“Edmund Cartwright.

“67, Pall Mall, June 10th, 1786.”

Whether the model alluded to was completed, or what were the motives for suspending at that time the prosecution of this experiment, cannot now be ascertained. Mr. Cartwright’s first patent relative to the steam-engine was taken out in 1797, of which a description will be given hereafter.

[15] In proof of the extent to which these expectations were subsequently fulfilled, we may here refer to the fact, that Mr. Arkwright, (son of Sir Richard), who is just deceased, is stated to have left behind him a fortune of not less than seven millions sterling.

[16] The fulfilment of this prediction, twenty years subsequently to the above conversation, in fact led to the first adoption of the power-loom, which came afterwards into more general use, from the great demand for English cotton goods, in consequence of the disturbed state of the Continent.

[17] A tappet is a wheel, or portion of a wheel, fixed eccentrically upon an axis. The treadle being kept in contact with the tappet, is alternately raised and depressed as the lathe revolves.

[18] In the North of England, to pick, means to throw; and therefore the name of picker is applied by the workmen to express that part of the machine which throws the fly-shuttle.

[19] “The same spirit of opposition that Mr. C. met with had driven Mr. Kay, the inventor of the fly-shuttle, from England, as well as Hargreaves, the inventor of the spinning-jenny, from his native place, to settle in Nottingham; but a more striking instance of prejudice, was the opposition to Sir Richard Arkwright’s application for relief from a duty on calico.”—See Baines’ Hist. of Cotton Manufacture.