INVENTIONS OF THE POWER-LOOM: DR. CARTWRIGHT-WILLIAM EDWARDS-ROBERT WALKER. respect even of those who differed most widely from him in politics. Being intended for the church, Edmund at the usual age was entered of University College, Oxford, from whence he was subsequently elected a Fellow of Magdalen MACHINERY, in addition to being used in the spinning, is now, as we have noticed, extensively applied to the weaving of cotton; and we now propose to give a short account of the Reverend DR. CARTWRIGHT, to whose ingenuity our great national manufacture College. He early distinis indebted for the introduction of this crowning improvement. We have been supplied with the materials of the following sketch from a quarter which enables us to supply some original and authentic information. Edmund Cartwright was born in the year 1743, and was the fourth son of William Cartwright, Esq. of Marnham, in Nottinghamshire. One of his elder brothers was the late Major John Cartwright, so well known for his steady devotion through a long life to what he believed to be the cause of truth and patriotism, and for many public and private virtues which commanded the guished himself by his literary attainments, an evidence of which he gave to the world while yet a young man by the publication of a small volume of poems, which was very favourably received. About the year 1774, also, he became a contributor to the Monthly Review, for which he continued to write during the following ten years. For the first forty years of his life he had never given any attention to the subject of mechanics; although, as was recollected long afterwards, his genius for invention in that department had once displayed itself, while at his father's house during one of his college vaca 541 tions, in some improvements ignorant of the subject, having which he made on an agricultural machine which happened to attract his notice. But this exercise of his ingenuity, being out of the line of his pursuits at that time, led to no other attempts of the kind, nor to any further application of his thoughts to such matters. never at the time seen a person weave. I controverted, however, the impracticability of the thing by remarking that there had been lately exhibited in London an automaton figure which played at chess. Now you will not assert, gentlernen, said I, that it is more difficult The circumstances which to construct a machine that many years after this led him shall weave, than one that shall to the invention of his weaving make all the variety of moves machine, or power-loom, as it that are required in that comis commonly called, cannot be plicated game. better described than they have afterwards, a particular circumSome time been by himself in the follow-stance recalling this conversaing statement, first printed in tion to my mind, it struck me the Supplement to the Encyclo- that as in plain weaving, acpædia Britannica:- Happen- cording to the conception I ing,' he says, 'to be at Matlock then had of the business, there in the summer of 1784, I fell could be only three movements, in company with some gentle- which were to follow each other men of Manchester, when the in succession, there could be conversation turned on Ark- little difficulty in producing and wright's spinning machinery. repeating them. Full of these One of the company observed ideas, I immediately employed that as soon as Arkwright's a carpenter and smith to carry patent expired so many mills them into effect. would be erected, and so much As soon as the machine was finished, I got cotton spun, that hands would never be found to weave it. which was of such materials as a weaver to put in the warp, To this observation I replied sailcloth is usually made of. that Arkwright must then set To my great delight a piece his wits to work to invent a weaving-mill. This brought on the produce. As I had never of cloth, such as it was, was a conversation upon the sub- before turned my thoughts to ject, in which the Manchester mechanism, either in theory or gentlemen unanimously agreed practice, nor had seen a loom that the thing was impracti- at work, nor knew anything of cable; and in defence of their its construction, you will readily opinion they adduced argu- suppose that my first loom must ments which I was certainly have been a most rude piece incompetent to answer, or even to comprehend, being totally laid perpendicularly, the reed of machinery. The warp was fell with a force of at least half a hundredweight, and the springs which threw the shuttle were strong enough to have thrown a Congreve rocket. In short, it required the strength of two powerful men to work the machine, at a slow rate, and only for a short time. Conceiving in my simplicity that I had accomplished all that was required, I then secured what I thought a most valuable property by a patent, 4th of April 1785. This being done, I then condescended to see how other people wove; and you will guess my astonishment when I compared their easy modes of operation with mine. Availing myself, however, of what I then saw, I made a loom in its general principles nearly as they are now made. But it was not till the year 1787 that I completed my invention, when I took out my last weaving patent, August the 1st of that year.' Dr. Cartwright's children were accustomed seeing their father about this time walking to and fro apparently in deep meditation, and occasionally throwing his arms from side to side; on which they used to be told that he was thinking of weaving and throwing the shuttle. From the moment, indeed, when his attention was first turned to the invention of the power-loom, mechanical contrivance became the grand occupying subject of his thoughts. With that sanguineness of dis position which seems to be almost a necessary part of the character of an inventor, he looked upon difficulties, when he met with them in any of his attempts, as only affording his genius an occasion for a more distinguished triumph; nor did he allow even repeated failures for a moment to dishearten him. Some time after he had brought his first loom to perfection, a manufacturer, who had called upon him to see it at work, after expressing his admiration of the ingenuity displayed in it, remarked that, wonderful as was Cartwright's mechanical skill, there was one thing that would effectually baffle him, the weaving, namely, of patterns in checks, or, in other words, the combining in the same web of a pattern or fancy figure, with the crossing colours which constitute the check. Cartwright made no reply to this observation at the time; but some weeks after, on receiving a second visit from the same person, he had the pleasure of showing him a piece of muslin of the description mentioned, beautifully executed by machinery. man is said to have been so much astonished that he roundly declared his conviction that some agency more than human must have been called in to assist on the occasion. The After this Dr. Cartwright exercised his ingenuity in a variety of other contrivances; and introduced valuable im provements in the combing of His death, however, at Hastwool by machinery, in rope-ings, in October 1823, prevented making, and in several other the completion of this, as well departments of agriculture and manufactures. For some of these inventions he took out patents, and for others premiums were bestowed upon him by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, and the Board of Agriculture. Even the steam-engine engaged his attention; and an account of some improvements which he proposed in its mechanism may be found in Rees' Cyclopædia. While residing at Eltham, in Lincolnshire, he used frequently to tell his son that, if he lived to be a man, he would see both ships and land - carriages impelled by steam. It is also certain that at that early period he had constructed a model of a steam-engine attached to a barge, which he explained about the year 1793, in the presence of his family, to Robert Fulton, then a student of painting under his countryman West, and whose zeal and activity afterwards, as is well known, brought the project of steam navigation to such perfection in America, from whence it has extended all over the civilised world. Even so late as the year 1822, Dr. Cartwright, notwithstanding his very advanced age, and although his attention was much occupied by other philosophical speculations, was actively engaged in endeavouring to contrive a plan of propelling landcarriages by steam. as of many other designs in the prosecution of which he had been employed. His enthusiasm for mechanical invention continued unabated to the last; and indeed his general energy both of mind and body was very little impaired up to within a short period of his death. In a letter to his brother, Major Cartwright, dated 24th April 1819, he says: "I this day entered into my 77th year in as good health and spirits, thank God, as I have done on any one birthday for the last half-century. I am moving about my farm from eight o'clock in the morning till four in the afternoon without suffering the least fatigue. I sent in my claim to the Board of Agriculture for their premium for a cure of the mildew on wheat, but have not yet heard that it was admitted. I don't know whether I ever mentioned to you a machine for dibbling or planting wheat, which I have brought to great perfection. I have also a very material improvement on the stocks respecting ploughs and wheelcarriages; but of this I shall say nothing till I have brought it to the proof, which I hope to do very shortly, when you shall be immediately informed of the result, whether favourable or not.' The following verses, also, which he sent to a friend not long before his In spite of failing vigour and of age, Nor quit the combat till I quit the stage; Or, if in idleness my life shall close, Let well-carned victory justify repose!' The disposition of this excellent man, indeed, naturally inclined him throughout his life to promote, by every means in his power, the benefit of his fellow-creatures; and the following incident is perhaps worthy of being recorded, as illustrating how this tendency used to display itself in other parts of his conduct, as well as in his zeal for mechanical improvements. While he held the living of Goadly Maxwood, in Leicestershire, he applied himself so assiduously to the study of medicine that he acquired extensive knowledge and eminent skill in that science, and was in the habit of prescribing to his poorer parishioners with great success. Actuated by such feelings as those we have described, Dr. Cartwright was as free as any man who ever lived from jealousy or illiberality towards other inventors. In fact, it may be safely asserted that had he not carried his frankness and want of suspicion, as well as his indifference to pecuniary gains, beyond the limits of worldly prudence, his ingenious contrivances would in all probability have been productive of much greater benefit to himself than they ever actually were. So careless was he in regard to retaining in his own possession the valuable ideas with which his mind was continually teeming, that he has been frequently known to have given the most important assistance by his suggestions to other persons engaged like himself in mechanical pursuits, and afterwards to have forgotten the circumstance as entirely as if it had never happened. Nay, so completely did what he was engaged about at the moment occupy his mind, that he sometimes forgot his own inventions and other productions of an |