The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-07 00:00:00

" CHALK YOUR BOBBINS."

Every one knows that old Sir R. Peel, father of
the late Prime Minister of England, and grandfather
of the present baronet, made his money by the cotton
spinning. In the early part of his career his business
was not remarkably extensive, but suddenly he made
a tremendous start, and soon distanced all his rivals.
He grew immensely rich, as we all know, but we do
not all know the lucky accident to which he was in-
debted for his enormous wealth. In the early days
of the cotton spinning machinery a great deal of
trouble used to be caused by filaments of cotton ad-
hering to the bobbins or tapes which then formed
portions of looms. These filaments accumulating
soon clogged the wheels and other parts of the ma-
chinery, and rendered it necessary that they should
be cleaned, which involved frequent stoppages and
much loss of time. The great desideratum was to
find out some plan of preventing this clogging by
the cotton, and Sir Robert, or Mr. Peel, as he was
then, spent vast sums in experiments. He em-
ployed some of the ablest machinists in the king-
dom—among them James Watt—who suggested
various corrections; but spite of all they could do,
the inconvenience remained—the cotton would
adhere to the bobbins, and the evil appeared to be
insurmountable. Of course these delays seriously
affected the wages cf the operatives, who on Satur-
day generally came short in proportion to the
stoppages during the previous days. It was noticed,
however, that one man always drew his full pay,
his work was always accomplished ; in fact, his
loom never had to stop, while every other in the
factory was idle. Mr. Peel was informed of this,
and knew there must be a secret somewhere. It
was important that it should be discovered if pos-
sible. The man was watched, but all to no pur-
pose ; his fellow-workmen tried to "pump" him,
but they couldn't ; at last Mr. Peel sent for the man
into his private office. He was a rough Lancashire
man, unable to read or write—little better, indeed,
than a mere animal. He entered the presence
pulling his forelock and shuffling on the ground
with his great clumsy wooden shoes. "Dick "said
Mr. Peel, " Ferguson, the overlooker, tells me your
bobbins are always clean; is that so P" " Ee's,
master, 't be." "Well, Dick, how do you manage
it ? have you any objection to let me know ?"
" Why, Master Pill, 't be a saort of secret loike,
ye see, and if oi told, t' others know 's moth
as oi," replied Dick, with a cunning grin. "Of
course, Dick, I'll give you something if you'll tell
me—and if you can make all the looms in the fac-
tory work as smooth as yours." " Every one 'n
them, Master 13111." " Well, what shall I give you ?
Name your price, Dick, and let me have your secret."
Dick grinned, scratched and shook his great head,
and shuffled for a few minutes, while Mr. Peel anxi-
ously awaited his reply. The cotton lord thought
his servant would probably ask £lOO or so, which
he would most willingly have given him. Presently
Dick said, "Well, Master Pill, I'll tell 'ee all about
it, it you'll give me a quart o' beer a day, as long
as I'm in the mills, you'll save that ten." Mr. Peel
rather thought he should, and quickly agreed to the
terms. "you shall have it, Dick, and a half gal-
lon every Sunday into the bargain." " Well, then,"
said Dick, first looking cautiously around to see that
no one was near—" this it be," and putting his lips
close to Mr. Peel's ear he whispered, " Chalk your
bobbins !" That indeed was the great secret. Dick
had been in the habit of furtively chalking his
bobbins, which simple contrivance had effectually
prevented the adhesion of the cotton. As the bob-
bins were white, the chalking escaped detection.
Mr. Peel was a sagacious man, and saw through
the affair at a glance. He at once patented the in-
vention, had "chalking" machinery contrived, and
soon took the lead in the cotton spinning depart-
ment. This was the foundation of his princely for-
tune. It is but right to add that he pensioned off
Dick handsomely.— Smentzfie Amerman.