The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1829-05-13
WHOLE NO. 292S.

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sand cotton spindles with all the machinery and
{ looms to convert the yarn into finished cloth,
and have erected a mill capable of receiving ten
thousand spindles more, together with the
necessary number of looms The same company
have also sufficient machinery in operation to
manufacture daily about three hundred yards Of
fine broad-cloth
The manufacturing operations In the United
States are all carried on in little hamlets which
often appear to spring up in tho bosom of some
Forest gathered around the water fall that
serves to turn the mill wheel These villages
are scattered over vast extent Of country,
from Indiana to the Atlantic, and from Maine 10
North Carolina, instead of being collected to-
gether, as they are in England, in great manu-
featuring districts. stranger, therefore, in
travelling through the United States, can form
but an imperfect estimate of the extent Of man.
ufacturing operations carried on therein. Ha
sees vast manufacturing towns in which the
laboring classes are collected together, forming
TIE crowded population, which is always favor
able In commercial as well as manufacturing
cities to the increase Of immortality and vice, BY
screening the vicious from The marked ignominy
that is usually visited heavily upon the guilty
in the narrow circle of small community or
country village
Some of the cotton mills in New England are
constructed in a style surprising in appearance
the English mills, the apartments being spa
cious and lofty, and the shafts of the mill gear
ing and machinery turned and polished. The
modern English mills are built with more
strict adherence to the beauty of utility" no
more expense being bestowed in the superfuous
ornament of these great workshops, or of the
machinery contained within them, than Is con-
sistcnt with economy, and the due adaptation
of the moving parts of the machines, to ensure
their harmonious operation and durability.
In 1907. IT WAS estimated that there wera
only four thousand spindles in operation for
spinning cotton in the United States. In this
year there are probably more than million of
spindles, with a sufficient number of power
looms TO weave the yarn produced from them.
1t is in the orderly system and economy Of
arrangement in the departments cf labor that
the English excel all other nations, as woll az
in the vast capitals employed in the various
branches of industry. To the silent operation
of the spindle may be traced this great wealth,
accumulated whilst England was enjoying the
benefit of an advanced state of Mechanical Sci
enee by means of which one man was enabled
to accomplish as much labor as was performed
in other countries by an hundred. Every for
eign country was thus rendered tributary to
her, and the wealth of the world was poured
into her Golfers Reposing in the wealth thus
acquired, with the advantage of low rate of
interest, and with mills already built and filled
with machinery that has redeemed its cost, Eng.
land possesses great facilities for maintaining
vigorous competition with all her manufacturing
rivals, who on starting in the contest must make
new investments and sink equal capital in
buildings and machinery. OF the amount of
this fixed capital in England some estimate may
be formed from a sketch of one of :he Manches-
ter cotton mills, which l was permitted to visit
by the politeness of the proprietor, Mr.. Murray,
who conducted me through the various de-
D1FtmpnfR nf mil IL hui 0f
brick in the form of hollow square, and con.
tains ninety thousand mule splndles. On en-
terlng the gateway at which a porter is always
IN attendance, you advance into an open area
or yard enclosed on all sides by the mill walls
towering to the height of eight stories. In the
centre of this interior square you behold navi-
gable sheet of water bordered by quay, by the
side of which you view the canal boats dis
charging loads Of coal at the very furnace doors
of the steam engines, or receiving the bales Of
yarn to be transported to different parts of the
country. A tunnel is formed beneath the mill
to connect this basin with one of the principal
canals that traverses considerable part of
England, thus affording every possible facility
for transporting the raw materials to the very
centre of the works, and for shipping the man
utactured goods in return to any part of the.
kingdom. In the very preparation Of the Sea-
Island cotton, before it enters the machinery,
work in one apartment, beating it with sticks
in order to open it for more perfect examination.
As the doors of the long apartments containing
the machinery are thrown open, the countless
wheels revolving upon extended lines of shafts
ranges of machines apparently of regularly d.
ninshed sizes as they are more remote from the
eye in distant perspective, and all the numerous
work people moving to and fro at their tasks
appears at glance before you, almost produc.
ing the bewildering sensations which are somea
times excited by the strange visions of dream.
Threads as fine as those of the flmy web of the
spider are here drawn out upon the machines
with the utmost ease and regularity. The la
Dor of three persons at mule OF three hum
bred splndles is required for a whole week mere
ly to spin four pounds of Sea Island cotton into
yarn of three hundred hanks to the pound.f
These works, in which nearly thirteen hundred
persons are employed, belong to an individual
who commenced business a mule spinner,
and by his enterprise and industry has accumu.
lated the capital here invested in buildings and
machinery, which truly rival in extent and inn
portance many national works.
In the town of Providence, which has been
termed the Manchester of America, from hav.
ing been the centre Of the most extensive man
| ufacturing operations, there was in 1926, only
one cotton mill Of less than thousand spindles,
whilst several hundred thousand were in opera
ton on the mill streams in the country ada
cent. cotton mill, intended for operating
seven or eight thousand mule spindes with the
preparation and looms, was erected in 1897, as
an experiment of the practicability Of employ
ing Stsam POlcer. Anthracite coal from the
Schuylkill is successfully used in the furnace Of
the Steam Engine of this cotton mill.
| I A very respectable manufacturer in Man
chester stated to me that single pound of Sea
Island cotton, wrought into lace, had been sold
for 81 guineas (about $270O single bale Of
cotton manufactured at this rate would produce
sufficient to purchase whole cargo Of tho raw
material