The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1869-02-17


his time, and soon all his money. i
making experiments. Peace fed from
his house and plenty from his board
, His wife, very naturaIly resented thi
Infringement of her rights, and on on.
unhappy day, overcome with suddel
anger, she broke to pieces his wheel.
and levers, and all the apparatus .ot
his perpetual motion. EViolenceneye,
:. answers a good purpose between peo
pie who live together in relation SC
intimate-neither violence of word no,
deed. Richard Arkwright could moi
forgive this cruel stroke; he separated
himself from his wife, and never lived
with her. again. -
Resuming his travels about Lanca-
shire, he could not but become aware
of Hargreave's still imperfect inven-
ton of the spinningjenry. There
was a great defect in this ingenious
machine for, though it would spin
eighty threads at once, those threads
were not hard and strong enough to
serve as the warp of calico, but could
only be used for the %oof. This was
of no great consequence at the time,
because it was unlawful to use cotton
as the warp of a fabric but pure cot
ton cloth never could have been made
by machinery unless a mode had been
invented of spinning cotton wool into
firm thread. At the very time that
poor Hargreaves was toiling to i'm
prove his spinningjenny, Arkwright
fell in with clock-maker, named John
Kay, who had rendered some assis-
tance Hargreaves in constructing his
machine and had been frequently en-
ployed in making and rending weav-
er's tools.
Arkwright consulted John Kay re-
specting his prepretual motion, and it
is highly probable that Kay, who was
a good mechanic, diverted him from
further pursuing that chinfera, and
turned his mind toward the invention
of cotton-spinning machinery. The
jenny was still incomplete, and the
weavers still found extreme difficulty
in getting cotton wool fast enough to
keep their looms in motion. While |
his mind was intent upon this pur-I
pose, he CHANGED to go into an iron
foundry where he saw red hot bar |
of iron drawn out into wire by being
made to pass between rollers. The |
idea ofhis great invention-the spinn-
ing -frame-fashed upon his mind.
The essential feature of his machine
was to spin cotton into threads by |
eau sing it to pass between grooved
rollers-as the reader may see by step
ping into cotton factory the next
time he passes one.-
Arkwright now sought his friend
Kay, and gave himself wholly up to
the construction of a machine upon the
principle which he had conceived
Kay made such machine for him
under his directions; or, to speak
more correctly, the model of one
which he could show to men of capi-
al. In the construction Of this first
model, he reduced himself to such
poverty, that his clothes were all in
,ags and tatters, and he could not re-
place them. An election Of members
If parliament occurring about this
ime, he desired to vote for General
Burgoyne, who was destined to be so
amous in our revolution but his
clothes were in condition so woeful |
hat he was ashamed to appear at the
,olls, and, as the election was closely
contested, some of General Burgoyne's
ldherents dubbed together and bought
lin suit of clothes to wear when he
asst his vote.
Another calmity threatened him.
1argreave's spinning-jenny had just
'een torn to pieces by mob in anoth-
r town, and the weavers about Pres
on were beginning to eye with su-
picion the mysterious operations of ;
his tattered barber, and his assistant, ..
be clockmaker. In the nick of time
Arkwright picked up his model and
onveyed it safely to tbs large town of /,
Nottingham. Confident in the merit /;
f his invention, he boldly applied to
firm of bankers for money to assist
i'm in constructing machine, which
hey agreed to furnish on condition of
haring the profits of the invention.
But these worthy bankers, as many
hen have since done, soon grew weary
f spending their money upon ma
hine which was slow to get into ).
-orking condition but they recon-
iended the inventor, to explain his
leas to Q great firm of stocking-weav-
rs, men of enterprise. wealth and in =
diligence. One of them, Jedehiah
trutt, was himself an inventor, hav :,
g but recently contriyed and patent = =
1 a highly ingenious and successful !
lachine for making stockings. Mr..
trutt had scarcely seen -Arkwr1ght's =
odels, before be comprel alded the =
estimable value of the invention. a I
was promptly formed with =.
le Ingenious barber, and the inven- .
on never again stood still for lack of :,
oney. - - - L L
The patent for the spinning frame :,
as taken out in 1863, the very year O
which James Wsts patented his i'm X
,oved steam engine, which was to q,
,ep this spinning frame in motion. h
is curious fact, that Richard Ark n,
right is styled in the letters-patent Al
'clock-maker"-possibly because he h,
I'd not the courage to write himself
,wn barber. D - h,
The patent, being secured, Ark a
right erected his first mill, the pow 81
-of which was supplied by horses. b,
orses proving too expensive, he built =
large mill in an adjacent county, the Z
achinery Of which was moved by er
lter power. He now proceeded to tv
cate the system of cotton nanufac-
re which has ever since prevailed, th
d to improve every part Of the ma of