Wilmington daily commercial., 1876-06-17
sureested by Accidents

invention Suggested by Academy
One of the pleasantest anecdotes illustra-
tive of an invention being suggested by ac-
cident bears relation to the stocking loom
or knitting frame. The story has been told |
in two or three different forms but the
most popular version accords with picture
and inscription preserved by the Frame
work Kuitters Company
About hundred and ninety years ago,
Mr.. William Lee of st. Johns College, Cam
bridge, was expelled for marrying IN dlere-
gard TO the statutes of his college. Having |
no fortune on either side, his young wife
contributed to their joint support by knit
ting The husband watching one day the
movements of her fingers, suddenly con-
ceived the idea of initiating them by ma
chanical means, in order that she might
get through her work in manner easier to
herself, and perchance increase her emolu-
ments. The ingenious stocking frame was
the result OF his cogitations.
In handwriting, polished steel needles
or wires are used TO link threads together
into series of loops closely resembling
those produced in tambouring. In frame
work knitting, one person can manage
large number of knitting needles at once
pieces of steel midway i'll shape between
straight wires and bent hooks aud aided by
Jacks or vibrating levers, treadles, rows Of
bobbins, and other clever contrivances.
William Lees first stocking-frame was in
all probability small and very rough, but it
had in it potentiality Gas Dr.. johnson
might have called it) of developing great
things, until at laat it has eliminated i'll
her masterly piece OF mechanism, the cir
cular rotary hosiery machine.
Lucky accident, in like manner, led,
about the year 1854, to the invention OF the
spinning jenny, one of the foundations OF
the amazing prosperity of the cotton man
ufacsure. But az in most instances Of the
kind the soil was prepared in some degree
for the reception of the seed, tue accident
would probably have passed unnotlced II
there had not been mud in a condition to
appreciate it. James HargreAYes, OF stand
hill, near Blackburn, was humble man who
lived by hand-spinning, and weaving, LIS
wife and children aiding in their several
ways He succeeded in expeditlng his work
by inventiug cardiug machine to comb
out or straighten the tl0res of cotton, as u
substitute for hand cards (wires inserted IN
fiat piece of wood }
In spinning, after the carding and other
preparatory processes had been completed,
he frequently tried to SPIN with two or
three spindles at once by holding two or
three separate threads between the fingers
of his left hand and thus double or treble
the amount of work effected i'll given
time. The horizontal position Of the spin.
dies, however, bai1led him his fingers and
the spindles would not work III harmony
One day, il 1864, a litJle toddling member
of his family upset the spinning wheel While
it was being worked.
Hargreaves noticed that while he retained
the thread in his hand the wheel continued
to reyolve for time horizontally, giving {
vertical rotation to the spindle. An ides
started into biz brain at once here was the
very thing he wanted he saw that Ii some
thing were contrived to hold the rowing 4
thicllsh coil of cotton) as the finger anC
thumb were wont to do, and to travel back
ward and forward on wheels, several spin
dies might be used at once lie set K
work. and the result was frame or machin'
which he called the spinning-jenny (ver
likely his wife's Christian name was Jenny
having eight spindles. The family at onc
largely increased their weekly earnings.
How it happened that through worllmen'
spite and manufacturers greed, or whethe
it was, as has been said that better ide
than his had been previously started AM
acted upon by others. Hargreaves wa
never permitted to secure an adequate re
turn for his ingenuity, we need not, now
stop to relate Lancashire accumulate
wealth from the spinning jenny (ampliie
BY degrees to eighty spindles) but regard
ed little the brains that had enabled theI
to do 80 When maidens are doing thei
hair" an important element OF oally uuV
in many household, they may perhaps, b
gratified in learning that this process lie
accidentally to very useful invention.
Joshua Heilman, engaged in the cotto
manufacture at Mulhouse, in Alsace, wa
long meditating on the possibility Of IL
venting combing- machine for long-stapl
cotton, the carding machine until then en-
ployed being better suited for cotton hay
ing short staple. He tried and trie
again, and impoverished himself by pre-
pairing machines and models which talle
to realize the intended purpose. Broodln
over the matter one evening he watche
his daughters combing their hair, and M
ticed (perhaps for the first time really NJ
ticed) how they drew the long tresses b
tween their fingers, alternately Withdraw
ing the comb through them.
The thought struck him that If he cou
successfully initiate by machine this tw
fold action, 80 as to comb out the long
bres of cotton, and drive back the short
by reversing the action of the comb, h
long-sought object would be pretty near
attained. Armed with this new idea,
set to work with renewed cheerfulness, al
invented a beautiful machine, which e
abled him to comb cheap cotton into mo
erately fine yarn, more easily and with ie
waste than by any process until th'
known. One Of our Royal Academician
about dozen years ago. brought the sk
Of his pencil to bear upon this pleasa
subject for picture--Heilman watchil
his daughters combing out their CLOS
tress ChdnberS's Journal