The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1895-06-12
An Important Invention.
The Textile Manufacturers Reyie,

lQe IeALlle w 1duulactuTcIS llcflen
announces the completion of an in
yention in connection with cotton
weaving which it is said will double
the number of looms that an operative
can manage and there fore greatly re-
duce the cost Of making cotton cloth,
and Of which we find an interesting
account in the New York Press.
For over'a generation, says the..Press,
weavsrs in New England have been
able to mind third more looms than
in Lancashire, women usually running
six and sometimes eight here, against
three or four, with a helper, in Eng
gland, while men "always mind eight,
sometimes more, in this country, as
against four or in rare cases-but
they are very rare-6ve in England. J"
For several years, however, the firm
of Draper & Sons, machinery manu-
facturers, of Hopedale, Mass, has been
experimenting with device to make
looms less dependent on the attention
of the weavers, and it is this device
the success of which is now announced.
1t is described as follows:
"The invention is device which
supplies the loom automatically with
from fourteen to twenty shuttles at
a time, 80 that, whenever the weft
breaks, new bobbin is supplied and
the thread connected without the loom
stopping at all. This obviates all
shuttle-threading and stopping and
and starting of looms through the
breakage of weft or the exhaustion of
the bobbin, which have hitherto taken
about half the time Of the weaver. 1t
is estimated that the weavers can at
tend to sixteen looms with this new
contrivance about as easily as they
could previously attend to eight:
Messrs. Draper & Sons have eighty Of
these looms running with twenty-ei ght.
inch cloth, 61x64, which is the standard
print cloth, and these are managed by
five weavers." :"
The estimated labor cost in yard
of print cloth, according to the Press,
is about cent, two fftbs Of which is
the cost Of weaving, and the improve
ment will make saving Of about one:
fifth of a cent yard. The annual
product of the mills of Fall River is
about 450,000,000 yards, and the de-
vice will reduce the cost of manufac-
ture in that city alone nearly 100000
year. It's Importance fully appears
from these figures and from the COM
ment of the Press, that ''it will make
all the differences between failure and
a good profit in the whole cotton in
dustry. "
I'VE need not discuss here the prob
able effects of the invention on the
manufacturers of the different sections
and countries, but it is evident that if
it shall prove as efficient for the
cheapening Of production as it is
claimed to be, it will be decisive
factor in any competition in which it
plays a part. The builders and pro-
moters of new cotton mills in the
South will do well, therefore, to give
it's claims the attention they seem to
deserve before equipping their mills
with looms.
The side lights that are turned oc-
casionally on the question Of protec-
tion in this country, as we have re,
marked before, are the clearest and
most instructive Of all with which the
public are favored by the advocates
and organs of the Protection policy.
It is interesting to note in this con-
nection the incidental statement OF
the Press, which is one of the ex-
tremest Republican protection papers
in the country, that 'for over genera
ton weavers in New England have
been able to mind third more looms
than in Lancashire" and that men
weavers in this country "always mind
eight, sometimes more, as against four
in England" while ''our weayers re-
ceive a third more wages" So that
sour weavers' receive third
more wages for minding from a third
more looms to twice as many looms as
weaver minds in England. And the
Republican policy of protection, we
have been told during "this third Of a
century, was designed solely to en-
able the protected cotton manufacturer,
among others, to pay his operatives
american wages" and to guard him
from the competition of the pauper
weaver of England! For the third more
wages which he paid the protected
manufacturer has received from 33 to
100 per cent more work. The cost Of
living to the weaver in this country
has been fully one-third higher than
to the weaver in England. Where has
his share of the 'benefits of the policy
come in It would be hard to say
certainly:-Ne,rs and Courier.