The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-07-29
PRACTICAL UNIVERSITIES.

/
PRACTICAL UNIVERSITIES.
Every manufacturing establishment
Is college. They are as necessary to
the development of mankind as any iih
stitution of learning that may be
named. The ordinary signification of
the word education may well be
broadened. 1t is commonly restrict ed
to graduates of schools and colleges
familiar with books. The learned pres
idents of Harvard and of Columbia are
educated men. Had they been called
upon to solve the problem of the file
| machine and to so arrange it's delicate
parts as to make it a practical success,
it would have been as difficult for them
to accomplish the result as for Men
olson, in his early years. to conjugata
a Greek verb. Can there be any doubt
that in relation to the file machine
Nicholson was educated, and that the
others would have been wanting in
formation? The technical knowledge
gained in manufacturing establish
| ments by the people OF this country, is
an education which cannot be secured
in any other way. The increase in pat
ents issued between 1860 and 1890 in
dicates the educational influence OF
| manufacturing. The story of great in
ventions is as interesting as a rom
ance.
Some eight years ago three brothers
| of New England manufacturing firm,
meeting together to consider their busi-
| ness prospects, conceived the idea that
the ordinary cotton cloth loom was sus-
cpnti,lo nf ip,p
set aside $4,000 for experiment and in
vestigation. A contract was made with
Rhodes, the best machnist in their EN-
ploy, to assist in producing the result.
This man had been trained i'm machine
shops maintained in New England At
the end of n few months an improved
loom was produced. NCrthrop. an Eng
lishman, who had been employed in the
same machine shop, suggested a furth-
er improvement. a separate location
in the workship was given him. and his
results, in friendly way, were COM
pared with those of Rhodes. In a short
time twelve looms were built and set
up in a Fall River cotton mill. a short
experience indicated that they were ex-
ceedinGly imperfect. Had cotton man
ufacturing not been conducted in the
neighbOrhood of the machine shop. the
! needed experience could not have been
| secured After further development n
| contract was made for fifty looms with
the Pacific mills. 1t proved q disas-
| trous enterprise. The new loom failed
| to accomplish the desired result, ani
involved the principals in a loss of SIS
900. By this time there had been cX-
| pended in the development of the in
vention some $4,000 or 900 To
| further study the loom, a suitable build
| ing was provided and eighty looms set
| up and run under the owners super
| vision. A third machinist. Roper also
employed in the machine shop. suggest
| ed an important improvement, the warp
| stop motion. It's application completed
| the machine. 1t became known as the
Northrop loom. and is now in practical
| operation. Some twenty-five men, all
| technically educated in machine shops
| or in the cotton manufacture, have in
vented different parts of this machine.
Their improvements have been covered
by approximately 100 patents. There
has been expended i'm experiments. IN
investigation and for patents, some
$500 .OOO. The result is a reduction of ore
ndl1 III lilt CDSl VI HteiN iiits 'pitoll NIbL'l
The cost of weaving constitutes one
| half the cost of labor required to pro-
duce cotton cloth. Consequently the
saving secured by the loom is approxi-
mately one-quarter of the labor of pro-
ducing the cloth. Experts have esti-
mated that in 1895 S0,000.0O0 was paid
for labor in the cotton manufacture in
the United States. Assume that the
improved loom had been thoroughly in
troduced, the saving secured thereby
would have been approximately S2O,-
O0OOO0. The interest on the National
debt of the United States in 1892 the
last year of Republican control, was
s22, ,S9S. OOO The possible saving of the
new loom, therefore. would be about
seven -eighths of this interest.
PUBLIC BENEFACTORS.
1t accomplishes something more. The
old method of weaving cotton cloth
requires the weaver to suck through the
hole in the shuttle, the end of the thread