The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-01-12
ODD VOLUMES AND LABOR
Question Of Mechanical In
vention in All It's Phases
Studied at Yester-
days Meeting.

mechanics was the general subject of
the Odd Volumes meeting held yesterday
afternoon at the residence of Mrs. Cornell
ius Brett, Bergen avenue. 1t was an un.
usually large and interesting meeting and
all the members returned home feeling
they had learned great deal.
Mechanics" was divided into two parts.
The first of these, a paper consisting of
a description of the weaving machine,
cotton gin and sewing machine, with COM
merits upon their effect Upon the Nine
teenth century labor question, was dealt
with by Mrs. Frank Cavalli, Secretary of
the club. Mrs. Cavalli gave an accur-
ate description of each one of these labor
saving devices, as well as a short sketch
of each inventors life, trials, encum-
brances and joys. In speaking OF the
weaving machine, the speaker, after
dwelling Upon its history and the various
kind of looms used, of which the JAG
guard, or Simple. invented s1S1S, and
which has never been superseded, said
IA few years ago eighty-dve per cent OF
our goals were imported. Today they are
nearly all manufactured in this country
We not only own the woollen mills but
the looms Then followed a line Of sta
t.stics in proof of this fact.
In dealing with the cotton gin Mrs.
Cavali touehedSupon the fact claimed by
some that a woman and not Eli Whitney,
was its inventor, but held that Mr.. Whit
ney was doubtless the first to conceive the
idea of the machine. though some sugges-
lions may have been given him by a GER
tain Mrs. Greene. Before the invention
of the gin, she said, sit took two men
one day to clean two pounds of cotton. At
present two men could work six gins and
turn out 24,000 pounds of picked cotton per
day. Cotton seed and its manifold uses
were mentioned, especially in the case of
cotton seed oil.
The life of Howe, the inventor of the
sewing machine, vas graphically sketched
giving an idea of how the idea was first
conceived, the difficulties of the inventor
in his struggle for recognition, his sojourn
in a debtors prison and his eventual sue
cess.
Miss Cecilia Gaines gave an address on
the Growth of factory labor through
these instrumenta1ities." She took up the
various points set forth by Mrs. Cavali,
drawing the comparison between factory
girls of years ago and those of today,
mentioning especially those employed at
Lowell, Mass, who she said. had consid-
cradle intelligence. SO much that they
edited a paper which was very favorably
commented upon. Today, she said, the
factory girls were not SO industrious.
Owing to the fact of this machine labor
they had almost grown into machines
themselves. Thefact that where some time
back 25 women were employed to every
three of the present day was also touched
upon as we'll as the fact that the woman
of today was taught to make only a ces-
tain portion of a garment while years
ago they must do the whole thing.
Miss Bradford. of Whittier House, who
was present as a guest, also gave a very
interesting talk on The Working Woman
of Today and an open discussion in
which many points of interest were pre-
scented. followed. On account of the length
of the meeting the usual Current
Topics paper, by Mrs, Robert Lyle, was
Among those present were Miss Brad
Adrianee, Mrs. r. O. Rabbit. Miss
Bowen, Miss. Buffet, Mrs. Cornelius
Brett, Mrs. George Case, Mrs. Frank
Alexander Denniston, Miss Doremus, Mrs.
Ward Dunn, Mrs. GEORGE Eaton, Miss
Gaines. Miss Harrison, Mrs. John Head
den. Srd; Mrs. Robert Lyle, Mrs. Grace
Marshall. Miss Jean Mcbride, Mrs. u. B.
Merrill, Mrs. Robert Myers, Miss Helen
bottom, Miss Sherwood, Miss Speir, Mrs.
Frank stevens and Mrs. j. A. Walker.
The next meeting, January %. will be
held at the residence of Mrs. Robert
Myers, No. 50 Highland avenue, where a
| specialist will address the member upon
.Medicires. Anticipates and the X'rays."
| Mrs. Talbot Chambers will also speak
upon THE Microscope