Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1909-03-04

t*T%T%%%% un one James arSTodVe d POI, AA'"o A--.,.,
weaver, was thinking of the machine which, nnnA0AS'
was o spin eighty threads at once!
One day Hargreaves noticed that a spinning wheel which a been W. n.
turned, continued to revolve horizontally as it lay o the floor 1rom ON LIS
he is said o have conceived the frst.i idea OF his celebrated spinning Jenny
In carrying out his idea Hargreaves found great difficulty, ut he suc e
ed at length in making a rude machine Of eight spndles, which enabled .e
invento stuck to his task, and in the course Of a year or tWo ne nu IN
structed a spinning jenny which spun eighty threads at once.
With the construction of the spinning jenny, in 176S, the ldIasnpon
spinning wheel was a thing 0. the past, and the greatest industrial Volulo
Of history was close at hand. 84 -
The ignorant workmen moobed Hargreayes and DESTROYED his machine,
but the idea, once born, could not die, and the demolished machine Was SURE
of reconstruction at other hands.
Hargreaves died in poverty but there can along n Richard Arkwright
who not only reproduced Hargreaves' invention, but in his spinning frame I'M
Arkwrghts machine performed the whole process Of spinning with only
the superintendent Of a girl and SO complete in all of fits arrangements ina
it is employed today Throughout the world, its principle practically uncnangeo
from what it was when its inventor finished it. LII s#t
:" The working people fought Arkwright, as they had fought Hargreaves'
and in addition to the popular clamor Arkwright had to contend against q
troop OF wealthy unprncpled lei h tried to beat him III OF me nonor anu
profits of his great invention; but the indomitable man beat them all on
after a twentyyear fight and died, in 1892, worth $1o0ovQoo. @
The inventor of the spinning frame, beginning life as a poor barber, VA
for a long time known Is plain Dick Arkwright" He died a. Sir Richard
Arkwrght" having been knghted by the king for creating tn cotton
manufacturing system Of England. @ r. -
1t may be interesting at this point to bunch a few dates:
17es-Hargreaves' invention Of the spinning jenny, which vas able to
spin eighty threads, where h oldfashioned spinning wheel pun only n
176s-Arkwrights spinning frame, which, with the attendance of a girl,
was able to do III the work Of spinning and to take the places OF hundreds d
human hands. 4
7ee-wat steam engine, which supplied the power o u the new
machines at the top Of their capacity.
17S5-Cartwrghts power loom. which was ready to take the threads
spun with HghtnngIike rapdiy by Arkwrghts invention and make them
into cloth with a speed that seemed little short Of miraculous.
1793-Ei Whitneys cotton gin, the machine that vas able, with tn help
of a couple of hands, to prepare more cotton for the spindles in a day than
could have been prepared under the ods system by a thousand men.
AS a result Of these inventfons-an within the brief period Of twenty-five
years-tne world was. to experience tn mmercl revva OF wn1cn II "oun
have BEEN impossible for n one to have even dreamed-a revival that was
literally 20 recreate pretty nearly every human condition, and put al abso
lutely lew face upon the affairs of the. world!
We of today are in the midst of the amazing transformation that was
inaugurated by these inventions; though not the wiest of us are able to fore
Sc tn still greater changes that are sure to come-New York American.