is the effect of this development upon the labour and life of the people which gives it a deep and abiding interest to the student of social questions. The central fact of the mechanical revolution, which is marked by the chaining of the forces of Nature to do man's drudgery, is the tremendous increase in the productive capacity of man. This has been brought about by (1) the invention of machinery capable of performing the varied and intricately complex processes required in manufacture and industry of all kinds; (2) the extensive application of extra-human power to the operation of machinery; and (3) division of labour and centralisation of industry. Sec. 3.-The Textile Industry. The revolution in the methods of production is perhaps best illustrated by the Textile Trade. This is one of the most important of all human industries, because it supplies one of the commodities necessary for the satisfaction of man's simple organic need for warmth. The history of spinning and weaving reaches far back beyond written record, to the time when primitive man discarded the skins of wild animals and substituted woven cloth. Early in the history of England wool was an article of export, and in 1100 we read of a wealthy clothier of Reading "whose wains, filled with cloth, crowded the highways between that town and London." For centuries the raw material was worked up by hand, with the aid of a few rough-hewn tools. Wooden combs, about 5 by 6 inches, fitted with fine teeth and manipulated by hand, were used for carding and preparing the raw materials, while the distaff and the spindle were the only appliances used to facilitate spinning. The old hand spinner held a bunch of carded wool under one arm, and with his fingers drew out and twisted a few inches of yarn, and attached it to the end of the wooden spindle which was allowed to swing down and revolve, thus twisting the wool fibre. The one-thread spinning wheel, a wonderful contrivance which superseded the distaff, is thought to have been generally used in England by the beginning of the sixteenth century. However, as late as 1757 an English poet writes "And many yet adhere To the ancient distaff at the bosom fixed, The methods of weaving were quite as crude as those of spinning, for the old treadle loom was still in use, and the shuttle was only a flat stick notched at the ends, around which the weft was wound. Before 1760 a few minor inventions had been made which considerably increased the productive capacity of the operatives. In 1738, Kay of Bury invented the fly-shuttle which enabled one weaver to do the work of two. In 1748, Lewis Paul, of Birmingham, took out a patent for a rotary carding machine; but it was not until several improvements were subsequently made that it became of practical utility. Kay's invention, however, proved useful at once, and, increasing two-fold the productive capacity of a weaver, multiplied rapidly the demand for cotton yarn which had hitherto been supplied by the hand wheels of the workers. The hand spinners could not keep up with the requirements, but the difficulty was soon met by John Hargreaves, an ingenious Blackburn weaver, who contrived a spinning machine which multiplied eight-fold the productive power of one 1. spinner, and could be operated by a child. Some hand workers, hearing of the new machine, and fearing that they would lose their employment, promptly forced their way into Hargreaves' house and smashed the "newfangled contrivance." This did not deter the inventors, however. Before Kay had devised the fly-shuttle, Paul and Wyatt, working probably in conjunction, had developed, but with little practical outcome, the idea o 4. spinning by rollers revolving at different speeds. In 1768, Arkwright embodied this design in his "water frame." Whatever advantage Arkwright may have taken of the previous inventions, it is certain that he made one important advance. Previous to his invention, linen thread was used by the weavers for warp because the yarn was not strong enough. Arkwright remedied this difficulty by the device of his jenny, which enabled him to spin thread hard and firm enough to serve for warp. Being a shrewd business man as well as an inventor, Arkwright made a huge fortune from his machines. In 1779, Crompton effected a happy combination of the jenny and the water frame, but he never derived any financial benefit from his "mule," as it was called. As soon as it was discovered that he was doing a higher grade spinning than his neighbours in Bolton, he was besieged for the secret, and to avoid violence he told his plans on promise of a subscription which, when collected, only amounted to £67 6s. 6d. Though his invention enabled others to build up great fortunes, Crompton died discouraged and in poverty. It is not necessary to enter into an elaborate description of ring spinning and the other numerous improvements which have brought the industry to its present state of perfection. The wonderful development in spinning has been equalled by that in weaving. The initial steps in the construction of the power loom were taken by Dr. Cartwright, a Kentish clergyman, "who knew nothing about the textile trade, and had never interested himself in machine construction until he invented the power loom." Cartwright's own account of the causes which led him to take an interest in invention, and the plans he followed in working out his loom, throw light upon the way men thought and laboured in the early days of the Industrial Revolution, and is consequently worth giving here in full: "Happening to be at Matlock in the summer of 1784, I fell in company with some gentlemen of Manchester, when the conversation turned on Arkwright's spinning machinery. One of the company observed that as soon as Arkwright's patent expired, so many mills would be erected and so much cotton spun that hands never could be found to weave it. To this observation, I replied that Arkwright must then set his wits to work to invent a weaving mill. This brought on a conversation on the subject, in which the Manchester gentlemen unanimously agreed that the thing was impracticable; and, in defence of their opinion, they adduced arguments which I certainly was incompetent to answer, or even to comprehend, being totally ignorant of the subject, having never at that time seen a person weave. I controverted, however, the impracticability of the thing by remarking that there had lately been exhibited in London an automaton figure which played at chess. Now you will not assert, gentlemen,' said I, that it is more difficult to construct a machine that shall weave than one which shall make all the variety of moves required in that complicated game.' Some little time afterwards, a particular circumstance recalling this conversation to my mind, it struck me that as in plain weaving, according to the conception I then had of the business, there could only be three movements, which were to follow each other in succession, there would be little difficulty in producing and repeating them. Full of these ideas, I immediately employed a carpenter and smith to carry them into effect. As soon as the machine was finished I got a weaver to put in the warp, which was of such materials as sailcloth is usually made of. To my great delight, a piece of cloth, such as it was, was the produce. D As I had never before turned my thoughts to anything mechanical either in theory or practice, nor had ever seen a loom at work or knew anything of its construction, you will readily suppose that my first loom was a most rude piece of machinery. The warp was placed perpendicularly, the reed fell with the weight of at least half-a-hundred weight, and the springs which threw the shuttle were strong enough to have thrown a Congreve rocket. In short, it required the strength of two powerful men to work the machine at a slow rate, and only for a short time. Conceiving, in my great simplicity, that I had accomplished all that was required, I then secured what I thought a most valuable patent, 4th of April, 1785. This being done, I then condescended to see how other people wove; and you will guess my astonishment when I compared their easy modes of operation with mine. Availing myself, however, of what I then saw, I made a loom in its general principles nearly as they are now made. But it was not until the year 1787 that I completed my invention, when I took out my last weaving patent, Ist August of that year." Notwithstanding the invention of the power loom, hand-weaving held on with wonderful tenacity for more than a quarter of a century, but was finally forced from the competitive arena. There were only 2,400 power looms in operation in 1813, while in 1833 the number had increased to more than 100,000. Other machines for carrying out the minor processes of spinning and weaving have been from time to time invented, and added to the loom and jenny, until to-day twenty-five men with modern improved machinery can produce more manufactured goods than all the textile workers of Lancashire could in the eighteenth century. Bell's invention of cylinder printing in 1783 enabled a man and a boy to turn out as much as two hundred men and boys, while the application of oxymuriatic acid to bleaching shortened that process from several months to a few days. The problem of supplying the enormous demand for raw materials now confronted the cotton growers of America. The capacity of the jenny had |