"On the 18th day of the same month, the venerable Moses Brown took him out to Pawtucket, where he commenced making the machinery principally with his own hands, and on the 20th of December following, he started three cards; drawing and roving, and seventy-two spindles, which were worked by an old fulling mill water wheel in a clothier's building, in which they continued spinning about twenty months; at the expiration of which time they had several thousand pounds of yarn on hand, notwithstanding every exertion was used to weave it up and sell it.

Early in the year 1793, Almy, Brown and Slater built a small factory in that village, (known and called to this day the old factory,) in which they set in motion, July 12, the preparation and seventy-two spindles, and slowly added to that number as the sales of the yarn appeared more promising, which induced the said Slater to be concerned in erecting a new mill, and to increase the machinery in the old mill." The above was written by Mr. Slater a short time before his death, and it is to be regretted that he did not live to give a full account of the progress of his busi

ness.

From the preceding account of Samuel Slater's early history, connections, and his enterprise and perseverance in laudable pursuits, it appears that he came to this country in honour and respectability. From his connections, advantages, and business turn, it is obvious that he might and in all probability would have reached a fortune in his own country. In leaving his own country with such promising appearances, and making America the theatre of his operations, he manifests in his early life a spirit of enterprise which all admire. With a keen discernment, he undoubtedly had premonitions of future prosperity, and ultimately of planting himself permanently in America.

The invention ascribed to Arkwright, and on which his renown for mechanical genius mainly rests, is said, by Mr. Baines, "To have been previously described, with the utmost distinctness, in the specification of the machine invented by John Wyatt, and that cotton had for some years been spun by those machines. The patent for the invention was taken out, in the year 1738, in the name of Lewis Paul, with whom Mr. Wyatt had connected himself in partnership, but there is evidence to show that the latter was the inventor."

The following accounts of Messrs. Arkwright and Strutt will be read with much interest, and this place appears to be appropriate for their insertion.

RICHARD ARKWRIGHT, was one of those great characters, whom nature seems to have destined, by the endowment of superior powers, to be the benefactor of their fellow-creatures. Born of parents who were classed among the inferior rank of society, and brought up to one of the most humble occupations in life, he yet, by the aid of genius and perseverance, rose to affluence and honour. Richard Arkwright, who was the youngest of thirteen children, was born in Preston, in Lancashire, some time in the year 1732. In that neighbourhood there was a considerable manufactory of linen goods, and of linen and cotton mixed, carried on; and his acquaintance with the operations he witnessed there, seems in early life to have directed his thoughts to the improvement of the mode of spinning. This, however, he did not accomplish, till many years had elapsed, for prior to the year 1767, he followed his trade, which was that of a barber; but at that period he quitted his original business and situation at Wirksworth, and went about the country buying hair. Coming to Warrington, he projected a mechanical contrivance for a kind of perpetual motion. A clock-maker of that town, of the name of John Kay, dissuaded him from it, and suggested that much money might be gained by an engine for spinning cotton, which Kay promised to describe. Kay and Arkwright then applied to Peter Atherton, Esq. of Liverpool, for assistance in the construction of such an engine, who, discouraged by the mean appearance of the latter, declined, though he soon afterwards agreed to lend Kay a smith and watch-tool maker to prepare the heavier part of the engine, whilst Kay himself undertook to make the clock-maker's part of it, and to instruct the workmen. In this way Arkwright's first engine, for which he afterwards took a patent, was made. Mr. Arkwright experienced many difficulties before he could bring his machine into use; and even after its completion had sufficiently demonstrated its value, its success would have been for ever retarded if his genius and application had been less ardent. His circumstances were far too unfavourable to enable him to commence business on his own account, and few were willing to risk the loss of capital on a new establishment. Having at length, however, the good fortune to secure the co-operation of Mr. Smalley, of Preston, he obtained his first patent for spinning cotton by means of rollers; but their property failing, they went to Nottingham, and there, by the assistance of wealthy individuals, erected a considerable cotton-mill turned by horses; but this mode of procedure being found too expensive, another mill, on a larger scale, was erected at Cromford, the machinery of which was put in motion by water. This patent right was contested about the year 1772, on the ground that he was not the original inventor. He obtained a verdict, however, and enjoyed the patent without further interruption, to the end of the term for which it was granted. Soon after the erection of the mill at Cromford, Mr. Arkwright made many improvements in the mode of preparing the cotton for spinning, and invented a variety of ingenious machines for effecting this purpose in the most correct and expeditious manner; for all which he obtained a patent in the year 1775. The validity of this second patent was tried in the court of king's bench, 1781, and a verdict was given against him on the ground of

the insufficiency of the specification; but in 1785 the question was again tried in the court of common pleas, when he obtained a verdict. This verdict, however, raised up an association of the principal manufacturers, who instituted another cause, by writ of scire facias, in the court of king's bench, when Mr. Arkwright was cast, on the ground of his not being the original inventor. Conscious that this was not the case, he moved for a new trial; the rule, however, was refused, and on the 14th of November, 1785, the court of king's bench gave judgment to cancel the letters patent. The improvements and inventions in cotton spinning, for which we are indebted to the genius of Sir Richard Arkwright, and which complete a series of machinery so various and complicated, are so admirably combined and so well adapted to produce the intended effect in its most perfect form, as to excite the admiration of every person capable of appreciating the difficulty of the undertaking. And that all this should have been accomplished by the single efforts of a man without education, or even mechanical experience, is most extraordinary, and affords a striking instance of the wonderful powers displayed by the human mind when its powers are steadily directed to one object. Yet this was not the only employment of this eminent man; for at the same time that he was inventing and improving machinery, he was also engaged in other undertakings, which any person, judging from general experience, must have pronounced incompatible with such pursuits. He was taking measures to secure to himself a fair proportion of the fruits of his industry and ingenuity; he was extending the business on a larger scale; he was introducing into every department of manufacture, a system of industry, order, and cleanliness, till then unknown in any manufactory where great numbers were employed together. These advantages he so effectually accomplished, that his example may be regarded as the origin of almost all similar improvements. When it is considered that during this entire period he was afflicted with a violent asthma, which was always extremely oppressive, and threatened sometimes to put an immediate termination to his existence, his great exertions must excite astonishment. For some time previous to his death, he was rendered incapable of continuing his usual pursuits, by a complication of diseases, which at length deprived him of life, at Cromford, on the 3d of August, 1792, in the sixtieth year of his age. In the infancy of the invention, Sir Richard Arkwright expressed ideas of its importance, which to persons less acquainted with its merits appeared ridiculous; but he lived long enough to see all his conceptions more than realised in the advantages derived from it, both to himself and to his country; and the state to which those manufactures dependent on it have been advanced since his death, makes all that had been previously effected appear comparatively trifling. The merits of Sir Richard Arkwright may be summed up by observing, "that the object in which he was engaged, is of the highest public value; that though his family were enriched, the benefits which have accrued to the nation have been incalculably greater; and that upon the whole he is entitled to the respect and admiration of the world."-Rees's Cyclopedia. Arkwright and Cotton. JEDEDIAH STRUTT, the ingenious inventor of the machine for making ribbed stockings, was a native of Normanton, where he was born in the year 1726. His father, who was a farmer and maltster, is represented as a severe man, who paid but little attention to the welfare of his offspring, whose education