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grant to a certain person for a certain machine in this manufactory, reaching England, and coming to the knowledge of the workmen at Arkwright's mills, occasioned the young man, Slater, before mentioned, privately coming to America, and perfecting the first water-spinning in the United States that I have heard of, though I am informed a company from England are about to erect mills near New York, for which the machinery is making at New Haven. It is an undoubted fact, authenticated to me by divers persons from England, that the king has frequently made proclamation against any tradesmen leaving the kingdom, and called on his officers for their most vigilant watch against it, as well as against any draft of machinery being carried out. This, also, should excite our attention to those advantages, which they find of so much consequence to that country."

These remarks of Moses Brown show that he was a man of enlarged and sagacious views of the importance of the cotton manufacture, and in his joining with the introducer in his endeavours to establish it, as appears also by his further remarks:-"I have been lengthy on this subject, not only because my family have engaged in it, but because I conceive from the advantage of the mills, and other machines, and the raising of the raw materials among ourselves, this country may avail itself of one of the most valuable manufactories, from which every part of the Union may be supplied. I apprehend this subject would have been laid before congress, by the united representation of the cotton manufacturers, had not some states liberally contributed to the promotion of it, particularly Massachusetts, and the incorporated company at Beverly have partaken largely of their bounty, in proportion to what they have done. Whether under an idea that the assistance they had received would have enabled them to go on, while others would be under a necessity of discontinuing the business, (as some have in fact, which they would not have done but for want of that assistance in the same government, namely, the factory at Worcester,) or whatever other reason the Beverly company may have, they have not come forward as expected. I have mentioned yarn, as the importation of that article from India has been suggested by the late manufacturing committee in Philadelphia, at which time, no good yarn had been made fit for warps. But, as the manufactory of the mill yarn (meaning the Arkwright patent) is done by children from eight to fourteen years old, it is as nearly a total saving of labour to the country as perhaps any other that can be named, and therefore no importation of the yarn ought to be admitted without a large impost, if at all—as the

secretary may be assured that mills and machines may be erected in different places, in one year, sufficient to make all the cotton yarn that may be wanted in the United States, both for warps and for knitting and weaving stockings, were encouragement given to protect the manufactures from being intercepted in the sale, by foreign importation." Such was the confidence that Moses Brown had in the skill and enterprise of Samuel Slater, in July 1791, that he believed he would cause to be erected sufficient machinery to supply the whole continent with yarn, in a year from that time. "There are also cotton and linen goods manufactured at East Greenwich; their cotton warps are made at the aforesaid mills, (meaning by Almy, Brown and Slater) the quantities manufactured by those several persons, and others, in the common way of family work, I expect will be given an account of by themselves, or collected by the mechanical and manufacturing society of this town; I therefore refer to them. For the degree of maturity our cotton manufacture has obtained, and their different qualities, I refer to the patterns of the mill yarn, and goods made from warps of it herewith sent; the prices sold at are also marked."

Some of Mr. Slater's first yarn, and some of the first cotton cloth made in America, from the same warp, was sent to the secretary of the treasury, the 15th October, 1791, and may possibly be preserved in the secretary's office, as Mr. Clay says he has some of the first yarn, which is said to be as fine as No. 40. As to the impediments under which this business laboured, Moses Brown observes," No encouragement has been given by any laws of this state, nor by any donations of any society or individuals, but wholly begun, carried on, and thus far perfected, at private expense." I have never heard of any premium or advantage conferred on Mr. Slater, for his introducing the cotton manufacture, or for his establishing it on a permanent basis; but his own money and time were pledged to the object. "The manufacture of iron into blistered steel, equal in quality to English, has been begun, within about a year, in North Providence, and is carried on by Oziel Wilkinson, who informed me he can make a good business at ten per cent. for the steel in blister, returning weight for weight with the iron manufactured; the drawing into bars of any shape, being an additional charge. I thought of speaking, also, of pig and bar iron, slitting it into nail rods, rolling into hoops and plates, making it into spades and shovels, hot and cold nails, anchors, &c. all in this district."

Little more than sixty years since, every thread used in the manufacture of cotton, wool, worsted, and flax, throughout the

world, was spun singly, by the fingers of the spinner, with the aid of that classical instrument, the domestic spinning-wheel. In 1767 an eight-handed spinster sprung from the genius of Hargreaves; and the jenny, with still increasing power, made its way into common use, in spite of all opposition. Two years afterwards, the more wonderful invention of Wyatt, which claims a much earlier origin, but which had disappeared, like a river that sinks into a subterraneous channel, and now rose again under the fortunate star of Arkwright, claimed yet higher admiration, as founded on principles of more extensive application. Five years later, the happy thought of combining the principles of these two inventions, to produce a third, much more efficient than either, struck the mind of Crompton, who, by a perfectly original contrivance, effected the union. From twenty spindles, this machine was brought, by more finished mechanism, to admit of a hundred spindles, and thus to exercise a Briarean power. Kelly relinquished the toilsome method of turning the machine by hand, and yoked to it the strength of the rapid Clyde. Watt, with the subtler and more potent agency of steam, moved an iron arm that never slackens or tires, which whirls round two thousand spindles in a single machine. Finally, to consummate the wonder, Roberts dismisses the spinner, and leaves the machine to its own infallible guidance. So that, in the year 1834, several thousand spindles may be seen in a single room, revolving with inconceivable rapidity, with no hand to urge their progress or to guide their operations, drawing out, twisting, and winding up, as many thousand threads, with unfailing precision, and indefatigable patience and strength; a scene as magical to the eye which is not familiarised with it, as the effects have beeen marvelous in augmenting the wealth and population of the country. If the thought should cross any mind, that, after all, the so much vaunted genius of our mechanics has been expended in the insignificant object of enabling men better to pick out, arrange, and twist together the fibres of a vegetable wool,— that it is for the performance of this minute operation that so many energies have been exhausted, so much capital employed, such stupendous structures reared, and so vast a population trained up; we reply—an object is not insignificant because the operation by which it is effected is minute. The first want of men in this life, after food, is clothing; and as this art enables them to supply it far more easily and cheaply than the old methods of manufacturing, and to bring cloths of great elegance and durability within the use of the humble classes, it is an art whose utility is inferior only to that of agriculture. It contributes directly, and most

materially, to the comforts of life, among all nations where manufacturers exist, or to which the products of manufacturing industry are conveyed; it ministers to the comfort and decency of the poor, as well as to the taste and luxury of the rich. By supplying one of the great wants of life, with a much less expenditure of labour than was formerly needed, it sets at liberty a large proportion of the population, to cultivate literature, science, and the fine arts. To England, the new inventions have brought a material accession of wealth and power. When it is also remembered that the inventions, whose origin I have endeavoured carefully to trace, are not confined, in their application, to one manufacture, however extensive, but that they have given nearly the same facilities to the woollen, the worsted, the linen, the stocking, and the lace manufactures, as to the cotton; and that they have spread from England to the whole of Europe, to America, and to parts of Africa and Asia; it must be admitted that the mechanical improvements, in the art of spinning, have an importance which it is difficult to over-estimate. By the Greeks, their authors would have been thought worthy of deification; nor will the enlightened judgment of moderns deny that the men, to whom we owe such inventions, deserve to rank among the chief benefactors of mankind.

It is not a little remarkable that Watt's patent, "for lessening the consumption of steam and fuel, in fire engines," should have been taken out in the same year as Arkwright's patent for spinning with rollers, namely, 1769,--one of the most brilliant eras in the annals of British genius;-when Black and Priestley were making their great discoveries in science; when Hargreaves, Arkwright, and Watt revolutionised the processes of manufactures; when Smeaton and Brindley executed prodigies of engineering art; when the senate was illuminated by Burke and Fox, Chatham and Mansfield; when Johnson and Goldsmith, Reid and Beattie, Hume, Gibbon, and Adam Smith, adorned the walks of philosophy and letters; and Whitfield, Hervey, and Cowper, reformed the protestant churches of Christendom.

To turn from these high names to the subject of our memoir. The Rhode Island society for the encouragement of domestic industry always treated Mr. Slater very respectfully, and the following letter was filed among his papers :-

Samuel Slater, Esq., Pawtucket.

PROVIDENCE, 28th Feb. 1820.

Sir,-By the primary laws and list of the officers of the Rhode Island Society for the Encouragement of Domestic Industry, herewith forwarded, you will observe, that you are elected one of the vice presidents thereof.

The society will deem themselves highly honoured in enrolling, among their chief officers, one of the earliest pupils of Arkwright, one who has done so much for the promotion of domestic industry, peace and comfort, and one whose private character is so deservedly and universally respected by the whole community.

I perform a pleasing duty while I respectfully solicit in behalf of the society your acceptance of the office to which you have been chosen. I am with sincere respect, your obedient servant,

WM. E. RICHMOND.

The state of Rhode Island justly claims the honour of being one of the earliest seats of the mechanic arts and of manufactures, on this side of the Atlantic. It has sustained, through the successive periods of its history, the character of a manufacturing and agricultural district.

A correspondent writes, in reference to the fact that Mr. Slater's mind was first directed to Philadelphia, some reflections on the supposition that he had taken that course, instead of wending his way to Providence:-"Can there be any doubt that if Mr. Slater had turned his steps towards Philadelphia, as he had thought, that his undertaking would then have been attended with success? In such an event what would have been the relative position of Pennsylvania and Rhode Island at the end of twenty years from that time, compared with their actual state at the close of that period, in regard to manufactures of cotton? Is it not seen that almost the entire business of the country, which had become considerable at that time, was made up of different ramifications from the original stock imported from Belper, and planted at Pawtucket? Would the flood of labourers coming into the country and enriching it with their skill, have been directed to the village of Pawtucket? Or would it not have rather set in the direction of Philadelphia? And would not the result of all this have been a very different state of things, even to this day, than exists now? These reflections, or similar, may aid in determining who was the principal, and who aided and abetted only.

"It is certain, that an individual in a distant land, with the definite and well matured design of establishing the cotton manufacture in this country, on a plan the best then existing, did, after months spent in perfecting himself at the fountain head in all the various knowledge necessary to render success certain, leave bright prospects, and an eligible situation in his native land, and bidding adieu to his home, embarked for this country, with a spirit which it cannot be doubted, with his means, must with certainty, his life being spared, have gained for him the merit, whatever it might be, of first establishing on a firm basis the cotton business

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