imperfect comprehension of the matter on the part of the first artist who sketched it, maybe from description, and whose error has been copied by those who have reproduced it. A thread never was and never could be spun by such an arrangement as figured here. The spindle ought to be placed with its axis parallel to the axis of the driving wheel, and not as here, at right angles. The correct arrangement of this part is shown in Fig. 55, representing the Jersey, or common spinning-wheel of Europe.

Whatever may have been the period at or the country in which the hand spinning wheel was invented, is not now of much moment to discover. The internal evidence of its parentage, however, showing it to be an outgrowth of the older spindle, is very strong. The spindle of the distaff spinner in coming to the ground, when a length of yarn had been spun, would often, after falling into a horizontal position, turn upon the whorl, thus showing a form of revolution in a strange position. Ultimately, after this had occurred, perhaps hundreds of thousands of times, it might suggest the thought to some operator that, by fixing the spindle in a horizontal position, and using the whorl as an arrangement of levers, a continuous revolution of the spindle could be maintained. How to apply the motive power would be the next question that would suggest itself. For a time, probably, the whorl would be beaten round by the hand. The invention of the driving wheel and the transmission therefrom of power by means of a band would next follow; and the discovery of a method of securing an increase of velocity when a small wheel was driven from a large one, would, in that early time, be as great a feat as Arkwright's discovery, at a later date, of the system of drawing by rollers. It is thus probably that the whorl of the old spindle became the wharve or small grooved pulley of the new or horizontal spindle of the hand wheel. It is almost a pity that history has not preserved the name of this inventor.

The general similarity of the European hand wheel to

the primitive wheel of India will be obvious when comparison is made between the two illustrations, Figs. 54, 55, care being taken to allow for the error in the former, as previously pointed out. The wheel represented in Fig. 55 was used for spinning wool, and subsequently cotton, until the invention of Hargreaves superseded it. In the drawing the hand cards by which the wool and cotton was prepared, are shown at A. After the material had been carded, it was spun into a thick, soft rove, having very little twist in it, such as is seen at B. This rove was then further drawn, in the next process, to the requisite dimensions to form yarn, fully twisted and wound upon the spindle, which generally contained a spool or pirn bobbin. This wheel was an intermittent spinning wheel, spinning a "draw" or "stretch," so called, probably, from its being the length obtainable by the outstretching of the spinster's arm.

In 1533 the flax spinning wheel was invented, it is said by a citizen of Brunswick, and for its particular purpose was an improvement upon the preceding. It was worked by means of a treadle, by the foot of the spinster operating a crank turning the driving wheel. In a comparatively short time afterwards this was superseded by a still more perfect machine called the Saxony wheel, also for spinning flax. This wheel is remarkable as being the first in which the flyer was introduced, and a differential driving for the bobbin. Further, it was also a continuous spinning wheel as distinguished from the intermittent wheel just described. Owing to the nature of the fibres, the system of spinning by the distaff and spindle held its ground firmly against both forms of the spinning wheel in both the woollen and linen trades, until towards the latter half of the seventeenth century, when the superior merits of the wheels began to be generally acknowledged. The intermittent spinning wheel was taken for woollen and cotton, whilst the Saxony wheel was widely adopted for spinning flax. This wheel was extensively used for flax spinning in Scotland even up to 1830, if not later. About the time that

Hargreaves invented his jenny, it was further improved by the addition of a second spindle, transforming it into what was called a "two-handed wheel," by which an expert spinster could spin two threads at once.

Describing this wheel, Mr. A. J. Warden, author of "The Linen Trade, Ancient and Modern," says:"The frame of the machine stood on three feet, on the right of which, facing the spinner, was a spoked wheel about two feet in diameter, with the rim slightly hollowed outside. Rapid motion was given to the wheel by a wooden rod or crank, connecting the axle of the wheel to the treadle or footboard, and moved at will by the foot of the operator, much in the same way as a foot-turning lathe is moved. On the left were two pirns or spindles, one for each hand, for receiving the yarn as it was spun, driven by means of bands of gut, or cords of flax or woollen yarn, highly twisted, passing round the rim of the wheel and their axles. Each pirn or spindle had a flyer for twisting and guiding the thread before it was wound upon the bobbin, which was a hollow reed slipped over the axle and fitting rather closely to it. The fly went round with great rapidity, whilst the bobbin, being kept back by the strain of the thread turned round upon the axle, only as fast as it was let out by the spinner. This depended on the degree of twist intended to be given to the thread, and the expertness of the spinner. The rock or distaff with the flax wound round it in the manner best adapted for admitting of the filaments being readily drawn out by the spinner, was placed above the pirns, and both hands were employed in drawing out the fibres and forming the threads. The threads, after being carried through a throttle or opening in the end of the spindle, were from time to time shifted along the flyer by means of small pieces of bent wire attached to it for the purpose of filling the bobbin regularly with the yarn as it was spun. During the operation, the spinner moistened the threads regularly with saliva, the better to unite the fibres and improve the appearance

of the yarn." The same writer says that "the last improvement on the Saxony or flax wheel was the applica tion of Arkwright's principle by rendering the flyer automatic in spreading the yarn on the bobbin, which saved the time necessary in moving the thread from one of the small bent wires on the flyer, to another, and at the same time performed the operation more equally."

The above brief sketch of the early history of spinning is introduced to show the connection of the modern system with its predecessor; in fact to show the continuity and essential oneness of the two systems, notwithstanding their apparent radical differences. They stand in relationship to each other as the child to the man. Though the outline of the sketch is to a considerable extent conjectural, it will fall sufficiently near the facts as, in the main, not to transgress the probabilities of the case. This course has been adopted and will be carried through the remaining portion of this essay, because it is believed that an exposition of the growth of the system, showing the defects successively encountered and the means adopted for their removal, will greatly help the reader to comprehend the purpose and functions of each machine and its several parts. To a student approaching the subject for the first time, the innumerable parts, and the complexity of their movements, present an almost incomprehensible and insoluble problem to his mind. Beginning the study, however, with the simplest manifestation of the art, and tracing it upwards to its highest or present development, its difficulties to a large extent disappear; the reason of every change is rendered apparent, and the functions of the added parts made clear; thus showing, when the termination of the investigation is reached, a beautifully ordered system whose complex movements constitute one harmonious whole, that must command the highest admiration from any mind capable of appreciating a display of the results of mechanical skill and genius, such as the world in its history cannot elsewhere display.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE MODERN SYSTEM OF SPINNING.

Commencement of the modern system.-Quality of hand-spun yarn.Kay's inventions, the first impulse to improvement.-Scarcity of yarns. -Hargreaves' jenny.-Description of the jenny; its operation.-The single-thread hand-spinning wheel Hargreaves' model.-The Saxony wheel probably unknown to him.-Description of the Saxony wheel, single and two-thread.-Extensive adoption of Hargreaves' invention.Richard Arkwright; the barber's shop a good school; itinerant hairdealing; the Saxony wheel the model of Arkwright's invention.-Arkwright's claims as an inventor disputed.-Arkwright's labours; his assistants. Description of his invention.-Comparison between the jenny and the water frame.-Paul and Wyatt's labours suggestive to Arkwright.-Arkwright not the inventor of the flyer; his adoption of Coniah Wood's traverse; the principle of the water frame adaptable to roving, slubbing, and drawing. The progress of invention.-Haley.— Samuel Crompton.-His combination of Hargreaves' and Arkwright's inventions, and improvements upon them.-The jenny adapted for a slubbing frame; description.-Improvement of the roving frames. Baker's inventions.-Hargreaves of Tottington. -Kelly's application of water power to the mule.-Wright's improvement; the squaring band. -Steam power.-Kennedy's improvement in fine spinning mules.Transfer of spinning from females to males.-Manual requirements of the mule.-Eaton's copping motion. The self-actor mule.-Its requirements.-The counter faller.-Differential motion of the spindles.-The self-acting mule a mechanical triumph.—Its qualities.-Roberts' genius.

TH

HE modern or mechanical system of spinning properly commences with the invention of the jenny by James Hargreaves of Blackburn. The distaff and spindle had long been superseded by the hand or Jersey wheel, which had been brought to this country from the continent. Hand spinning attained its perfection with this wheel, as though an improvement upon it was invented by which two threads could be spun at one time, this was not extensively adopted, except in the flax-spinning districts, probably because it required the exercise of a greater