AND WEAVING

From a Fifteenth Century MS. in the British Museum]

=Weaving.= When or where man first began to weave cloth is not known,
nor is it known whether this art sprang from one common center or was
invented by many who dwelt in different parts of the world. There is
such a sameness in the early devices for spinning and weaving that
among some men of science it is thought that the art must have come
from a common center.

Fabrics were made on the farms two or three hundred years ago in the
following manner: the men of the household raised the flocks, while
the women spun the yarn and wove the fabrics. In this way the industry
prospered, giving occupation and income to thousands of the
agricultural class. You might say that in England fabrics were a
by-product of agriculture. As time went on, farmers of certain
sections of England became more expert in the art, and the weaving
became separated from the spinning. The weavers became clustered in
certain towns on account of the higher skill required for the finer
fabrics. The rough work of farming made the hands of the weaver less
skilful. This, coupled with the fact that the looms became more
complicated with improvements, called for a more experienced man.
Great inventions brought about a more rapid development of the
factory.

Richard Arkwright, who has been called the "father of the factory
system," built the first cotton mill in the world in Nottingham in
1769. The wheels were turned by horses. In 1771 Arkwright erected at
Crawford a new mill which was turned by water power and supplied with
machinery to accomplish the whole operation of cotton spinning in one
mill, the first machine receiving the cotton as it came from the bale
and the last winding the cotton yarn upon the bobbins. Children were
employed in this mill, as they were found to be more dexterous in
tying the broken ends. As the result of this great invention,
factories sprang up everywhere in England, changing the country scene
into a collection of factories, with tall chimneys, brick buildings,
and streets.

From 1730 to the middle of the nineteenth century the development of
inventions was rapid:

1730--First cotton yarn spun in England by machinery by
Wyatt.

1733--English patent granted John Kay for the invention
of the fly shuttle.

1738--Patent granted Lewis Paul for the spinning
machinery supposed to have been invented by Wyatt.

1742--First mill for