es of their juxtaposition--i.e. the external
economies of centralization--could be enjoyed. Out of the crowding of
the mills in one locality sprang the business specialism which has
continued up to the present day. Here it will not be out of place to
notice the appearance of the new power, electricity, in the cotton
industry, the extension of which may involve striking economic changes.
The first electric-driven spinning-mill in Lancashire, that of the
"Acme" Spinning Company at Pendlebury, the work of which is confined to
the ring-frame, was opened in 1905. Power is obtained from the stations
of the Lancashire Power Company at Outwood near Radcliffe, some 5 m.
distant.

The chief principle of the water-frame was the drawing out of the yarn to
the required degree of tenuity by sets of gripping rollers revolving at
different speeds. This principle is still applied universally. Twist was
given by a "flyer" revolving round the bobbin upon which the yarn was
being wound; the spinning so effected was known as throstle-spinning. The
plan is still common in the subsidiary processes of the cotton industry,
but for spinning itself the ring-frame, which appears to have been
invented simultaneously in England and the United States (the first
American patent is dated 1828), is rapidly supplanting the
throstle-frame,[27] though the "ooziness" of mule yarn has not yet been
successfully imitated by ring-frame yarn. The great invention relating to
weft-spinning was the jenny, introduced by James Hargreaves probably
about 1764, and first tried in a factory four years later.[28] Hargreaves
unfortunately was unable to maintain his patent, because he had sold
jennies before applying for protection. Crompton's mule, which combined
the principles of the rollers and the jenny, was perfected about 1779.
Both jennies and mules were known as "wheels," because they were worked
in part by the turning of a wheel. As they could be set in motion without
using much power, being light when of moderate size, for a long time
they were worked entirely by hand or partially with the aid of horses or
water. The first jenny- and mule-factories were small for this reason,
and also because skill in the operative was a matter of fundamental
importance,[29] as it was not in twist-spinning on the water-frame. The
size of the typical weft-spinning mill suddenly increased after the scope
for the application of power was enlarged by the use of the self-actor
mule, in