erfectly futile self-actor weaving machine,
which would have been adapted for power-working had it been capable of
working at all, had been invented by a M. de Gennes: a description of
it, extracted from the _Journal de scavans_, appeared in the
_Philosophical Transactions_ for July and August 1678, and again in the
_Gentleman's Magazine_ in 1751 (vol. xxi. pp. 391-392). It consisted of
mechanical hands, as it were, that shot in and out of the warp and
exchanged the shuttle.[35] Another idea, which however proved fruitful,
was that of grinding the shuttle through the warps by the agency of
cog-wheels working at each end upon teeth affixed to the upper side of
the shuttle. Though shuttles could not in this fashion be set in rapid
movement, the machine turned out to be economical for the production of
ribbons and tapes, because many pieces could be woven by it at once.
These contrivances were known as swivel-looms, and in 1724 Stukeley in
his _Itinerarium curiosum_ wrote that the people of Manchester have
"looms that work twenty-four laces at a time, which was stolen from the
Dutch." Ogden says also that they were set up in imitation of Dutch
machines by Dutch mechanics invited over for the purpose. Another
interesting passage relating to the swivel-looms will be found in the
rules of the Manchester small-ware weavers dated 1756, where the
complaint is made that the masters have acquired by the employment of
"engine or Dutch looms such large and opulent fortunes as hath enabled
them to vie with some of the best gentlemen of the country," and it is
alleged that these machines, which wove twelve or fourteen pieces at
once, "were in use in Manchester thirty years ago."[36] One
power-factory at least was devoted to them as early as 1760, namely that
of a Mr Gartside at Manchester, where water-power was applied, but the
enterprise failed.[37] Cartwright's invention was probably perfected in
its first form about 1787, but many corrections, improvements and
additions had to be effected before it became an unqualified success.
Cartwright's original idea was elaborated by numerous followers, and
supplementary ideas were needed to make the system complete. Of the
latter the most important were those due to William Radcliffe, and an
ingenious mechanic who worked with him, Thomas Johnson, which were
patented in 1803 and 1804. They related to the dressing of the warp
before it was placed in the loom, and for the mechanical taking up of