. The story of textiles; a bird's-eye view of the history of the beginning and the growth of the industry by which mankind is clothed. MUND CARTWRIGHT These improvements of the spinning machines so in-creased the output of yarn that there was almost a glutof the market, and more and more imperative grew thedemands for a loom that would handle the production ona greater scale, as the old hand loom proved so totallyinadequate. The problem of the power loom, therefore, receivedconsideration in many quarters. The one who succeededin working out a practical plan for power weaving, andwho did for th
. The story of textiles; a bird's-eye view of the history of the beginning and the growth of the industry by which mankind is clothed. MUND CARTWRIGHT These improvements of the spinning machines so in-creased the output of yarn that there was almost a glutof the market, and more and more imperative grew thedemands for a loom that would handle the production ona greater scale, as the old hand loom proved so totallyinadequate. The problem of the power loom, therefore, receivedconsideration in many quarters. The one who succeededin working out a practical plan for power weaving, andwho did for the old hand loom what Paul, Wyatt, High,Arkwright, and Crompton had done for the spinning ma-chine, was Edmund Cartwright, a minister of the Churchof England. He knew little about mechanics when a chance conversa-tion in a public house directed his attention to the prob-lem of power weaving. As Cartwright himself describedit, Happening to be at Matlock in the summer of 1784,I fell in company with some gentlemen of Manchester,when the conversation turned on Arkwrights spinningmachinery. One of the company observed that, as soon as. THE STORY OF TEXTILES 89 Arkwrights patent expired, so many mills would be erected,and so much cotton spun, that hands never could be foundto weave it. To this observation I replied that Arkwrightmust then set his wits to work and invent a weaving brought on a conversation on the subject, in whichthe Manchester gentlemen unanimously agreed that thething was impracticable; and in defence of their opinionthey adduced arguments which I certainly was incompetentto answer, or even to comprehend, being totally ignorantof the subject, having never at any time seen a personweave. I controverted, however, the impracticability ofthe thing by remarking that there had lately been ex-hibited in London an automaton figure which played atchess. Some time afterwards a particular circumstance re-calling this conversation to my mind, it struck me that,as in pl
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