by not being liable to freeze in Winter. Sir Richard took out his first patent for spinning by rollers in 1769, and having made several additional discoveries aud improvements in the modes of carding, roving, and spinning, he took out a fresh patent for the whole in 1775, and thus completed a series of machinery so various and complicated, yet so admirably combined, and wonderfully adapted for the purposes intended. that it has excited the admiration of every one capable of appreciating the ingenuity displayed and the difficulties over

come.

A third mill was built higher up the stream. called Masson, which is replete with the improved machinery employed in making cotton thread. The whole of these belong to and are worked by Messrs. R. & P. Arkwright, grandsons of the eminent founder, who now employ about 1200 hands. Sir Richard bought the estate and Manor of Willersley of Thomas Hallet Hodges, Esq. in 1782, and shortly afterwards commenced building the present beautiful Castle; but owing to an accident by fire in 1791, it was not finally completed till after the death of Sir Richard. He received the honour of knighthood in 1788, in which year he was High Sheriff for the county. He died in 1792, aged 60, Lord of the Manor of Cromford, and founder of the Chapel already named, page 43.

The inventions and enterprising spirit of Sir Richard Arkwright, with a few other distinguished individuals in this surprising manufacture, have opened new and boundless fields of employment; and while they conferred infinitely more real benefit on our native country, than she could have derived from the absolute dominion of the mines of Mexico or Peru, they have been universally productive of wealth and enjoyment. The most extensive cotton manufacturers of the county besides Arkwrights are the Messrs. Strutts-at Belper and Milford. As it may not be unacceptable or out of place here to the general reader we shall give a brief account of these admirably conducted mills, which have derived considerable interest by the visit of our youthful Queen.

In

The Mills at Belper are now two in number-the principal of which is 200 feet long, 30 wide, and six stories high; its floors being constructed of brick arches and paved with brick, it is considered absolutely fire proof. In these Mills, and in those at Milford, the Messrs. Strutt employ about 2,000 hands, the majority of whom are women and children. It is said they spin about 18 tons, or 40,000 lbs. of cotton per week. The average fineness may be taken at 20 hanks to the lb., and hence, as each hank is 840 yards, or nearly half a mile, every lb. is nearly 10 miles, and the whole, about 400,000 miles, are produced in about 66 working hours. round numbers this is 6,000 miles per hour, or 100 miles a minute. Nor should it be forgotten, that every fibre passes through no less than ten sets of machinery; hence, the united spindles and threads travel through a 1,000 miles a minute. The noise of their united frictions and collisions, and the united hum of thousands of little spindles, each revolving 4,000 times per minute may be accounted for, but can never be conceived unless heard in the midst of them. The author can attest the truth of the following remarks of Sir Richard Phillips, in his 'Personal Tour' respecting the state of these Mills:

"It would be tedious," he observes, " to dwell on the well-known process of cotton spinning; but as this manufactory produces the cleanest and most perfect yarn made in England, of its numbers, from 6 to 100, it may be worth while to state, that this perfection appears to arise from the systematic perfection of all the machines, and from the astonishing cleanliness of every part of this great factory. The wheels are as bright as the grate of a good housewife's drawing-room, every action is complete in its way, and though cotton is a dusty article yet I no where saw either dirt or dust. At the same time order prevails throughout, for as the main shaft gives no respite to the carding, roving, and spinning machines, so every attendant diligently and silently watches the lines of bobbins which are performing their miraculous evolutions, while other apparatus are correcting and regulating the stages and steps of the production.

"The whole is turned by eight or nine water wheels, of about twentyfour feet diameter, and twenty feet in length. The fall is about twenty feet, and the admirable contrivance of revolving balls (adopted in the steam-engine) are affixed, to render the power uniform, by varying the depth of the falling stream. In truth, it is one of the features of the entire establishment, that all that can be performed by machinery is so performed, and that the machinery is the very best for its purpose, and, in many instances which I witnessed, as true, as decided in its action.

"After the thread is wound into hanks it is bleached at a distinct manufactory for that purpose; but as bleaching is a mere chemical operation, and the means are either known and not curious, or secret, and not proper to inquire about, I did not visit this branch of the establishment."

The rapid rise of the Cotton Manufacture in this country is a subject of astonishment to other nations; and has been justly termed one of the greatest triumphs of enterprise aided by mechanical genius. Long after the middle of the last century the Cotton Manufacture was in its infancy; not averaging more than about £200,000 annually; but, "Now it forms the principal

support and bulwark of the country, affording an advantageous field for the accumulation and employment of millions upon millions of capital, and of thousands upon thousands of workmen.* Mr. Huskisson stated to the House of Commons in 1824, that the total value of the Cotton Goods annually manufactured in Great Britain amounted to the prodigious sum of 33 Millions; but such has been the immense annual rate of increase since that period that it was rated in 1836 at 45 Millions, and perhaps fell little short of 50 Millions.-The following account therefore of the means employed, and the results in the different departments of the Cotton Manufacture, may be acceptable to the reader:

The machinery by which the cotton is manufactured is so complicated in its structure, that a clear conception of its powers and mode of operation can only be obtained from a minute inspection of all its parts, both in a state of rest and in motion. The process by which the raw cotton is prepared for use will, however, convey some idea of the ingenious mechanical contrivances that are employed to facilitate the production of the thread.

"When the cotton is sufficiently picked and cleaned, (an operation that furnishes employment to a great number of women,) it is carefully spread upon a cloth, in which it is afterwards rolled up in order to be carded. To the carding machine belong two cylinders of different diameters; the larger of which is covered with cards of fine wire; and over, and in contact with it, are fixed a number of stationary cards, that, in conjunction with the revolving cylinders, perform the operation of carding. The smaller cylinder is encompassed by fillet cards, fixed in a spiral form; and is also provided with an ingenious piece of machinery called a crank. The spiral roll of cloth before mentioned being applied to the machine, is made to unroll very slowly, by means of rollers, so that it may continually feed the larger cylinder with its contents; when carded, the cotton passes from this to the smaller cylinder, which revolves in contact with the other, and is thence stripped off by the motion of the crank; not in short lengths, but in continuation; and having the appearance of a very thin fleece, which, if not intended to pass a second time through the carding machine, is immediately contracted, by passing betwixt a pair of rollers, into what is called a row, or length.

"The next part of the process is that of sizing. The machine by which this is performed has two pairs of rollers, that are placed at a proper distance from each other, and revolve with different velocities, arising either from the variation of size in the pairs of rollers, from their performing a different number of revolutions in the same space of time, or from both

* Edinburgh Review for June 1827,

these causes united. When the lengths of cotton are brought from the carding machine, several of them together are applied to the rollers now mentioned; and the effect produced is not only that the lengths, thus applied in conjunction, coalesce, and come out single, but also that the fibres of the cotton are drawn out longitudinally, by the different velocities and pressure of the rollers: hence the cotton is now termed a drawing. This process is several times repeated, and several drawings are each time united, by passing together betwixt the rollers; the number introduced being so varied, that the last drawing may be of a size proportioned to the fineness of the thread into which it is intended to be spun.

"The cotton is now in a fit state for roving. This operation is performed by passing the last-mentioned drawing between two pairs of rollers, which revolve with different velocities, as in the former machine. It is then received into a round conical can, revolving with considerable swiftness. This gives the drawing a slight twisting, and prepares it for winding, which is done by hand, upon large bobbins, by the smaller children. When in this state the cotton is applied to the spinning machine. Here it is passed between pairs of rollers, which, revolving with various degrees of velocity, draw it out, and reduce it to a proper degree of tenuity: at the same time it is sufficiently twisted by the revolving of spindles, upon which bobbins are placed; and the yarn thus twisted is caused to wind on the bobbins, by the friction of their ends upon laths placed horizontally. These laths have another very essential office to perform, which is that of raising and falling the bobbins, so that the yarn may be spread over their whole length; otherwise the thread would require to be moved very frequently, as is the case in the common spinning-wheel. When thus wound upon the bobbins the cotton is regarded as ready for use."

With one of the mule-jennies, containing 600 spindles, a good workman can produce in a week, consisting of 69 working hours, 32 lbs. of yarn of the fineness of 200 hanks to the lb., and as each hank measures 840 yards, the produce of his week's work, if extended in a line, would measure 3050 miles.

The extraordinary degree of tenuity to which cotton is capable of being reduced, is also shewn from the surprising fact, that 1lb. of raw cotton has been converted into 350 hanks, forming a continuous thread of 167 miles in length. The number of power looms in 1835 was no less than 109,626 -the hand looms, by which fine calicoes, muslins, and fancy goods are wove, amount to 200,000, or 250,000. The former produces about 684 millions of yards annually of the coarser heavy goods; the amount of the latter is not known with any degree of accuracy. It is said 650,000 bushels of flour is used throughout the kingdom for dressing the cotton warp. Mr. M'Culloch estimates that from 1,200,000 to 1,400,000 obtain their subsistence from the cotton manufacture. The number of lbs. manufactured in 1836 was 370,000,000.

Cotton Plant-Genus Gossypium is now grown in many countries-Cotton (vegetable hairs) is the downy filamentous matter produced by the surface of the seeds, and fills the cavity of the seed vessel or pod, in which

the seeds lie. These vegetable hairs, (somewhat analagous to cellular tissue) are long weak tubes, which when immersed in water, and examined under the microscope by transmitted light, look like flat narrow transparent ribands, all entirely distinct from each other, and with a perfect even surface and uniform breadth.*

CROMFORD.-The Manor of Cromford (in Doomsday book called, Crunford) is a hamlet in the parish of Wirksworth. This Manor, at the conquest, belonged to the King; after which time it passed through various hands, and was ultimately purchased by Sir Richard Arkwright of Peter Nightingale, Esq. of Lea. At that time it was an insignificant place, with very few inhabitants, but now they number about 2,000.

The cotton trade has been the chief cause of its present prosperity, but also much aided by the formation of the new line of road-Cromford Canal and High Peak Railway; the latter was constructed at a great cost (nearly £200,000,) and carried over immense steeps to Whaley Bridge, where it joins the Peak Forest Canal.

Sir Richard Arkwright obtained the grant of a Market, which is held on a Saturday, and of great advantage to the neighbourhood. Here is a handsome Free Day School, built and supported by Richard Arkwright, Esq., likewise six Almshouses for six poor widows.

The

wharf-the lead and colour works are constant sources of employment to the poorer population. It contains a handsome Inn, and is beautifully situated in a vale, almost surrounded with massive limestone rocks-and watered by two streamlets-one from the Cromford Moor Sough, and the other descends through Bonsall and Via Gellia. Cromford is one mile from Bonsall, one from Matlock, and two from Wirksworth.

* Penny Cyclopædia, page 90, January 1837.