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DR. CARTWRIGHT’S “CORDELIER,” OR ROPEMAKING MACHINE.

See pp. 146, 333.

PREFACE.

The following Memoir of the Life of Dr. Cartwright, being chiefly derived from authentic papers in the possession of his family, and also from the personal recollection of its few surviving members, will be found to contain a more connected account than has hitherto appeared of the various pursuits of his long and useful life. It might have been considerably extended by the addition of interesting letters from various eminent persons with whom he had correspondence; but the Author has preferred making such selections only as seem connected with the leading points of Dr. Cartwright’s character and history.

The mechanical portions of this little work might also have been made more copious; but the minuteness of detail necessary to render such descriptions intelligible would have but little interest to the general reader. If, therefore, this volume deserve the censure of being meagre as well as short, it may hope at least to escape the heavier reproach of being tedious and diffuse.

M. S.

MEMOIR

ETC.

—————

In contemplating the wonderful impulse which the manufactures of Great Britain have received within the last fifty years, from an unprecedented application of mechanical ingenuity, the mind is led not only to inquire into the causes that have produced such a direction of talent, but naturally awakened to an interest in the history of those enterprising men who, in departing from immemorial practice, first gave that impulse, and prepared the way, through difficulties and opposition, for the more prosperous career of their successors.

Some of the most original mechanicians of the eighteenth century were persons born in very humble stations of life. In poverty and obscurity, they encountered such impediments to their successful progress, as the force of native talent alone could not overcome; and their history but too often presents a melancholy picture of the unavailing struggles of a vigorous mind, subdued at length by the mortification of seeing others enriched by inventions which the author of them possessed not the means to introduce.

The subject of the following memoir cannot be said to come within the same description of unfortunate projectors; but though possessed of advantages which supported him through difficulties under which an humbler individual might have sunk, he was not the less exposed to the influence of that spirit of jealousy which has a tendency not only to oppose every new invention, but to dispute with the inventor his claim to originality. It is solely in the hope of doing full justice to the memory of so ingenious a man as Dr. Cartwright that these pages are offered to the public. Several years have now elapsed since his death, and as the number is daily diminishing of those whose personal recollection can throw any light on the earlier portion of his mechanical career, the very few who still survive are anxious to shew the ground on which he claimed the merit of being the original inventor of certain combinations in machinery, which, from their extensive adoption, have had no small influence on the commercial and manufacturing interests of this country. But, before any explanation or description be given of inventions that have produced most important results, or the circumstances related, which called his mechanical genius into action, a slight sketch of the pursuits and habits of his earlier life may not be uninteresting, in order to shew that, however intellectual they might be, they were not apparently calculated to develop the peculiar talent by which his later years were distinguished.

It is now precisely a century since the birth of Edmund Cartwright, on the 24th April, 1743. He was the fourth son of William Cartwright, Esq., of Marnham, in the county of Nottingham, by Anne, daughter of George Cartwright, Esq., of Ossington, in the same county.^[1] He was educated under Dr. Clarke, at the grammar-school at Wakefield, where he was early distinguished for proficiency in his studies. Had he been permitted to follow the bent of his own inclination in the choice of a profession, he would have preferred the navy; but two of his brothers being already designed for that service, it was thought advisable that Edmund should apply what were justly considered as promising abilities to one of the learned professions; and as his family connexions might be expected to promote his advancement in the church, it was decided by his parents that he should enter into holy orders. He began his academical studies at University College, in Oxford, where he was entered at fourteen years of age, and during the vacations was placed under the private tuition of the Rev. Dr. Langhorne, a name well known in the literary world, as the editor of Plutarch’s Lives, and likewise as the author of some poems, as well as several pleasing and elegant volumes in prose.

A friendship, honourable to both, seems to have arisen between the pupil and his instructor, to whose classical knowledge and literary taste Dr. Cartwright might probably be indebted for much of that neat and finished style of expression which he employed in writing, even on the most trivial and familiar occasions.

At that period, the chief object of a liberal education was to acquire a competent portion of classical learning; and he who added a taste for poetry and the belles lettres to his proficiency as a scholar, could not fail of being distinguished as possessing more than an ordinary share of the attainments that were then most valued in polished society. Much of what is considered as general information was not always to be found even amongst well educated persons, and scientific studies were comparatively but little cultivated. Had those various sources of information been then accessible which are now within the reach of every one who can read, or those popular associations existed, which, by uniting the results of inquiring minds, serve at once to concentrate knowledge and diffuse practical instruction, it is more than probable that the peculiar bent of Dr. Cartwright’s genius would have sooner shewn itself, and that he would have aimed rather at reaping the fruits of science than culling the flowers of poetry. It seemed, however, to have been the natural, as it was the not unusual resource of the young and vigorous mind, to relieve its aspirations after distinction by an assiduous cultivation of the muses. Nor was such a dedication of the youthful faculties in this instance to be regretted. The occasional composition of poetry became to him, in after life, a frequent solace under disappointments, and contributed, with other mental exercises, to promote that cheerfulness of spirit, for which, even in his most advanced age, Dr. Cartwright was remarkable. That he had become a votary of the muses at the early age of eighteen is inferred from a letter, dated September 1761, from an old friend, Dr. Hasledine, rector of Haceby, in Lincolnshire, in which he says, “I presume your muse is very busy at this time, and I shall be glad to see your name in the collection of verses now preparing on the king’s^[2] wedding.” Whether the youthful poet adopted his friend’s suggestion, in adding to the numerous loyal effusions which so propitious an occasion could not fail to produce, cannot now be ascertained; but in the following spring he appears to have committed some of his compositions to the press, as well as submitted them to the criticism of his learned and affectionate tutor, Dr. Langhorne, who, in a letter, dated February 1762, thus expresses his opinion of the juvenile performance of his pupil:—“rejoice to find that, though you have long neglected your muse, she has not taken a final leave of you. Many of your verses are pretty; but I am less pleased with the harmony of your little poem than with that philosophical temper you seem to have been in when you wrote it—‘Sunt lachrymæ rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt.’ ” His brother John, (afterwards Major Cartwright,) then a lieutenant on board H.M.S. “Wasp,” in a letter, dated 1763, also alludes to his poetical attempts, and draws an interesting comparison between his own neglected education and his brother Edmund’s superior advantages in that respect:—

“I shall beg you will indulge me with a sight of some of those little pieces, in the composition of which you sometimes amuse yourself. Give me leave to inform you that I already rank one poet amongst my intimate correspondents, (and he^[3] of no small note either,) so you need not be shy of not getting into good company. It is my ambition to converse with the geniuses (if I may not write genii) of the age,—and learned men I honour exceedingly. Were I a potentate, they should be respected at my court before nobles, and it should be glorious from the lustre of their wisdom. Though my soil was under the care of slothful husbandmen, and has been denied the sunshine of a college; though it has also been for several seasons exposed to ruthless, inclement elements—the most inveterate enemies to erudition; yet do not altogether consider the produce of a richer one, that has had a happier cultivation bestowed upon it, as pearls cast before swine.” It appears from the following letter, that, although Mr. Cartwright had determined on publishing some of his poetical effusions, he had, at the same time, a youthful anxiety not to be known as their author.

In 1770, Mr. Cartwright published “Armine and Elvira,” a legendary tale. This poem, which passed through several editions in little more than a year, was greatly admired for the harmony of its numbers and the purity of its moral sentiment, and the author received compliments from various quarters sufficient to have satisfied the vanity of a much vainer man; but “The Prince of Peace,” an ode, published in the year 1779, must unquestionably be considered as the best of his earlier poetical productions, probably for this reason, that he felt his subject. The deep regret with which, in common with many others of the wise and good, he viewed the contest at that time subsisting between Great Britain and her American colonies, seems to have inspired his pen, and deprecating the mode in which the warfare was carried on, he describes its horrors in some very noble lines. The concluding stanzas of a poem out of print, and now but little known, may not be unacceptable to the reader:—

No one was more ready than Mr. Cartwright to acknowledge and admire the superior power of some of our later poets; and when, at a very advanced age, he took a pleasure in accounting himself the father of the living poets, he gave a pleasing instance of his candour in a letter to one of them,^[5] which it may not be irrelevant to introduce in this place. “You have, it seems, made repeated incursions into Parnassus, and so have I—in Arcadia ego, that is to say, about half a century ago. You probably are not aware of the relationship in which we stand; having been the father of the living poets for many years past, you consequently are one of my poetical sons. No poetical father, there is reason to believe, ever had so numerous or so illustrious a family before. When I first appeared in the poetical horizon, there were scarcely a dozen poets, good or bad: now they are as numerous as the stars of heaven; the greater part shining, not with borrowed light, as formerly, but with original splendour. You will most likely be at a loss to know how I make myself out to be the patriarch of the English Parnassus. I date my poetical paternity from the year 1762, when I first appeared in print. Not many years afterwards I published “Armine and Elvira,” a legendary tale, which went through seven editions in little more than a year, at a time when few of my poetical sons now living could have held a pen, or probably were born.”^[6]

In 1772, Mr. Cartwright married Alice, the youngest daughter and co-heiress of Richard Whitaker, Esq., of Doncaster, and, after his marriage, resided first at Marnham, and afterwards at Brampton, in Derbyshire, to the perpetual curacy of which he was presented by the Dean of Lincoln, Dr. Cust. He still continued his correspondence with his old friend, Dr. Langhorne, who in a letter, dated from Blagden, near Bristol, expresses himself in the following affectionate manner.

During Mr. Cartwright’s residence in Derbyshire, he made the discovery of a remedy of considerable efficacy in cases of putrid fever. The parish of Brampton was of considerable extent, the inhabitants very poor, and medical assistance frequently out of their reach. With a view to relieve the distresses of his parishioners, he applied himself to the study of medical books, and was often enabled to give advice, not the less welcome for being gratuitous. Of the circumstances that first led to the trial of yeast as a remedy for putrid fever, the following relation, published in a medical work of the year 1799, is from his own pen:—

To these, and similar instances related by Mr. Cartwright himself, might be added several others, confirmed by practitioners of eminence, to whom he had communicated his discovery. The subject having been noticed by Dr. Thornton, in his interesting work on the Philosophy of Medicine, and by Dr. Beddoes, in “Considerations on the Medicinal Use and Production of Factitious Airs,” as well as by other medical writers, it is unnecessary to enlarge upon it in this place, or to trace the connexion between the principle of Mr. Cartwright’s experiment and the modern practice of administering medicine in a state of effervescence in putrid complaints. The discovery might, in some measure, be called an accidental one; but it was one of those accidents of which men of quick and intelligent minds only, in whom the habit of observation is constantly on the alert, know how to avail themselves.

Mr. Cartwright having been presented to the living of Goadby Marwood, in Leicestershire, he removed thither with his family in 1779. Here he employed part of his leisure time in cultivating his little glebe, and in this occupation appears to have yielded freely to the peculiar bent of his inquiring mind; for his whole system of farming was little else than a series of experiments. But his experiments were not ruinous, and this may be considered as having been the most happy, as it undoubtedly was the most tranquil, portion of his life.

He was at this period a contributor to the Monthly Review, and Mr. Griffiths, the respectable editor of that publication, was a much-esteemed friend. When Dr. Johnson pronounced the writers for that work to be dull men who read their books, he must be allowed to have passed no small eulogium upon them; and indeed, from the whole tenour of Mr. Griffiths’ confidential correspondence with Mr. Cartwright, it appeared to have been his earnest desire that the work should be conducted with candour and integrity, and be, what it professed to be, a review of the literary productions of the day, and not merely a medium for the diffusion of party principles. Even Dr. Johnson, although in his celebrated interview with George III. he scrupled not to represent the Monthly reviewers as enemies to the church and all establishments, was compelled to do justice to their care and impartiality. The worthy editor seems to have been duly watchful of the motives that might be supposed to influence any of the writers engaged in the work; and though his scrupulous honesty might impose some restraint on the indulgence of personal feeling as well as of party spirit, yet was the loss of entertainment that might ensue from such restraint more than compensated to the reader by the sound sense and good taste which sought to direct, and not mislead, his judgment. Mr. Griffiths, alluding, in one of his letters, to a gentleman who had formerly belonged to the corps of reviewers, observes, that “he is a learned and ingenious man, but I would not trust him when he reviews the works of a friend, nor indeed of an enemy, for in either case no impartiality is to be expected from him. Poor Langhorne was the same, and many a scuffle have we had about favour and resentment. Pray, sir, when are you and I to begin to scuffle? I see no signs of a rupture yet.”

No one could bring a more cool and unimpassioned temper into the service of literary criticism than Mr. Cartwright, or a judgment less liable to be biassed by political feeling. He was, however, no compromiser of the interests of religion and morality, and has been heard in later years to express great satisfaction on reflecting that, amongst other castigations inflicted on the violation of morals and good taste, he had especially exposed the fallacy and dangerous tendency of the opinions contained in the works of certain German writers, then becoming popular. A review of “An American Farmer’s Letters, by Hector St. John,” was one of the articles in the “Monthly Review” that are now known to have been from Mr. Cartwright’s pen. These letters were published by Mr. Thomas Davies,^[8] who, in a letter to Mr. Griffiths, says—“I can ascertain their authenticity, for I am acquainted with the author. He is a man of plain and simple manners, with a strong and enlightened understanding. You will perceive that he has not argumentatively touched upon the great question which unhappily divided us from our North American colonies. His feelings upon the apprehended expulsion from his farm, which really took place, are expressed with such force and energy as cannot be feigned. He who wrote the chapter of the distresses of a frontier farmer must have felt them, or he could not so naturally have described them.” It appears that Dr. Johnson’s “Lives of the Poets” were reviewed by Mr. Cartwright; and Mr. Griffiths, in a letter relative to that publication, enters at large upon a subject, now indeed of little moment, but which seemed then to have been interesting to literary men—viz., the share that Theophilus Cibber really had had in the compilation of certain lives of the poets that were published in his name.

This poem is now known to have been one of the earliest publications of Mr. Crabbe, and though it must be considered as falling far short of the excellence of his later productions, it appears to have excited no inconsiderable degree of attention and curiosity on the part of those to whom it was addressed. In a subsequent letter, Mr. Griffiths observes—“As the Candidate is addressed to the corps, perhaps you may like to hear something of the general opinion of your learned associates concerning it. What I have collected is as follows: ‘that although we may not be able to speak so well of the poem as the author wishes us to do, yet it must be allowed that he possesses talents; and many lines are exceedingly good, and much in the manner of Pope, while others are flat and prosaic; that his ardour ought not to be discouraged; that the capital fault of the piece is, that it wants a subject to make a proper and forcible impression on the mind.’ On the whole, I cannot help thinking that this Candidate merits encouragement; and yet I dare say you will agree with me that the merit of his poem is not great enough for extraordinary praise.” The reception that the Candidate met with from the Reviewers, happily was not such as to repress the poetic spirit of its gifted author; and if this little poem possessed no other merit, it would be highly interesting as a sketch, however slight and imperfect, from the hand of so great a master. His own peculiar style may be traced in it along with those touches, sometimes of self-confidence, sometimes of timidity, which not unfrequently exist together in a powerful, yet susceptible mind. Notwithstanding the intimacy that afterwards subsisted between the author of the Candidate and his reviewer, there is no reason to think that they were known to each other as such. Mr. Cartwright subsequently became one of Mr. Crabbe’s warmest admirers.

One more extract from the correspondence of honest Griffiths may be permitted, as affording a useful admonition to the biographer, who, conscious how few passages in a real life are calculated to amuse the generality of readers, may be tempted to supply the deficiency by filling up his pages with insignificant or gossiping details. “We agree likewise in opinion as to the compilement of *****’s Memoirs, which are, indeed, put together in a slovenly manner; but my greatest objection lies in the minutiæ with which those two great volumes are bumped out, as the printers phrase it. Had all the frivolous, and, I may add, old womanish things which are inserted been left out, the book would have been less tedious, as well as less expensive.”

The retired habits of Mr. Cartwright’s life, as well as the profession of which he was a member, had hitherto kept him from taking any active part in politics, although his opinions were pretty much in unison with those of his brother, Major Cartwright, who already began to be well known as the advocate of parliamentary reform. In 1780, Mr., afterwards Sir William Jones, was proposed as a candidate to represent the university of Oxford; and, on this occasion, Mr. Cartwright made him a voluntary offer of his vote, explaining his reasons for so doing in the following letter to a friend and connexion of his family, who had applied for his interest in favour of another candidate:—

Until the departure of Sir William Jones for India, in the spring of 1783, Mr. Cartwright enjoyed the gratification of an intimacy and correspondence with that highly gifted man, whose untimely death was considered by him as a private affliction, as well as a public misfortune. Several of Sir William Jones’s letters to Dr. Cartwright have been published in his life by Lord Teignmouth.^[11] The following, which is dated from the Temple, 24th March, 1783, may not be unacceptable to the reader:—

During Mr. Cartwright’s residence in the Vale of Belvoir, the circle of his intimates became enriched by the addition of one whose works contain, perhaps, the most inexhaustible source of interest of all the productions of that bright constellation of British poets which has illumined the close of the last, and beginning of the present century. About the year 1783, the Rev. George Crabbe became a near neighbour to Mr. Cartwright, and subsequently a valued friend. Although in after life they happened to be much separated, they still kept up a correspondence by letter for nearly forty years, and most interesting is it to contemplate in the correspondence of Mr. Crabbe a mind unchanged through all the vicissitudes of life, and retaining the same unaffected simplicity when arrived at eminence, that had adorned it in obscurity and retirement. He had already published, with his name, “The Village,” and “The Library,” both of which poems had met with the approbation of Dr. Johnson, Mr. Burke, and other literary judges of the day. The time had not then arrived for the public in general to appreciate justly the promise which these poems held out of still better things, and Mr. Cartwright has been often heard to express his surprise that they had not received more notice, as well as his regret that Mr. Crabbe did not exercise his powerful genius on some more extended work. He had subsequently the gratification of seeing the public, as it were, awakened to a due sense of his friend’s extraordinary merit. Twenty-five years afterwards, Mr. Crabbe published a new edition of his earlier pieces, with the addition of the “Parish Register,” a poem in which his graphic pen has given the deepest interest to the humblest scenes, by the mere power of faithful delineation; and which can hardly fail to be read with undiminished delight as long as any sympathy with truth and nature, any perception of genuine pathos, shall exist.^[12]

As his subsequent poems are so well known, and have been so justly admired, it may not be uninteresting (though somewhat anticipating the order of time) to introduce in this place an amusing description, given by Mr. Crabbe, of the notoriety they had brought upon him.

The selections that have been made from the correspondence of Dr. Cartwright’s early friends, are introduced chiefly for the purpose of shewing that there was nothing in the pursuits of the first half of his life calculated to lead his mind to study the theory of mechanics, or in his habits to bring him acquainted with their practical application. His pursuits had been purely literary, and his associates were as unknowing as himself in everything relating to manufactures. He was not only esteemed for the elegance of his attainments, but he had also at that time a fair prospect of advancement in his profession, and of attaining a competency sufficient for the liberal support of his station in society. A circumstance, altogether accidental, now occurred to occasion an entire change in all his views, and to turn his mind into a different direction, from which it never afterwards diverged, but continued, even as life advanced, to pursue its object with undiminished intenseness.

In the summer of 1784, Mr. Cartwright happening to be at Matlock, in Derbyshire, became, during his visit there, highly interested in the progress of those ingenious manufactures, which not many years before had been established in that immediate neighbourhood. The application of machinery to the art of spinning was at that time a novelty; and the splendid fortunes that some ingenious mechanics, who had been successful in introducing it, were supposed to be realizing,^[15] seemed to hold out extraordinary encouragement to the exercise of any inventive faculty that should contribute to the improvement of our national manufactures. Mr. Cartwright was not aware in how high a degree a faculty of this nature existed in his own mind, until it was brought into action by the accidental occurrence of a conversation at the public table, on the subject of new and ingenious inventions, especially that of Sir Richard Arkwright’s recently invented method of spinning cotton by machinery.

It was observed by some of the company present, that if this new mode of spinning by machinery should be generally adopted, so much more yarn would be manufactured than our own weavers could work up, that the consequence would be a considerable export to the Continent, where it might be woven into cloth so cheaply, as to injure the trade in England.^[16] Mr. Cartwright replied to this observation, that the only remedy for such an evil would be to apply the power of machinery to the art of weaving as well as to that of spinning, by contriving looms to work up the yarn as fast as it was produced by the spindle. Some gentlemen from Manchester, who were present, and who, it may be presumed, were better acquainted with the subject of discussion, would not admit of the possibility of such a contrivance, on account of the variety of movements required in the operation of weaving. Mr. Cartwright, who, if he ever had seen weaving by hand, had certainly paid no particular attention to the process by which it was performed, maintained that there was no real impossibility in applying power to any part of the most complicated machine, (producing as an instance the automaton chess-player,) and that whatever variety of movements the art of weaving might require, he did not doubt but that the skilful application of mechanism might produce them. The discussion having proceeded to some length, it made so strong an impression on Mr. Cartwright’s mind, that immediately on his return home, he set about endeavouring to construct a machine that should justify the proposition he had advanced, of the practicability of weaving by machinery. It may be remarked, that the incredulity expressed by those gentlemen, who were of all persons most likely to be acquainted with the fact, had any attempt been previously made to weave by machinery, is a pretty decisive proof that nothing of the kind had then been effected.

His first attempts, as might be supposed, were rude and clumsy; but as neither drawings nor models now remain of them, we have no means of tracing his earliest steps in mechanical experiment, nor of ascertaining the mode in which he proposed to overcome difficulties that had appeared insurmountable even to experienced mechanicians.

In the course of a few months, however, he had brought his loom to such a state of progress, as led him to imagine that it might eventually become profitable; and to the surprise of every one who was at all conversant with undertakings of this nature, as well as to that of his personal friends, he took out a patent in April, 1785, in order to secure to himself the expected advantages of the invention.

The patent, or, as it is now called, the power-loom, has doubtless been receiving continual additions from various hands during the last fifty years; and the beautiful machine (adapted as it is to every variety of fabric, and now in use to an immense extent) differs considerably in detail, even from the most improved form of Mr. Cartwright’s invention. But to him the merit is due of having been the first to apply power successfully to the business of weaving, and the principles by which he achieved that first great step, may be traced through every progressive improvement; and unquestionably opened the way to many of those ingenious additions by means of which later mechanists have brought the power-loom to its present state of excellence. Before we proceed further in relating the progress of Mr. Cartwright’s mechanical career, it may be necessary to give a slight sketch of the mode in which hand-weaving is usually performed; in order that the reader who is not conversant with such subjects, may be enabled to form a clear idea of the nature of the movements required, and to produce which, manual dexterity was considered indispensable.

The annexed plate represents the principal features of a common hand-loom, consisting of, A, the yarn beam; B, cloth beam; DE, treadles; dd, heddles [or healds]; G, lay or lathe, including the reed; F, seat board.

In the operation of weaving, the workman being seated on the board F, moves with his feet alternately the treadles D E, by which motion the heddles are depressed or raised. The alternate threads of the warp having been separated by passing through each respective heddle, the action of the heddle produces the shed, or space through which the shuttle has to pass. The shuttle is thrown from hand to hand, whilst the weaver with the hand last disengaged throws the lay or lathe back in an oblique direction, which being suspended from the upper frame-work of the loom, and returned to its natural perpendicular position, presses the woof or thread, deposited by the shuttle, close to the cloth already woven.

In this operation, the alternate action up and down of the heddles, the alternate action transversely of the shuttle, with the additional one of throwing back the lathe, have all to be produced by the hands and feet of the workman, without the aid of any intermediate instrument, that might have suggested to the mind of a novice in mechanics a feasible method of applying machinery to the purpose. The fly-shuttle might indeed be considered as an approximation towards a more improved practice; but that ingenious contrivance, although invented by Mr. Kay as early as the year 1738, does not appear to have been in general use when Mr. Cartwright first gave his attention to the subject.

Mr. Cartwright’s first power-loom, as described in the specification of 1785, was, as may be supposed, a somewhat rude contrivance, and differed materially from the form which he afterwards gave to it. The warp was placed perpendicularly, and the shuttle was thrown by springs connected with a cylinder placed beneath the machine. This cylinder also gave motion to two levers, one of which reversed the threads of the warp, and the other elevated the reed, which again descended by means of its own weight. The tension of the warp was produced by weights suspended from the beams, as in the common loom.

This simple apparatus rapidly received great modifications from Mr. Cartwright’s hands, as is shewn in his several specifications of 1786, 1787, and 1790. The warp was now placed horizontally, and the several parts of the machine were adjusted in a form which in its general features scarcely differs from the power-loom of the present day. The application of a crank on the axis of a wheel communicating with the moving power, was the mode by which Mr. Cartwright effected the alternate motion of the lathe. Simple and obvious as such a contrivance may now seem to those who are in the habit of seeing hundreds of power-looms in daily operation, yet before his time it does not appear to have been thought of; and in this invention alone he may be considered as having made no small progress towards weaving by machinery. It is probable that a contrivance for throwing the shuttle, so as to make it pass and repass, and yet keep within its prescribed bounds, did not so readily occur to his mind; for the compiler of this memoir has a perfect recollection of the amusement it used to afford his children to watch their father, imitating the action of a weaver throwing his shuttle, as he walked up and down the room absorbed in his new speculations.

He succeeded, however, in overcoming this difficulty, by means of tappets fixed on the axis of a wheel communicating with the moving power.^[17] These tappets give action to the treadles, which being connected by means of strings with the picker,^[18] (an apparatus placed at each end of the box in which the shuttle moves,) an impulse is thereby communicated to the picker, which causes it to throw the shuttle from side to side with an accuracy superior to that of the hand. In like manner was the requisite action of the heddles or healds produced, and those three principal actions being thus accomplished, the foundation was laid for those manifold improvements which have progressively been made in the application of mechanical power to weaving, and of which Mr. Cartwright’s invention still forms the leading principle.

The reader will find in the Appendix a figure and description of a portion of Mr. Cartwright’s power-loom, as modified by him in 1790, including a method for stopping the loom on the breaking of the thread, which is very similar to that still in use. Further improvements were afterwards introduced by him, and secured by patent in 1792; among which are a plan for weaving checks by means of a double shuttle-box—for tightening the selvage—and for making the lathe give a sharp blow. The limits of this work do not admit of our entering into greater detail respecting these less important features of Mr. Cartwright’s mechanical labours.

That he had early imparted to some of his friends the hopes he began to entertain of the success of his new invention, will appear from the letters of Mr. Crabbe, to whom he communicated from time to time the progress of his mechanical labours. In December, 1784, within very few months of Mr. Cartwright’s first attempt at weaving, his friend the poet writes—“You shall not find me smiling at your loom when you grow serious in it. I have the worst mechanical conception that any man can have, but you have my best wishes. May you weave your webs of gold!”

Although the actual production of his loom was of a humbler texture than that anticipated in the kind wishes of his friend, yet Mr. Cartwright considered it sufficiently satisfactory to induce him to present a specimen of it to Mrs. Crabbe; for, in June, 1785, Mr. Crabbe says, “I have just time to thank you for your letter, and to present my wife’s thanks for your cloth, of which she is very proud. I need not repeat my congratulations, nor our wishes. I, who never had a mechanical idea in my life, begin to lament my want of capacity to comprehend, in some measure, how these things can be; but I comfort myself that my ignorance is not, as ignorance generally is, of the malignant kind.”

In 1785, some property in the town and neighbourhood of Doncaster having devolved to Mr. Cartwright and his family, he was induced to fix his residence principally in that place, where finding skilful workmen more attainable than in a country village, he applied himself with increasing energy to the perfecting of a contrivance in which he had already made no inconsiderable progress. Early in the year 1786, he visited Manchester, partly with the view of engaging some of the superior workmen of that place to assist him in the construction of a more perfect model of his machine than he had hitherto been able to accomplish, and also in the hope that some of the opulent and enterprising manufacturers of that flourishing town might be induced to enter into his views, and give effect to the productions of his inventive genius, by the aid of their practical knowledge. The following letter to his friend, the Rev. W. U. Wray, contains a description of his early difficulties, as well as of his subsequent expectations of success:—

By another letter to the same gentleman, written also from Manchester, in May, 1786, the fact is ascertained of his having at that time effected an improvement in his loom, which was subsequently considered of great importance—viz., the stopping of itself of the machine, on the accidental breaking of a thread: “Respecting my business, sorry am I to say that it seems very little nearer a conclusion than when you left me. Delay upon delay. It is a satisfaction, however, that the delay does not arise from any unforeseen difficulty. The apparatus for stopping when the thread breaks, either in the warp or woof, is completed, and performs its business with the greatest accuracy and facility.” A projector may overrate his own success, or an experimentalist be disappointed even in the best founded expectations; and, therefore, the ill fortune that pursued Mr. Cartwright for so many years of his life might be considered as the not unusual lot of the ingenious; but it was much more remarkable, that he should live to see his self-confidence completely justified. Twenty years afterwards, from the very place where the machine that he describes first struggled into existence, and where it was most especially decried and opposed, a memorial from several of the most influential manufacturers was offered to the legislature, in which it was stated that Mr. Cartwright’s looms were employed there to the extent of several thousands.

During his temporary residence at Manchester he continued to report the progress of his experiments to Mr. Crabbe, who expresses his participation in his success in the following pleasant terms:—

The little encouragement that Mr. Cartwright met with at the time from persons already engaged in manufacturing concerns, was probably the cause of his deciding on a somewhat hazardous undertaking; no less than the establishment, under his own direction, of a weaving and spinning factory at Doncaster, and in which free scope might be given to every description of mechanical experiment. Having engaged the most skilful workmen he could procure, he continued to make repeated alterations in his loom; and one branch of mechanism leading to another, he effected important improvements in the art of spinning as well as in that of weaving.

The capability of the weaving-machine seemed now to be unequivocally proved. From the report of an aged person now living, who was employed at the factory at its first commencement, it appears that twenty looms were shortly set to work; ten for muslin, or muslinette, eight for cotton, one for sail-cloth, and one for coloured check. The machinery was at first worked by a bull, but in 1788 or 1789, he set up a steam-engine.

It may be presumed that the fabric produced in this infant manufactory was of some excellence, from the following letter from Mr. Cartwright’s old friend, Dr. Thurlow, Bishop of Durham, to whose lady he had presented a piece of muslin:—

It is probable that a piece of muslin even such as the lady of a bishop would not disdain to wear in 1787, would, under any circumstances, be of a quality very inferior to what is now produced; but that inferiority would proceed no less from the spinning than the weaving. Notwithstanding the wonderful inventions of Hargreaves, Arkwright, and Crompton, &c., the art of cotton-spinning might be said to be in its infancy, compared with the perfection to which it has since been brought. The finest yarn then produced would hardly have made a piece of muslin such as a lady now would think fit to wear.

However gratifying to Dr. Cartwright’s feelings the progress of his new discoveries might be, it soon became evident that the establishment at Doncaster, on the whole, was far from being profitable. The “factory system” was then in its infancy, and his own want of experience in the details of business such as he was now engaged in, occasioned all the work under his direction to be done at a more than ordinary expense. And being in some cases dependent on other branches of manufacture for the completion of his own, he was continually exposed to the influence of a narrow-minded jealousy, which now began to operate against him, but which probably proceeded from a growing conviction, on the part of the manufacturing interest, of the importance of his invention.^[19] Various petty means were practised, in order to obstruct the popularity of the machine-woven goods. The cottons sent by Mr. Cartwright to be printed were frequently rendered unsaleable, by obsolete patterns and imperfect execution; and of his best and most uninjured articles, the chief consumption was in presents to his friends, or in supplying furniture for his own house. In the meantime, the extraordinary ingenuity of the invention itself, as well as the peculiar circumstances under which it first appeared, had awakened a considerable degree of interest, and Mr. Cartwright, as might have been expected, was by turns admired for the vigour of his inventive genius, and condemned for the rashness of his speculations. Attempts also were made to seduce his workmen, as well as to evade his patent right, by using his machine differently modified; and, indeed, the openness with which he frequently communicated his ideas, joined to the extreme easiness of his temper, rendered such attempts at piracy by no means difficult, and tended eventually to involve him in several vexatious disputes and expensive lawsuits.

He had not taken into the account, that ingenuity alone was not sufficient to ensure protection, for a man of his character and habits, in the path he had newly entered on; and when he ventured to emulate the successful enterprise of others, he did not consider that its most striking examples were in men who had either risen from the working, or still belonged to the manufacturing classes. Neither did he calculate on the importance of being trained to habits of industry and business, or on the necessity of a far more intimate knowledge than he possessed of the feelings and prejudices of the class of persons he had to deal with; who though shrewd and intelligent in their own immediate line of business, had no very enlarged views beyond it.

Nor was Mr. Cartwright’s new position in society altogether without its trials. By the upper class of the inhabitants of a provincial town, proud of their exemption from commerce and manufactures, his proceedings were viewed with no small degree of distrust; and so portentous an innovation as the introduction of a steam-engine, was received with expressions of general dissatisfaction. Although some few of his personal connections and friends participated in his own sanguine views, and even joined in the pecuniary part of the speculation, by others he was considered as having deserted his caste, whilst by the more rigid he was condemned for engaging so deeply in occupations unsuited to his profession. With the poor of the place, however, his establishment was far from being equally unpopular. It afforded employment to numbers, without interfering with their previous occupations; and in addition to remuneration for their industry, they were certain of assistance, when required, from his benevolence. His name is still venerated by the descendants of his ancient workmen. To men of ingenuity and talents his house was always open, and in an intelligent and intellectual, though somewhat miscellaneous society, he consoled himself for the reserve of his more fastidious acquaintance. In reverting to this period of Mr. Cartwright’s life, we are fully sensible of the change that the last fifty years have produced in the opinions of nearly every class of the community. A man of genius now, whose inventions should tend to increase that general diffusion of the conveniences of life, which marks a truly civilized people, would have more to fear from competition than from prejudice. But at the time when he first commenced his mechanical career, there was a considerable class of persons, who, dreading the advance of every degree in society below themselves, deprecated the progress of machinery, as being the means of supplying the poor with indulgences heretofore confined to the rich, and consequently tending to raise them higher in the scale of refinement than was compatible with the due subordination of society.

It is hardly necessary to combat objections which few persons now will be found to entertain; nor does it come within the object of this volume to discuss so extensive a question as the general results of machinery. But it may be observed that it is the higher classes who have been the greatest gainers by the progress of improvement in the mechanic arts. The elegances and conveniences administered through the practical science of the manufacturer have contributed to raise them from a state of feudal barbarism, in which, from the want of comforts endured by all classes alike, the actual difference of condition between the high and the low, as to many of the appliances of life, was much less decided than it is at present. At a time when the floors of the hall or castle were strewn with rushes, and when the great Earl of Northumberland considered one clean table-cloth per month a sufficient allowance for his upper servants’ table, the accommodations of the cottage could hardly have been more homely. And though the lady of rank, when jolting in her cumbrous coach without springs, might display more dignity, she certainly could not enjoy more ease than if she had been travelling in one of her tenant’s carts. In the words of the Quarterly Review, “the want of every kind of comfort within their houses leaves us nothing to envy of the enjoyments of our forefathers in those good old times, which are the sad burthen of many ‘an idle song,’ and the constant theme of repining patriots.” And when it is considered, on the other hand, how favourable to the health and habits of cleanliness amongst the poor is the cheapness, resulting from machinery, of various articles of clothing, the increase of machinery cannot on the whole be regarded as an evil. It is, indeed, true that recent investigations have disclosed a fearful state of society in some of our manufacturing districts, but we need only look at the factories of Lowell, in the United States, to be convinced that demoralization is not a necessary accompaniment of the Factory System. Had our own manufacturers been less exclusively devoted to the accumulation of wealth, and had the British Government exerted itself sooner to secure to the manufacturing population the advantages of education and of restricted hours of labour, we might have escaped much of the evil which is often, but unjustly, attributed to the progress of mechanical improvements.

In 1786, Mr. Cartwright printed a new edition of his poems. The following letter from his old friend Mr. Griffiths, seems to have concluded the literary correspondence that had subsisted between them for several years. But though from this period their correspondence ceased, their mutual regard remained undiminished:—

As early as the year 1786, some ideas relative to an improvement in the steam-engine had suggested themselves to Mr. Cartwright’s mind; and though it was not until several years later that he took out any patent for a steam-engine, the following letter to a friend is introduced, as marking the period when he first attended to the subject, as well as illustrating his own scrupulous delicacy with regard to the invasion of other men’s inventions:—

Whether the model alluded to was completed, or what were the motives for suspending at that time the prosecution of this experiment, cannot now be ascertained. Mr. Cartwright’s first patent relative to the steam-engine was taken out in 1797, of which a description will be given hereafter.

Mr. Cartwright, though he had accomplished one great object of his wishes, in contriving a loom that should be worked by machinery, was not disposed to stop short in a career that seemed to him so promising of success. His next invention, a machine for combing long wool, may be considered as even more original than the former. In the instance of the loom, he had a machine prepared to his hands, that was already capable, in one way, of performing the work required of it, and the merit of his discovery consisted in applying a new power, in order to produce, to a much greater extent, motion that had hitherto been only produced by hand. But between the very simple act of combing wool by hand and the process of combing it by means of a complicated machine, that should perform the work of twenty men, there seemed to have been no intermediate gradation, no introduction, as it were, to a more improved method, by any addition to the instrument in common use, and which is as inartificial as it might have been in the days of Bishop Blaize.^[20]

It is not precisely known when Mr. Cartwright first attempted a machine for combing wool. His earliest patent relative to that invention is dated 22nd August, 1789. The contrivance therein specified is altogether different from that of his later machine, and consisted of a cylinder armed with rows of teeth, which is made to revolve in such a manner as that its teeth may catch and clear out the wool contained in the teeth of the fixed and upright comb. But this imperfect method was, not long afterwards, superseded by the contrivance of a circular horizontal comb-table, for which a patent was obtained 27th April, 1790. In this apparatus the teeth of the horizontal table are set vertically, but with a slight inclination towards the centre, and are supplied with wool by means of a circular lasher. Motion is communicated to the different parts of the machine in a very ingenious manner; but the complicated nature of the circular lasher appears liable to objection, and renders it far inferior in effect, as well as in simplicity, to the subsequent contrivance of the crank-lasher. For this eminent improvement Mr. Cartwright took out another patent, bearing date 11th December, 1790, including also an alteration in the teeth of the comb-table, which are here set horizontally, and pointing towards the centre. This patent also contains the description of a simple and ingenious apparatus for washing the wool, previously to its being combed.

His fourth patent, which is believed to contain his final improvements relative to this branch of manufacture, is dated 25th May, 1792.

Without entering into a minute detail of the various parts that compose the combing-machine, a short explanation of its leading principles may enable the reader, with the assistance of the annexed plate, to form a clear idea of the mode in which the work is performed. It must first be observed that the wool undergoes a slight preparation by means of a machine called the Preparer, which, though more simple in its construction, as it acts nearly on the same principles as the finishing machine, need not be described.

DR. CARTWRIGHT’S “BIG BEN,” OR WOOL-COMBING MACHINE.

The finishing machine consists of an horizontal circular frame A, or comb-table, of perhaps five or six feet diameter, set with teeth pointing to its own centre. In order to feed or fill this circular table, and at the same time to give the wool the first combing, the machine is furnished with a member or limb, called the crank-lasher, B, the action of which, from the number and construction of its joints, is somewhat analogous to the action of the human hand and arm, when the woolcomber in the common mode of operation lashes his wool on a comb fixed in the wall.

At the lower extremity of the crank-lasher are a pair of feeding rollers, C, which draw the wool from a tube with which the lower branch of the lasher is furnished, and regulate the delivery, whilst the lasher lashes it into the principal comb. The wool being thus deposited, undergoes a further operation or clearing, by means of a smaller circular comb, D, which has a revolving motion (produced by a pair of cranks) in a plane at right angles, or nearly so, to the plane of the principal comb, so as that once in every revolution it strikes through the wool of that comb, and clearing it out, leaves it in a fit state to be drawn off by the delivering rollers, E. These rollers are so placed, that by the revolving motion of the principal comb the wool with which it is filled is successively brought within their bite, or grasp, and with the additional action of a pair of callender rollers, F, is thus formed into a long and continuous sliver.

Thus the principal members of the combing-machine, as delineated in the plate, are, A, the circular comb-table; BB, the crank-lashers; CC, the feeding-rollers; D, the clearing-comb; EE, the delivering-rollers; FF, the callender-rollers.

The manner in which power is here applied and communicated, so as to produce at the same time not only several motions, but motions of a totally different character, is strikingly ingenious; and this machine, including its subordinate parts and accompaniments, which in this explanation are omitted, may fairly be accounted one of the most beautiful, as it is, unquestionably, one of the most original, instances of mechanical contrivance.^[21] The inventor having possessed only a slight knowledge of mechanical principles, and yet attaining, within a very short period of time, so extensive a mastery over their application, this instance of his ingenuity is the more remarkable.

How far the principles suggested by Mr. Cartwright in this particular branch of manufacture have since been applied, might, by diligent inquiry, be ascertained; but the features of the original invention, rather than its present applicability, form the object which we have chiefly in view. For more than fifty years the utmost ingenuity of man has been at work to make the most of every previous suggestion, and in new modifications and fresh improvements the original source is frequently lost sight of. Yet although the inventor’s name had been forgotten, Mr. Cartwright’s loom was known for many years at Manchester by the name of the “Doncaster patent loom;” and even at the present day the machine used at Leeds for combing wool, is called “Big Ben,” the name originally applied to Mr. Cartwright’s machine by his workmen at Doncaster.

In the space of seven years he had accomplished two inventions, which promised to lead to most extensive effects on the commerce and manufactures of this country. He had taken out no fewer than nine patents within that period, and these not only for improvements in the two principal arts of weaving and wool-combing, but also including improvements in spinning, callendering linens, cutting of velvet pile, as well as an entirely original machine for making ropes.^[22]

Mr. Cartwright having thus completed his machine for combing wool, the novelty and ingenuity of the contrivance attracted the attention of men of science and distinction, as well as of persons connected with the manufacturing classes. Several of the latter began now to consider this invention, from its prodigious saving of labour, likely to become no less advantageous than that of the loom; and notwithstanding the vast expenses he had incurred in taking out patents both in England and Scotland, and above all, in bringing his machinery to perfection, there now seemed every rational prospect of ample remuneration, from the acknowledged excellence of the inventions. Such, indeed, was the encouragement he had met with from those who were supposed to be best acquainted with the state of our manufactures at that time, that several of his friends and immediate connexions were induced to enter into speculations, of which his new discoveries were to form the basis.^[23]

Full of hope and expectation, Mr. Cartwright continued to prosecute his mechanical experiments; and although he became frequently annoyed by attempts to pirate his inventions, he considered such attempts as acknowledgments of their importance, and trusted that long before the expiration of his patent rights, his own claim to originality would be sufficiently established to secure the reward which he might reasonably expect from them.

Towards the latter end of the year 1791, a favourable prospect opened for the introduction of his loom into the cotton manufacture of Manchester. Messrs. Grimshaws, of that place, had contracted with Mr. Cartwright for the use of four hundred of his looms, and built a mill calculated to receive and work that number. Very soon after the building was completed, and when about four-and-twenty of the looms were set to work, the whole of the edifice was burnt to the ground; and from the threatening letters that had been received by the owners, and other indications of hostility shewn towards this novel establishment, no doubt was entertained at the time of its having been intentionally destroyed.

For reasons best known to the parties most nearly concerned, the circumstances attending the destruction of this mill were not very diligently inquired into. The object of the perpetrators unquestionably was effected—no other manufacturer ventured on repeating so hazardous an experiment, and the consequences to Mr. Cartwright were ruinous.

His contract with Messrs. Grimshaws of course became void, and as the hostility manifested towards his weaving would in all probability extend to his combing-machine, it seemed hopeless for him any further to prosecute his works at Doncaster, which, for the reasons already stated, had been carried on rather for the purpose of proving the merit of his inventions, than from any hope of profit or advantage arising from the goods there manufactured.

Mr. Cartwright’s resources from his own private fortune were beginning to be exhausted, and the severe check now given to his hopes and prospects brought upon him, as might be expected, demands which it required the utmost of his available means to satisfy. After an ineffectual struggle to contend with the tide of prejudice that was now turned against the adoption of his machinery, and to meet the difficulties that were accumulating upon him, Mr. Cartwright found himself obliged to relinquish his works at Doncaster. In the latter part of the year 1793, he assigned over his patent rights to his brothers, John and Charles Cartwright, Esquires, in consequence of the share they had taken in the concern, and as being in circumstances better able to contest the infringements to which, in spite of the outcry raised against them, his inventions were continually subject.

That Mr. Cartwright felt, and deeply felt, the disappointment of his expectations, cannot reasonably be doubted; but it was much less for himself than on account of others, whom his influence and example had encouraged to enter into concerns for which their previous habits and education rendered them wholly unfit, but who might not equally be able to follow his example in fortitude.

With the self-confidence of conscious ability, he still believed that time would prove what he was himself convinced of—the value of his inventions,—and so far from entertaining any feelings of envy towards those more successful introducers of new machinery, who were already realizing splendid fortunes, his sanguine spirit, deriving only encouragement from their example, abated nothing of its elasticity and vigour.

The following sonnet was composed by Mr. Cartwright, at the close of this disastrous year:—

It might perhaps have been expected that Mr. Cartwright, after he had experienced so discouraging a check in his mechanical career, would naturally have returned to that peaceful mode of life, and those literary pursuits, in which he had passed the best and happiest of his years; but it was now too late to retrace his steps and relinquish a path still attractive, though beset with difficulties. He had, indeed, missed the sources of worldly wealth, but he had opened on so rich a vein, in his own mind, of new and ingenious perceptions, conducive, apparently, to the benefit of his fellow-creatures, that benevolence and philanthropy came in aid to sanction the indulgence of his inclination, and in continuing to pursue his mechanical discoveries, he judged that he might not unworthily employ the talent he was entrusted with.

In the summer of 1796, Mr. Cartwright removed with his family^[24] to London, as being a situation more favourable than a distant provincial town, for the cultivation of scientific pursuits. He rented a small house in Marylebone Fields, of Mr. James Wyatt, the late celebrated architect, who had given considerable encouragement to a new invention by Mr. Cartwright, for which he had taken out a patent the preceding year. This was for an improvement in the form of bricks, by means of which, an arch might be supported on a wall of the usual thickness, and consequently might be employed with advantage in many cases where the thickness of the support required to sustain an arch built in the common method is an objection to its use. In order to ascertain the efficiency of this invention, an arched room was built with these geometrical bricks, in addition to the house Mr. Cartwright occupied. The height of the arch is not now remembered, but being somewhat flat, it gave no unpleasing appearance to the apartment, which was used as a dining-room. An untoward circumstance occurred in the outset of this experiment, that would have discouraged most men from proceeding further; but Mr. Cartwright never seemed to lose sight of Lord Bacon’s consolatory reflection, “that no man ought to be discouraged if the experiments he puts in practice answer not his expectation, for what succeeds pleaseth more, but what succeeds not, many times informs no less.” Owing to the negligence of the workmen, in removing the centres before the work was dry, and an error in the construction of the wall, in no way referable to the principle of the invention, the first trial had failed, but the building being resumed, with the advantage of experience, the plan was found completely to answer, and Mr. Cartwright continued to reside in the house to which the addition above described was made, until October, 1801. When the Regent’s Park was laid out, some years afterwards, it became necessary to pull down the house in question, which stood very nearly on the site of the present Coliseum. The building was found to be so exceedingly compact and strong, that it required more than ordinary labour to destroy it.

As this invention was well known to architects and engineers, engaged in works for which, to all appearance, it was peculiarly calculated, and as the most eminent amongst them did not at that time point out any probable objection to its use, it seems extraordinary that in no instance, as far as is known, save in the solitary one above recorded, (and in which its entire success had been unequivocally proved,) has it been adopted; even where strength and security from fire were objects of such paramount importance as to render the mere difference of expense between the patent and the common bricks a matter of very inferior consideration.

In the “Repertory of Arts,” edited by W. H. Wyatt, vol. iii. p. 84, will be found a full description of the geometrical bricks. “It is obvious that arches on this principle, having no lateral pressure, can neither expand at the foot, nor spring at the crown, therefore they will want no abutments, requiring only perpendicular walls to rest on; and they will want no incumbent weight to prevent their springing up—a circumstance of great importance in building bridges. Their greatest advantage is security against fire.”^[25]

The expense of making the geometrical bricks, in consequence of the precision they require, may seem an objection to their use for common purposes. From a drawing found amongst Mr. Cartwright’s papers, he appears to have had a plan for making them by machinery, which would greatly have facilitated their construction, and contributed to their exactness; and now that such rapid advances are daily making in the application of power, it is not too much to expect (since the principle of the invention seems unobjectionable) that a means may be discovered of removing the only objection to the use of these bricks, by lessening the expense of making them.

In October, 1797, Mr. Cartwright took out a patent “for an incombustible substitute for certain materials commonly used in constructing dwelling-houses.” The invention consisted in applying tiles made of fire-clay, instead of laths, reeds, or boards, in making ceilings, partitions, and floors. The tiles were made long enough to reach from centre to centre of the spars or joists, to which they were fastened by nails or cramps driven through notches made in each end of the tiles, the joints being closed by mortar or cement. For floors, no further process was required; but for walls and ceilings a coat of plaster was added, which it was proposed to render more adhesive by means of grooves on the surface of the tiles.

It does not appear to what extent this very simple invention was adopted in practice, but there can be no doubt that a plan is here suggested, the general use of which would greatly diminish the frequency of those dreadful conflagrations which render a residence in large towns perilous both to property and life.

Another of his inventions, about the same period, is described in the second volume of the “Repertory of Arts.” It is a method for applying the treadwheel to the working of cranes. There can be no doubt, that in all cases where it is requisite to produce a rotatory action by human labour, the treadwheel presents the simplest and most effectual means of applying the power. The muscles of the lower extremities being in the human subject much more strongly developed than those of the arms and thorax, it is evident that a machine worked by means of the legs must have much greater power than the common winch-handle, which is worked by the upper portion of the body only. Moreover, the action of walking being one for which the human frame is especially adapted, the application of this action to mechanical purposes is far less likely to be injurious to the health than any more constrained and artificial motion. In the plan before us, the treadwheel communicates the motion to the windlass of the crane, not by cogs, but by a worm or screw upon its own axis, which obviates all risk of the wheel running back, in consequence of the weight overcoming the power of the man who works it. At the other end of the axis of the treadwheel is a winch, and the weight having been raised, the treadwheel is disconnected by means of a coupling-box, and the weight is then lowered by turning the winch in an opposite direction.

It has been already stated that Mr. Cartwright had entertained some ideas relative to improvements in the steam-engine, as early as the year 1786. But it is not known whether the scheme he then formed was ever attempted in practice. His first patent for a steam-engine was obtained in 1797.

A description of this engine, accompanied with a beautiful engraving, forms the first number of that excellent work, the “Philosophical Magazine,” edited by the late Mr. Tilloch, and first published in June, 1798; and a further account of this invention is introduced in the “Descriptive History of the Steam-engine,” by Mr. Stewart, who bears a most liberal testimony to its ingenuity. An extract from the former of these works will explain the principles upon which Mr. Cartwright proposed to remedy the defects to which the most improved engine was subject. “These defects, as every one knows, are an imperfect vacuum, much friction, and complicated construction of parts; liable, without great care and attention, to be frequently out of order. It is to these points Mr. Cartwright has immediately, and we may add, successfully, directed his attention. His first object seems to have been to obtain, as nearly as may be, an absolute vacuum; which, in consequence of the elastic vapour that separates from water injected in the usual mode of condensation, no one in the least conversant with the philosophy of the steam-engine need be told is impossible. The condensation in his engine is performed by the application of cold to the external surface of the vessel containing the steam. Mr. Cartwright is not, however, the first who tried this method; the same has been attempted by several, but with so little success, that one of our first engineers in this line has been heard to give it as his opinion, that were a pipe to be laid across the Thames, the condensation would not be quick enough to work a steam-engine with its full effect. The manner in which Mr. Cartwright manages this business is by admitting the steam between two metal cylinders, lying one within the other, and having cold water flowing through the inner one, and inclosing the outer one. By these means a very thin body of steam is exposed to the greatest possible surface. But this is not all;—by means of a valve in the piston there is a constant communication at all times between the condenser and the cylinder, either above or below the piston, so that, whether it ascends or descends, the condensation is always taking place.

To reduce the friction of the piston, which, when fresh packed in the common way, lays a very heavy load upon the engine, Mr. Cartwright makes his solely of metal, and expansive. There is a further advantage in this method, from the saving of time and expense in the packing, and from the piston fixing more accurately, if possible, the more it is worked.

Mr. Cartwright has been equally attentive in simplifying all the other parts of the engine—his engine having only two valves; and those are as nearly self-acting as may be.

But what will probably be esteemed one of the most important circumstances attending these improvements, is the opportunity they afford of substituting ardent spirit, either wholly or in part, in the place of water, for working the engine. For as the fluid with which it is worked is made to circulate through the engine without mixture or diminution, the using alcohol, after the first supply, can be attended with little or no expense; on the contrary, the advantage will be great, probably equal to the saving of half the fuel. When, indeed, the engine is applied, as Mr. Cartwright occasionally purposes, both as a mechanical power and as a still at the same time, the whole fuel will be saved. A further advantage of this invention is its applicability to purposes requiring only a small power, and for which any other engine would be too complicated and expensive.”—See “Phil. Mag.,” June, 1798. Mr. Stewart observes, that the details of this engine “are constructed with uncommon ingenuity, and that the whole apparatus may be considered more simple and efficient than any other combination which had been proposed of the parts of the condensing engine.” He concludes a very clear and interesting explanation of its construction, by further observing, “that the machine, from its refined simplicity, appears excellently adapted as a first mover on a small scale. It has never, however, had a fair trial. The objections which were urged against the condensing vessels, at the time of the invention, have always appeared to us more specious than solid. To the great merit in the arrangement and simplification of parts shewn in this engine, must be added one of immense importance to engines on every construction—the metallic piston. Mr. Cartwright constructed his of two plates, between which were placed detached pieces of metal; instead of the usual packing, these pieces were acted upon by a spring, so as always to be kept equally tight, whatever might be the wear of the piston. The manner of connecting the piston-rod and procuring a rotatory motion is a beautiful specimen of mechanical invention.”—Stewart, p. 157.

The following references to the plate, representing a section of the steam-engine, will enable the reader to understand the method by which the condensation is performed, as well as the extraordinarily ingenious contrivance of the metallic piston, with its springs. A, the cylinder; B, the piston; I, the pipe which conducts the steam to C, the condenser, being a double cylinder, between which the steam passes into the pump D, that serves for returning the condensed fluid back into the boiler; E, the air-box, with its valve.

The pipe from the pump, through which the condensed fluid is returned into the boiler, passes through the air-box. The air, or elastic vapour, that may be mixed with the fluid, rises in the box till the ball which keeps the valve shut falls, and suffers it to escape.

F, the steam-valve; G, the piston-valve. When the piston B reaches the bottom of the cylinder A, the tail or spindle of the valve G being pressed upwards, opens the valve and forms a communication between the upper side of the piston and the condenser; at the same moment the valve F is pressed into its seat by the descent of the cross-arm on the piston, which prevents the further admission of steam from the boiler, thus allowing the piston to be drawn up to the top of the cylinder by the momentum of the fly-wheel O; H H, two cranks, upon whose axles are two equal wheels working in each other, for the purpose of giving a rectilinear direction to the piston-rod; M, the box that contains the condensed water.

K, plan of the piston, shewing the metal rings, which by the springs are forced outwardly against the inside of the cylinder, so that the piston can adapt itself to any inequality that may arise.

In the same patent that Mr. Cartwright obtained for the above engine he also proposed a modification of the rotatory engine, described by Mr. Watt in 1782. See “Repertory of Arts,” vol. x. p. 7.

By his removal to the metropolis, Mr. Cartwright enlarged the sphere of his acquaintance amongst men of ingenuity and science; and his house again became the resort of projectors of various merits and pretensions. His own manners were peculiarly calculated to make his society coveted where his talents were admired. No man who knew so much was so little pertinacious in conversation; he had a thorough contempt for arrogance; and though satire was a weapon he could occasionally wield with no small effect, he was conscientiously forbearing in the use of it: but the quality that of all others recommended him to that description of persons who principally sought his society, was his remarkable openness, and freedom from jealousy towards rival and contemporary projectors.

Amongst other ingenious characters who frequented Mr. Cartwright’s house, may be noticed one who was then deeply engaged in pursuits similar to his own, but whose claims to originality of invention have not been very willingly admitted on this side of the Atlantic. This person was Robert Fulton, well known in America as being the first engineer who navigated a steam-boat in that country, and not altogether unknown in Europe for his experiments in submarine navigation. He was a native of New Jersey, in the United States, and had come to England with the intention of studying painting under his countryman, West. Having abandoned painting as a profession, he applied himself to civil engineering, and in that line of business had been noticed by Earl Stanhope, with whom he had had communication on the practicability of moving vessels by steam, as early as the year 1796. At this time, also, navigating by steam was one of Mr. Cartwright’s favourite projects, and he conceived that his newly invented steam-engine might be made applicable to that purpose. It may appear superfluous, where so much originality of invention can be substantiated, to allude to any claims that may be considered doubtful; it is, however, well known that Mr. Cartwright did construct the model of a boat, which being wound up like a clock, moved on the water, so as to prove the experiment in a manner satisfactory to the inventor; though, as this little model was afterwards given away as a toy, and has long been destroyed, there are no means of ascertaining how the machinery was adjusted, or what resemblance it might bear to the method since adopted in the working of steam-boats.

The coincidence of their respective views, produced, instead of rivalship, intimacy and friendship between the two projectors, and Mr. Fulton’s vivacity of character and original way of thinking rendered him a welcome guest at Mr. Cartwright’s house. The practicability of steam navigation, with the most feasible mode of effecting it, became a frequent subject of discourse. The writer of these memoirs has now to regret, amongst many other neglected opportunities of acquiring knowledge, that, from the carelessness of youth, such a degree of attention was not given at the time to these discussions as might have thrown considerable light upon a subject, since become of such universal interest. Who could then contemplate, when Mr. Fulton was drawing the plans of his paddle-wheels, and Mr. Cartwright contriving how his steam-engine should act upon them, that speculations apparently so chimerical should have been realized to their present wonderful extent! It is not assumed that Mr. Fulton, even with Mr. Cartwright’s assistance, had at that time brought his plan of a steam-boat to any great degree of maturity; but it is believed that neither of these gentlemen were then aware of any other person having advanced towards steam navigation as far as themselves. Nor will this appear improbable, when it is considered that it was then a mere project, a chimera entertained only by a few projectors, who might be carrying on their respective schemes in distant parts of the kingdom, without any knowledge of each other’s contrivances, although in aiming at the same project, and through the same means, they might hit upon the same mode of applying those means. An instance of this kind of coincidence is alluded to by Mr. Fulton, in his Treatise on Canal Navigation, in which he candidly acknowledges having been anticipated in a contrivance that he had conceived to be original; but a more striking instance of a revived invention, possessing all the merit of originality, is that of Mr. Watt, who cannot be said to owe the great improvement that rendered his steam-engine so eminently applicable to the purposes of machinery, to Mr. Jonathan Hulls, although Mr. Hulls had suggested the same idea many years before.^[26] If a person hit upon an invention that he never heard of, it is original in him; and if it be the result of patient study, or a habit of observation, he may be allowed to be a meritorious, if not a fortunate inventor; but if, by his energy and spirit of enterprise, he succeed in introducing into practice what others, perhaps, had only contemplated in theory, he is entitled to additional credit, without disparaging that of his predecessors.

In 1797, Mr. Fulton went to France, at that period under the government of the Directory, and did not return to England until the latter end of 1802, or beginning of 1803, having passed a portion of the intervening time in America. From his correspondence with Mr. Cartwright, such passages may be selected as appear to have reference to those mechanical subjects on which they were both deeply engaged. He writes from Paris, July, 1797:—

“Paris, Feb. 16th, 1798.

“Dear Sir,—I have received yours of December 11th, at which time you could not have received my last letter, which was dated December 8th. You speak of expecting my return, but that, I fear, is very doubtful, in consequence of the delays at the patent-office, the approaching period when I must necessarily return to America, and the difficulty of obtaining a passport from hence to England. Should these causes prevent me from again seeing your family, in whose short acquaintance I took much delight, and whose taste for science flattered me with the prospect of much pleasure on my return; yet I hope we shall keep up the acquaintance which the art of writing may preserve; and believe me, I shall ever feel interested in the progress of science or fortune in your family. Hitherto I have been like a wanderer in life—but in America I hope to become reasonably stationary, where, assembling a few friends around me, I may pursue my plans of public improvement with patient industry. Works of magnitude, I find, cannot be hurried. It would give me much pleasure to make the produce of your mind productive to you. You will, therefore, consider what part of your inventions I may be intrusted with. The steam-engine, I hope, may be made useful in cutting canals, and moving boats, so that it will be directly in my line of business. By the bye, I have just proved an experiment on moving boats with a fly of four parts, similar to that of a smoke-jack; thus,

I find this apply the power to great advantage, and it is extremely simple.^[27] The patent law is now altering, but I fear the price will not be reduced, yet the payments will, perhaps, be made easy, by being 20l. per year for three years. My small canals are making many friends; which business I shall leave under the guidance of a company. The celebrated Montgolfier has just made a great discovery in hydraulics; it is a means of raising water from the beds of rivers by the simple movement of the stream, without either pump or wheel. I know him well, and have seen his model frequently at work. It is forty feet high, and consisting of only two tubes, extremely simple. I also have been contriving a curious machine for mending the system of politics, and applying manual labour to advantage. Of these two inventions I will send you sketches before my departure. Believe me, &c.,

“Robt. Fulton.”

At this time Mr. Fulton was engaged in prosecuting his experiments in submarine navigation; but that he also pursued his projects of moving boats by steam appears by the following letters to Mr. Cartwright, whose recent invention seemed peculiarly applicable to Mr. Fulton’s purpose:—

Mr. Cartwright’s reply to the above inquiries was, doubtless, given under a strong impression of the value of his invention, and produced the following letter from his sanguine correspondent:—

“Paris, 28th March, 1802.

“My dear Sir,—It is with great pleasure I have received your flattering account of your steam-engine; and although attachment to you makes me believe everything you say, yet such belief is merely a work of faith, for I cannot see the reason why you have 13½ pounds’ purchase to the square inch. Is this in consequence of the friction taken off the piston by your circles?^[28] How have you found that mode to answer? Is it that, by your mode of condensing, the water becomes deprived of its air, and that the steam may be heated four, five, or more pounds per inch above the atmosphere? If the engine can be made so light as you mention, and give only ten pounds to the square inch, it will answer my purpose; but it must be a double engine, making thirty double strokes, or sixty single strokes, per minute, of three feet each; that is to say, three feet per second. As I can afford to give five feet by six for the engine, it will not be necessary to place the cylinder in the boiler. If it stands outside of the boiler, repairs can be made with more ease; but when we have decided on the engine, I will give a sketch of the mode in which I propose it should stand, to give movement to the machinery which is to drive the boat. If, for my case, you propose to condense without injection, the condensing vessel may be a long cylinder or tube, with another tube through its centre, through which a current of water will pass with a velocity equal to the speed of the boat, and thus carry off the caloric very quick. I do not see how the engine, water in the boiler, and fly included, can weigh so little as a ton, and, say, a half. What will be the weight and diameter of the fly? Another important consideration—is it permitted to send such engines out of the country? the design is to America. The smoke-jack flyers will not answer for a quick movement. Reduced to two arms, thus,

it answers admirably for my plunging-boat, where the velocity is not more than two miles per hour, between two waters, and where oars cannot be used. I was so pleased with it in that experiment, that I last summer built a pinish^[29] thirty-six feet long and five feet wide, extremely light, and of the best workmanship. I placed in her quadruple cranks, from bow to stern, thus,

to each of which were six men, total twenty-four of the best seamen of the fleet. The multiplication from the crank to the flyers was at first fourteen to one; the flyers, four feet diameter; angle, thirty degrees. We could not make more than four miles per hour. I reduced the multiplication to seven for one. We went about four miles, but with less fatigue to the men. I changed the diameter of the flyers from four down to two feet, and the angle from forty down gradually, five degrees at a time, to fifteen degrees. Still our speed was never more than about four miles per hour. When the boat gains a certain velocity, the water running quick past the flyers, they lose their purchase; and multiplying them to a velocity so as to overtake the boat, or strike the running water sufficiently quick, causes a friction, which consumes much of the power. However, I have found an excellent mode of taking my purchase on the water in all possible velocities, and where the whole power will be applied to advantage. The question now is only to find the best steam-engine to put it in movement; and I sincerely hope it will be yours. For political reasons, I have never yet confided to but one person the combination of my plunging-boat, and committed the whole to drawing and explanations, in case of any accident happening to me; however, it will be satisfactory to you to know that the experiments have been very successful. I was very fortunate in surmounting some great difficulties; and navigating under water is now easy to be performed, and without risk.”

In the “Annual Register” for 1802, is an account of Mr. Fulton’s diving-boat, taken from the relation of citizen St. Aubin, a man of letters at Paris, and member of the Tribunate, which confirms the inventor’s own statement of the success of his experiment. “I have,” says Monsieur St. Aubin, “just been to inspect the plan and section of a nautilus, or diving-boat, invented by Mr. Fulton, similar to that with which he lately made his curious and interesting experiment at Havre and Brest. The diving-boat, in the construction of which he is now employed, will be capacious enough to contain eight men, and provision enough for twenty days, and will be of sufficient strength and power to enable him to plunge one hundred feet under water, if necessary. He has constructed a reservoir for air, which will enable eight men to remain under water for eight hours. When the boat is above water, it has two sails, and looks just like a common boat. When she is to dive, the mast and sails are struck. In making his experiment at Havre, Mr. Fulton not only remained a whole hour under water, with three of his companions, but kept his boat parallel to the horizon at any given depth. He proved that the compass points as correctly under water as on the surface; and that, while under water, the boat made way at the rate of half a league an hour, by means constructed for that purpose.”—Vol. xliv.

Whatever might be the ingenuity of the contrivance, or merit when effected, of the bateau plongeur, it is certain that Earl Stanhope, no incompetent judge of mechanical and scientific subjects, entertained a formidable idea of its efficiency, and earnestly endeavoured to impress upon the English government a sense of the danger that might arise to this country, in consequence of the French nation having taken the American, Mr. Fulton, under their protection. In the following year (1803) his lordship again referred to Mr. Fulton’s contrivance for blowing-up ships under water, and stated in the House of Lords that he had himself given a plan to the Admiralty, for preventing the effect of an invention, which he considered of so formidable a nature.

It is evident that the art of navigating under water might convey an awful power into the hands of any one who possessed it; and consequently the British ministry did not think it unworthy of inquiry how far Mr. Fulton’s pretension to success, in so formidable an art, was well founded or not. Mr. Cartwright, who was probably in full possession of Mr. Fulton’s secret, and no less impressed than Earl Stanhope with the notion of its dangerous extent, was consulted in this inquiry. On the renewal of the war, Mr. Fulton’s neutrality, at least, was considered worth the purchase; and Mr. Cartwright was appointed one of the arbitrators to settle the terms upon which Mr. Fulton consented to the suppression of his secret. The terms of the award were probably satisfactory to Mr. Fulton. He returned to America not long after the arrangement alluded to, and in the following summer (1807) he had the satisfaction of seeing accomplished his long-cherished and favourite project of launching a steam-boat in his native country. As Mr. Fulton’s name is introduced into this memoir solely with a reference to his intimacy with Mr. Cartwright, it is not necessary to enter more at length into the question of the extent to which he might, or might not, have availed himself of the inventions of others. It is certain that he owed much to his own ingenuity for the success that attended his first experiment at New York; and still more to that activity of mind and spirit of enterprise, which enabled him so to establish steam navigation in America, that its obvious advantages there should have led to its extended adoption, not only in this country, but in every part of the civilized world.

This ingenious and enterprising man died at New York, in the year 1815, in the forty-ninth year of his age.

In November, 1798, Mr. Cartwright became a member of the “Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, &c.;” and in October of the following year, he was recommended by his friends to offer himself as a candidate for the situation of secretary to the society, recently become vacant by the death of Mr. Samuel Moore. The candidate being on this occasion required to present a memorial of his pretensions, Mr. Cartwright, on the 18th December, read before the society an address, from which the following extracts are taken:—

“The qualifications more particularly looked for in the person who is to fill the important office of secretary to this society, are, I understand, practical knowledge and experience in those matters which are its leading objects. These are, chemistry, the polite arts, agriculture, manufactures, and mechanics. It is expected, also, that he should know something of the modern languages. The only living languages I ever was acquainted with, are the French and Italian, and though disuse for a long series of years has nearly obliterated them from my recollection, I do not feel, however, as if I should have much difficulty in recovering them, and, in the meantime, I should take care that the society should experience no inconvenience on that account. Of chemistry, though I am not ignorant of its elementary principles, my knowledge is much too limited to speak of it with any degree of confidence. In this department, therefore, I am free to confess you will not find my acquirements of that service to you I could wish, and yet I flatter myself you will not find them altogether useless. That they have not been altogether useless to the world, I need only appeal to that most invaluable discovery—the method of administering, in the form of yeast, the carbonic acid gas; a discovery which, not only in this island, but in various parts of the globe, has already, in innumerable instances, proved an inestimable benefit to the human race. You will perceive I am alluding to the almost invariable success with which this remedy has been administered in cases of putrid fever, and as a specific in that cruel disease, the sea scurvy. Those only who have experienced that sublimest of enjoyments, the pleasure of benefiting mankind, can appreciate the satisfaction I have had in its discovery.”

“But of all the objects which engage the attention of this society, the principal, and, without dispute, the most important, is agriculture; an art which, at the present awful period, more, perhaps, than at any former one, requires the exertions of every enlightened mind to bring it to its highest stage of practical perfection. That much is to be done, it is unnecessary to observe, for till such time as every field shall be a garden, agriculture has certainly not arrived at its acme. That this is no ideal point of improvement to look forward to, we need only advert to the state of this art amongst the Chinese, and the manner in which they are at once compelled and enabled to practise it by an overflowing population. With us, the great mass of population being diverted into other channels, other means are to be resorted to. The combined energies of various arts must be employed; chemistry must lend her inexhaustible stores—mechanics, her hundred arms. The one, by calling into action the latent principles of nature, gives to vegetation renewed life and increase of fertility; the other, by furnishing man with multiplied ability, giving to a pigmy the powers of a giant. But no combination of science in agriculture will avail without practical knowledge; and in no art, so indispensable as this, is practical knowledge required from your secretary. On every other subject, information or assistance, in a city like this, may be met with in every street, and at every hour; for here is the resort of genius and talents in every department of science, not only because they are here most encouraged, but because they are here also most conveniently cultivated. With agriculture and its professors it is otherwise. Agriculture is not to be practised in cities, nor has a city life allurements for a mind devoted to its pursuits. On this subject, therefore, more frequently than on any other, must your secretary depend on the stores and resources of his own mind. These stores are not to be collected from books or theory, nor from the speculative opinions of artists, mechanics, chemists, or philosophers; they must be the result of real practice and repeated observation, under different circumstances, and at different seasons. On this ground I feel to tread with confidence; for during nearly thirty years of my past life my constant residence has been in the country, and for a considerable part of that time those hours which were not occupied by the duties of my profession, or devoted to literary pursuits, were chiefly employed in the practice and study of agriculture. I may truly affirm there are few experiments in that most useful and interesting pursuit which I have not either tried myself, or witnessed the trial of by others.

“Respecting manufactures and practical mechanics, it will be no boast in me to say,—what, indeed, so many here present can probably confirm,—that few men have had greater experience than myself; still fewer, I should hope, have purchased that experience at so dear a rate. The manufactures I am most immediately acquainted with, are those extensive ones of cotton and wool; every process of which I am acquainted with, from the raw state of the article till perfected in the loom.

“There are several other manufactures, also, of which you will not find me ignorant.

“That I may not detain you too long by reciting all the different mechanical inventions of magnitude and importance that I have at various times brought forward, I shall enumerate only three; and these three, as you will perceive, are in departments of invention totally distinct from each other. These are, the method of combing wool by machinery; the geometrical principle of constructing arches, so as to have no lateral pressure; and the late improvements I have made in the steam-engine. By that single invention of combing wool by machinery, the manufacturers are at this moment saving at least 40,000l. a year, and in a short space of time will annually save between one and two millions. By the geometrical principle of constructing arches, so as to have no lateral pressure, buildings may be erected at as little expense as they now are, and be perfectly secure from fire. And by my improvement on the steam-engine, I have so added to its power, and reduced its expense, that it may not only be employed in manufactures more extensively than it has hitherto been, but may be made also a most powerful and profitable agent in husbandry, as will, I hope, be exhibited on an extensive scale in the course of next summer.

“There are many other circumstances in a long, and, I may say, useful life of unwearied exertion, which might, with propriety, have been brought forward; but I have confined myself to those chiefly which, being of public notoriety, the public, if anything has been stated unfairly, has the means of confuting.

“Permit me to trespass on your time one moment longer. Since the death of Mr. Moore, a very unusual number of new members, I am told, has been admitted into the society; many, it is possible, for the mere purpose of voting at the ensuing election. There are, I trust, no friends of mine who have gained admittance from any such motive. If they have, I must request they will either not vote at all, or bestow their votes on some other candidate. For myself, I should feel it a disgrace to owe that to private interference which it would be my ambition to obtain by the public voice. If I am to succeed I will succeed only by fair and honourable competition.”

This memorial was received with so much favour by the society, that little doubt was entertained of Mr. Cartwright’s success, had he been inclined to continue the contest. He, however, withdrew his pretensions in favour of Mr. Charles Taylor, to whose merit he bore the most liberal testimony, in a speech delivered before the society on the 29th January, 1800.

Mr. Charles Taylor was elected secretary to the society, in which situation he remained until his death.

It is somewhat remarkable, that in the memorial from which some extracts have been given, Mr. Cartwright only slightly alludes to his improvements in the art of weaving; and in the enumeration of what he considered his most important inventions, that of weaving by machinery is altogether omitted, although it ultimately proved to be the only one that ever returned any portion of the expense incurred in bringing it to perfection. But it was unknown to him that the power-loom was gradually and secretly coming into use; and although he might not despair of its ultimate introduction, yet his patent-right being expired, all remuneration to himself for that invention seemed nearly hopeless.

The frequent invasions of his patent for combing wool, as well as the petitions that had been presented to parliament, as early as the year 1796, against the introduction of his machinery, might justly be considered as indications of its increasing importance, and rendered it, to all appearance, much more likely to prove advantageous than the weaving machine. But the difficulty of detection, as well as the expense of procuring redress, had paralyzed the efforts of his assignees, and had hitherto prevented them from pursuing inquiry in many cases in which they were morally convinced that great infringements on his patent-right were practised. A most flagrant instance, however, having come to their knowledge, in which the parties not only used machinery on Mr. Cartwright’s principles themselves, but fabricated combing-machines for the use of other manufacturers, an action was brought, in the names of Major Cartwright and his brother Charles, against the persons thus offending.

In this cause, which came on to be tried after Trinity term, 1799, the plaintiffs were nonsuited; but this check, although an addition to their expense and trouble, in no way affected the principles on which they sought redress. It appeared that when Mr. Cartwright, in 1793, had assigned over his patent-rights to his brothers, a suit was then pending between him and another person (on a question of invasion of patent-right), and in the deed of assignment it was stipulated that Mr. Cartwright should be held as legal owner of the patents, in trust for the assignees, until the suit in question should be legally determined. This suit had, in fact, terminated, not in a legal trial, but in one of those compromises to which the exigency of his affairs had but too frequently compelled Mr. Cartwright to agree; and his assignees, considering this compromise as having the same effect as if the matter had been determined by law, had consequently proceeded to act according to the different provisions of the assignment. The defendants, however, objected, that as no fresh assignment had taken place subsequent to the determination of the depending suit, the legal interest, not being vested in the plaintiffs, still remained in Edmund Cartwright, and therefore the defendants were entitled to recover. The learned judge (Rooke) being of that opinion, directed a nonsuit. But on the 18th November, of the same year, Serjeant Runnington having moved to set aside the nonsuit, the judge admitted, that on a further consideration of the effect of the deed than was given to it at Nisi Prius, he was convinced “that the legal interest vested in the plaintiffs immediately on the determination of the suit that was then depending at the time when the indenture was executed.” The rest of the court having expressed an opinion to the same effect, the nonsuit was set aside, and in the following spring the cause was brought forward again, and tried before Lord Chief Justice Eldon, in the Court of Common Pleas.

The hardship of Mr. Cartwright’s case, so strongly appearing in the pains that had been taken to evade his patents, and defeat his efforts for protecting them, had awakened a general sympathy in his favour. The novelty and ingenuity of the machinery, of which he was clearly proved to be the inventor, with the great display of talent and knowledge on the part of those scientific persons who had been called upon as witnesses to distinguish between artful imitation and original invention, rendered this trial (John and Charles Cartwright v. Amatt and others) one of the most curious and interesting suits relative to the invasion of patent-right that had ever been brought forward in any court of justice. After a laborious investigation, which occupied the court two days, a verdict was given for the plaintiffs, with a thousand pounds damages.

The patient attention shewn by the Lord Chief Justice Eldon throughout the whole of this investigation, in which his lordship took infinite pains to make himself master of the mechanical part of the subject, was always duly and gratefully acknowledged by Major Cartwright and his brother.

So favourable an issue to this important trial was naturally hailed by Mr. Cartwright and his friends as the turning of the tide in the state of his affairs. It was discovered, that in mills in several different parts of the kingdom, his wool-combing machine had been surreptitiously introduced and worked; and now that he had legally substantiated his claim to the invention, he might reasonably expect some pecuniary advantage from its general adoption. But, strange as it may appear, no pecuniary benefit ever did accrue to him connected with this invention, either immediately, in consequence of this trial, or subsequently, on obtaining an extension of his patent-right. It cannot be denied that Mr. Cartwright had, in the late trial, obtained the justice he was entitled to; but the expenses and difficulties attending it were such as to deter him from again seeking the same mode of redress. Major Cartwright, indeed, by his indefatigable perseverance, had succeeded in detecting fresh instances of piracy; but, in most instances, the assignees were induced to enter into compromise with their opponents, rather than incur the cost and vexation of another lawsuit; and in these compromises, it is hardly necessary to remark that Mr. Cartwright and his brothers were not likely to have the advantage. By this time, ten years of the patent-right (relative to wool-combing) were expired; and there seemed so little prospect of deriving a reasonable remuneration from it during the four remaining years, that Mr. Cartwright was advised to apply to parliament for an extension of the term—an indulgence, which, though rarely granted, was not without example. He accordingly presented a petition, to that effect, to the House of Commons, on the 17th March, 1801, the substance of which is contained in the following document, which, as it exhibits in a succinct form, the causes of his past and then existing difficulties, as well as the grounds on which he sought parliamentary relief, is inserted nearly at full length.

The petition from Mr. Cartwright was favourably received by the House of Commons, and being referred to the consideration of a committee, different witnesses were examined, whose evidence went to prove not only the truth of all the allegations contained in the petition, but many additional circumstances calculated to strengthen the claims of the petitioner. It appeared by the evidence given on the occasion, by Major Cartwright, that by reason of the distressed state of the petitioner’s affairs, he had not the means of appealing to the laws of his country for redress, but that he (the witness), as trustee for his brother’s patent rights, had in the year 1799 commenced an action at law against certain invaders of those rights, which action was concluded in April, 1800, by a verdict in favour of the patentee. Before it was convenient to him to advance money in defence of the said patents, he had found himself under the necessity, for promoting the interests of the patentee and his creditors, to make a compromise with persons who had taken out two patents for wool-combing machinery, although he knew, and the parties themselves have since acknowledged to him, that their patents were for machinery that infringed on the patents of the petitioner. It was also stated by Major Cartwright, that his brother had been compelled, by the exigency of his affairs in 1793, to desist from a suit, and enter into a compromise with another person who had taken out a patent, which the witness, having seen both the machinery itself and a specification of it, was convinced was not a valid patent, but an infringement of that of the petitioner. In consequence of these forced compromises, and of the inability, on the part of the inventor, to vindicate in all cases of infringement the originality of his invention, the public remained in suspense as to what machine for wool-combing might be legally and most advantageously used; and this witness was further of opinion, that unless the term of the present patent-right should be reasonably prolonged, it would not be prudent for the patentee, or his trustees, to enter into any fresh lawsuit for the purpose of vindicating his rights.

In addition to the above evidence, was that of another witness, who had been employed for seven years in a mill, where six sets of the combing machines were used; and who estimated the profits arising from each set at 1100l. per annum. This witness mentioned also some other mills where this machinery was employed, and was of opinion that, had it not been for the invasion of the patent, the original machine would have been in general use.

The report from the Committee, which was delivered the 13th April, by Mr. Spencer Stanhope, having proved satisfactory to the House, leave was given on the 8th May, to prepare and bring in a Bill, for the purpose of prolonging Mr. Cartwright’s patent right, as far as regarded wool-combing, for the term of fourteen years. Whilst this Bill was in progress, several counter petitions were presented to the House from certain persons, who conceived that its operation would affect those agreements, or compromises, which Mr. Cartwright had been induced to enter into with them, as well as tend to check the ingenuity that might be beneficially exercised in improving upon the invention in question.

These petitions being referred to the consideration of the Committee appointed to inquire into Mr. Cartwright’s claims, and leave being given to the respective petitioners on both sides of the question to be heard by counsel, the matter was argued with all the acuteness that might be expected from some of the most eminent legal characters of the day. On this occasion, Mr. Cartwright conceiving himself personally aggrieved by the observations of one of the counsel for the opposing party, prepared a reply to these offensive observations, which, to judge from the sketch found amongst his papers, appears to have been drawn up with his usual perspicuity and clearness, though somewhat partaking of that indignant style, which, when roused by insult, it was well-known he could assume. The case of Mr. Watt, to whom an extension of patent right was granted in the fifteenth year of George III., having been alluded to, with an invidious comparison between his superior claims and those of Mr. Cartwright, the latter observed in reply, “It was admitted by the learned counsel of my opponent, that in extending the patent of Mr. Watt, Parliament was justified. Perhaps if the learned gentleman had known the whole of the two cases, he would not in the same breath have approved of the one extension, and condemned the other. The steam-engine is doubtless a machine of immense value, but Mr. Watt did not invent the steam-engine. That was a discovery of a former age. It had been known and used a great part of a century at the time when Mr. Watt first exercised his invention upon it, and his invention went no further than to an improvement. I do not mean to arrogate too much to myself, but I certainly have a right to say, that not only the first machines for combing wool were of my invention, but that I invented the very art itself of combing by machinery, which till that time was utterly unknown, and in which I did not derive a single ray of light from any human ingenuity of a former date; and it will be kept in mind that the combing of wool is the very basis of the great supereminent manufacture of this country.” On the 5th June, the Bill was read a third time, and passed the House of Commons. It received an amendment in the House of Lords, providing for the security of such persons as had previously entered into compromise with Mr. Cartwright, and on the 2nd July, the Bill received the Royal Assent.

This great object being attained, Mr. Cartwright, in having fourteen years of secured possession to look forward to, seemed placed in so advantageous a position, that it might reasonably be expected he should in future be able to treat with his opponents on more equitable terms, and compel those who employed his machinery to acknowledge a right thus sanctioned by an especial act of the Legislature. But the deficiency of pecuniary means to follow up the necessary inquiries, still continued; and in addition to this impediment, the activity of his mind became diverted towards a variety of other objects, from some of which he probably hoped to derive more immediate benefit. Whatever the causes of failure might be, it is certain that no advantage did accrue to him from the renewal of his patent right, nor indeed did he ever reap any pecuniary gain from an invention of such acknowledged ingenuity.^[30]

In the interesting memoirs of Mr. Crabbe, the author, speaking of Dr. Cartwright, has, with great felicity of expression, noticed “the expanding versatility of his mind.” This opinion was formed on the report of no common observer; and, indeed, the facility with which he could apply his mind to small, or rather familiar objects, was remarkable, and denoted its elasticity no less than its power. Frequent intercourse with men of ingenuity like himself, had led him into a greater variety of speculations and experiments than it is necessary here to enumerate. In the most common^[31] arts of life, he could seldom abstain from attempting some contrivance to reduce manual labour; at the same time that he was far from being one of those ingenious triflers who amuse themselves in puerile contrivances, merely to exercise their ingenuity without aiming at any useful result. In agriculture, which had always been one of his favourite pursuits, he was continually devising some improvement, or attempting some experiment. And that he had at the same time an enlarged, and what will probably be found to be, a just view of the results of machinery, will appear from the following extract from a letter addressed to Sir John Sinclair, at that time President of the Board of Agriculture, as early as the year 1793, on the subject of a reaping-machine which he was then engaged in constructing:—

“I am fully apprised that to many well-intentioned men, looking only on the surface of things, the invention I am preparing to bring forward will appear as of an injurious tendency to the interests of the labouring poor. Were it possible to persuade myself this would really be the case, it would require no great stretch of benevolence to suppress an invention of such pernicious tendency; but unless the application of mechanism to the purposes of agriculture should operate in a manner totally different from what it has uniformly done in manufactures, such apprehension must be groundless. It is a fact, indisputably ascertained by experience, that whatever facilitates labour multiplies the calls for it. Hence it is reasonable to conclude that reducing the expense, or giving expedition to the operations of industry, is eventually contributing to bring lands, hitherto uncultivated, into a state of cultivation, and occasioning those already in cultivation, to be cultivated more highly. Thus in agriculture, as in manufactures, it will be found that to enable one man, by the intervention of machinery, to do the work of ten, is not to throw nine men out of employment, as many would erroneously suppose, but on the contrary, it is to give one man ten pair of hands; and (which is of still greater consequence) with his powers of exertion, enlarging at the same time the field of his activity.”

In June, 1801, he was adjudged a prize from the Board of Agriculture, for an Essay on Agriculture, composed with perspicuity and elegance; and which, though chiefly unfolding the general principles of the art, shews, at the same time, that the writer possessed an ample acquaintance with its detail.

About this period, a plan was in contemplation for establishing an experimental farm in the neighbourhood of London, under the direction of the Board of Agriculture, and Mr. Cartwright had been pointed out as a suitable person to superintend the management of it. Such an occupation would have been peculiarly agreeable to him, and his disappointment would have been great when the scheme was ultimately abandoned, had he not, shortly afterwards, received an offer from Francis, Duke of Bedford, to undertake the direction of an experimental farm that he was about to establish on his own estate. His invention of the geometrical bricks had attracted the Duke’s attention as early as the year 1797, and the interest he appeared to take in subjects connected with agriculture, had still further recommended Mr. Cartwright to the notice of his Grace, who was then distinguished as being one of its most liberal patrons.

In the autumn of 1801, he entered on his new engagement at Woburn; but in the following spring, he had the misfortune of losing his noble friend, whose untimely death, not only cast a heavy gloom on Mr. Cartwright’s own prospects, but contributed to check that encouragement of agriculture, of which his Grace had given so eminent an example. The farming arrangements begun by the late Duke at Woburn, were, however, carried on by his successor, and Mr. Cartwright continued to reside there until the spring of 1807. During his residence in Bedfordshire, his time and attention were chiefly applied to subjects connected with agriculture; but that pursuit, when conducted on a liberal scale, leads to a variety of other objects which naturally bring inquiring minds into contact with each other. The short period of peace which Europe at that time enjoyed, facilitated the communication amongst each other of men of science in different countries, and Mr. Cartwright had the gratification of finding that his name was not unknown to persons of that description on the continent, several of whom sought his acquaintance, on taking advantage of the peace to visit England.

In 1803 he was adjudged the silver medal from the Society of Arts, for the invention of a three-furrow plough. In 1804 he was chosen an honorary member of the Board of Agriculture, and in 1805 received the gold medal from the same society.

The essay for which the Board of Agriculture had awarded him the medal, contains a minute detail of some curious experiments on the application and fertilizing effects of different substances used as manure; and as the experiments were conducted with great exactitude, the author seems fully justified in the inferences he derives from them. But feeling some degree of diffidence as to the correctness of his own conclusions, he appears, from the following letters, to have submitted his manuscript to the revision of that eminent philosopher, Sir Humphry Davy:—

That portion of the experiments above referred to, which relate to the efficacy of salt as a manure, are described in a paper published in the “Philosophical Magazine,” vol. xxiii. p. 16. But as the application of chemistry to agriculture is a subject which attracts much attention at the present day, it has been thought advisable to print the entire essay. [See Appendix (F).] Indepdendently of the great care with which these experiments appear to have been conducted, the treatise derives a further value, from the notes appended to the original MS. by Sir Humphry Davy, and now first published.

In 1806, he also received from the Board a silver medal for an essay on the culture of potatoes. In the same year he took the degree of Dr. in Divinity, and officiated as domestic chaplain to the Duke of Bedford. In 1807 he published a small volume of letters and sonnets addressed to Lord John Russel, whose character and talents even at an early age, had engaged Dr. Cartwright’s sincere admiration and esteem. The sonnet seemed always to have been a favourite form of composition with him, and he gives in the introductory letter this humorous and characteristic reason for his preference, that it is “a species of composition admirably suited to the resources of a super-annuated poet, whose brains will not bear more than fourteen strokes of the poetical pump, before the reservoir is exhausted.” With greater justice than he measures to himself, it may be allowed that the sonnet entitled Sympathy, indicates no exhaustion of feeling, any more than the Climacteric Thoughts do, the approach of superannuation.

SYMPATHY.

CLIMACTERIC THOUGHTS.

It has been already stated, that Dr. Cartwright, even during the existence of his patent right, had retained but little expectation of deriving any pecuniary advantage from his invention of weaving; and when his latest patent had been several years expired, the prospect of remuneration appeared entirely hopeless. He might be aware that his loom was coming into use, but he had now so little communication with the manufacturing districts, that he could form no idea of the extent to which it was adopted. Weaving by machinery was, however, beginning to make considerable progress, and was even then preparing for him the only compensation that he ever received for years of anxiety, and great pecuniary loss. This progress was connected with the circumstances of the times, by which an extraordinary impulse had been given to the British manufactures in general, and which rendered the beginning of the present century a far more favourable period for the introduction of machine weaving than that in which Dr. Cartwright had first attempted it. The great improvements that had been effected in the art of spinning, had, with other causes, occasioned a vast accumulation of cotton yarn, which on account of the disturbed state of the Continent, could no longer be disposed of in the foreign market, neither could hands (which, in consequence of a long protracted war, were become less numerous than they had been) be found sufficient to work it up at home. At the same time, the demand for English cotton piece goods was greatly increasing, and the manufacturers found themselves called upon to devise some means of answering a demand which want of hands and want of looms prevented their being able to supply.^[32] The only expedient that seemed to present itself, was the adoption of the hitherto rejected power-loom: thus literally justifying the hypothetical suggestion of its author, in that remarkable conversation which had first turned his attention to the subject of mechanics.^[33] From the year 1792, when Messrs. Grimshaw’s mill had been destroyed, and Mr. Cartwright’s establishment, at Doncaster, as well as some others connected with it, was abandoned, it does not appear that any manufacturer had ventured openly to employ his loom, liable as he would in that case have been to a payment for its use during the existence of the patent right. The machine, however, had not been lost sight of, and on its becoming open to the public by the expiration of the patent; several manufacturers sought to adapt it to their own purposes. Great improvements it doubtless did receive from that ingenuity and spirit of enterprise, which were called into action by the circumstances of the times, but rather unfairly towards Dr. Cartwright,^[34] some of these improvers assumed to themselves the whole merit of the invention, and though his machine formed the basis, as it still does, of all the power-looms that have hitherto been found effective, his claim to the original invention was far from being generally recognised. In some instances the invention had been ascribed to persons who had formerly worked looms under a licence from Dr. Cartwright, but who, either from want of capital, or the then unfavourable state of the trade, had not succeeded in their undertakings, and yet had retained so decided a conviction of the value of the machine as to be induced to revive it under more encouraging auspices.

The improved quality of the yarn had also contributed to render machine weaving less difficult, as well as the fabric produced by it, of a more perfect quality than when Dr. Cartwright first undertook it. The extraordinary advances that had been made in the application of mechanical power, by improvements in the steam-engine &c., doubtless facilitated the extension of the power-loom; but in justice to a most ingenious man, it must be acknowledged that Mr. Radcliffe’s admirable contrivance for dressing the warp^[35] before it is put into the loom, by which means time and attendance are saved, contributed probably beyond any other improvement to render it completely available.^[36] About the year 1806, Dr. Cartwright was induced to make some inquiries respecting the state of the cotton manufacture in general, but more especially in the neighbourhood and town of Manchester, and found that machine-weaving was already practised to a much greater extent than he had anticipated, and that considerable profit was accruing, not only to individuals, but to the country at large; from discoveries which to him had been productive of nothing but loss and disappointment. In a letter to his friend Dr. Bardsley, senior, an eminent physician in Manchester, he could not refrain from expressing the bitterness of his feelings on the subject, and this letter being communicated to some highly respectable and influential gentlemen of that place, they were so much struck by the hardship of Dr. Cartwright’s case, as to express their willingness to concur in any application to Parliament that he or his friends should think proper to make, for the purpose of obtaining some remuneration from the public. In consequence of the encouragement given by these gentlemen, Dr. Bardsley, with a warmth of friendship most truly appreciated by him in whose favour it was exerted, applied himself to obtain the information that was required, in order to shew the grounds on which Dr. Cartwright might have a claim to public gratitude, and also what was no less material, to satisfy the minds of the manufacturers that he really was the original inventor of the machine in question, which so many of them were in the habit of using.

The result of these inquiries tended to shew, that the power-loom was already employed to a considerable extent, and that its use was rapidly increasing; but no stronger proof could be required of the importance that was attached to its progress by those best acquainted with, and most deeply concerned in the trade, than the fact, that a memorial, in Dr. Cartwright’s favour, was signed by fifty of the most respectable and influential gentlemen of the town and neighbourhood of Manchester, and presented to Government in August, 1807.^[37] This memorial was followed, in the spring of 1808, by a petition from Dr. Cartwright, to the House of Commons; and the house having agreed to take his claims into consideration, a committee was appointed to that effect; and on the 4th and 7th March, and on the 12th April, evidence was examined in support of his allegations. He was fortunately enabled to bring forward a very material witness in Mr. Joseph Taylor, who had not only been his own engineer at the outset of his mechanical career, but had also been the superintendent at Messrs. Grimshaw’s factory, at Knott Mill, at the time when its destruction by fire had given so severe a check to the introduction of the power-loom. In Mr. Baines’s interesting History of the Cotton Manufacture, is a passage relative to Messrs. Grimshaw’s connection with Dr. Cartwright, which might lead to a very different inference from what really was the fact, and which can only have found a place in a work of so much candour and liberality, in consequence of some defective information. It is here stated, that “about 1790, Messrs. Grimshaw, of Gorton, under a licence from Dr. Cartwright, erected a weaving factory at Knott Mills, Manchester, and attempted to improve the power-loom, at great cost to themselves. They did not succeed, and the factory being burnt down, they abandoned the undertaking.”—p. 231. Now, Messrs. Grimshaw had certainly been at a great expense, but that was incurred in erecting a factory, which was to contain 500 of Dr. Cartwright’s looms; and as only about four-and-twenty of the looms were actually set to work, before the mill was destroyed, no just estimate could be formed of the probable success of the undertaking, although it appears from Taylor’s evidence, that the looms (which there is no ground whatever for supposing Messrs. Grimshaw had been at any cost to improve,) were found to do their work remarkably well.

The substance of Mr. Taylor’s evidence was to this effect. He stated, that he was acquainted with Dr. Cartwright’s invention, in 1784, even before the first patent was taken out; that he had then seen a trial of it, and, in his judgment, it was calculated to answer the purpose of weaving. In 1791, he had accompanied Mr. Grimshaw, who was a master check-manufacturer, in great business, to Doncaster, where he then witnessed the improvements Mr. Cartwright had effected since the taking out of his first patent. Mr. Grimshaw having entered into an agreement to employ a certain number of Mr. Cartwright’s looms, proceeded to build a large mill for that purpose; the expense of which, independently of the steam-engine and machinery, which would be nearly 3000l. additional, was estimated at 5700l. Of the four-and-twenty looms that were completed, twelve were set to work, at weaving check, which had been Mr. Grimshaw’s peculiar line of business. These looms worked exceedingly well; they wrought the work for half the amount of wages which they were then paying to hand weavers; the weavers, in consequence, threatened to destroy the mill, and the owners received anonymous^[38] letters to that effect. On receiving these letters, a considerable part of the property, especially the yarn, was removed out of the mill; and in about a month afterwards, in March, 1792, it was burnt down. From the rapidity with which the building was consumed, it probably was fired in different places, and Mr. Taylor was confirmed, in his conviction, of its being by design, from the circumstance of there not having been, to his personal knowledge as manager, any fire employed within the mill during three preceding days. Messrs. Grimshaw, who had ensured their property to the amount of 12,000l., did not venture to re-build their mill at Manchester, and had tried in vain in other places. It also appeared in evidence, that the alarm, in consequence of this untoward event, and continued threats on the part of the hand-weavers, had become so general, that no one ventured openly to use the loom within the period of Dr. Cartwright’s patent right. One passage in Mr. Taylor’s evidence seems particularly deserving of notice, as it shews, if his opinion be correct, that this machine is not necessarily chargeable with all the evils that have fallen on the hand-loom weavers, and that if they had availed themselves of its advantages, instead of obstinately setting themselves against it, the great manufacturers might not have been driven to adopt the mill system to the extent they have done: and that the hand-weavers might still have retained such a portion of business in their own hands as would have enabled them better to meet those fluctuations which every description of trade and manufactures is liable to, and which legislative interference cannot prevent, and only very imperfectly remedy. On being desired to state to the committee whether the unavoidable effect of this invention is to crowd the persons together who are employed in it, Mr. Taylor replied, that “the machinery may be worked with equal advantage without crowding people together, by the weaver having looms in his own family and turning them by hand; six looms may be turned by one man, by which means he may employ little children, and superintend them himself, and will have six looms at once, instead of one, and every loom would do as much work as one weaver would do at a common loom.”

It was also stated by Mr. Taylor, that cloth, woven by machinery, was of a better quality and bore a higher price than that woven by hand; a statement fully confirmed by the fact, that cloth woven by hand is frequently stamped as power-loom cloth, and sold as such to all parts of the world.^[39]

The next evidence was that of Mr. William Radcliffe, of Stockport, a gentleman of great practical experience and knowledge in every branch of the cotton trade, and whose opinion as to the probable increase of the use of the power-loom, has been completely justified by the event. Until applied to by Dr. Cartwright’s solicitors, it does not appear that Mr. Radcliffe knew who was the inventor of the power-looms, though he had himself employed them; but the circumstance of these looms being known by the name of the Doncaster loom, sufficiently identified the inventor, and Mr. Radcliffe came forward, with the utmost liberality and candour, to do justice to their merit. His evidence, in the first place, went to shew that the inveterate opposition of the hand-weavers had been the means of deterring the manufacturers from adopting the use of machinery, until the trade had now become such that the hand-weavers themselves were interested in producing a sufficient supply of cotton goods at home to answer the increasing demand for them, as well as to work up the surplus quantity of yarn. “During a period of about nine years,” Mr. Radcliffe said, “from 1793 to 1802, the machinery for spinning cotton yarn, with the ingenuity, practical knowledge, and persevering industry of the persons concerned in this branch, became so perfect as to enable the spinners to produce more yarn than could possibly be made into cloth by all the weavers Great Britain could collect for the purpose. The demand for cotton cloth was equal, during this period, to take off the whole produce of the spindle, if weavers could have been found to have made it into cloth; but this being impossible, the spinners began to export the surplus to the manufacturers abroad—into France, Germany, Russia, Switzerland, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, &c., countries possessing a multitude of weavers formerly employed in weaving linen, silk, stuffs, &c. &c., whose labour was to be had at half the price which was paid for such labour in this country. The consequence of which has been, that these foreign manufacturers began to furnish their neighbours with such cotton cloths as heretofore they could only obtain from this country: hence, by degrees, the British manufacturers and the East India Company lost nearly all their trade for piece goods to those countries before mentioned, which is the sole cause of all the distress which is now heard of in the cotton trade.” Mr. Radcliffe proceeded to state, that “this invention of Dr. Cartwright’s, coupled with some other improvements that have been lately discovered for preparing and dressing the cotton twist ready for the loom, is particularly calculated to remedy this evil speedily, by working up a great part of their surplus yarn, and that not into fabrics that will interfere with the cotton goods heretofore made by our weavers, but into vast quantities of strong stout cotton goods for shirting, sheeting, &c.” He also stated, that he knew many spinners who were ready to appropriate part of their mills to weaving by machinery, on Dr. Cartwright’s principles, when any demand for piece goods should spring up; and that if it should be generally adopted, the trade for piece goods would immediately revive, and by degrees the markets would not only open again for cotton goods manufactured in Great Britain, but also for those imported by the East India Company, who had suffered very greatly by the foreigners making from our twist, goods similar to what they used to purchase at the Company’s sales, which had answered their purpose abroad as a substitute for India cloth.” Mr. Radcliffe added, “that he considered the invention of Dr. Cartwright as so important to the prosperity of the Manchester trade, that were it suppressed, or its application no further extended, the cotton trade would be chiefly confined to spinning, and the weavers on the continent, in the end, become the sole manufacturers.” On being asked what were the number of mills in which these looms were set up, he replied that he knew of twenty-eight, or thirty, and there might be more of which he did not know; and also gave it as his opinion, that it had been necessary for Dr. Cartwright to establish a manufactory, and to have a number of looms actually at work, in order to shew their operation, and to try different experiments for the purpose of bringing them to perfection.

We cannot close this portion of our subject without some expression of sympathy for the hard lot of the unfortunate Mr. Radcliffe. His great ingenuity and services to the country deserved a better return than the neglect and discouragement he experienced; and he, alas! was one of those instances of unrewarded talents that have solely contributed to the aggrandizement of others. The author was in correspondence, some years since, with Mr. Radcliffe, on the subject of this memoir, and was much gratified by the candour and liberality with which he did ample justice to the value of Dr. Cartwright’s invention. It was painful to learn that he had himself reaped so little advantage from improvements that had greatly facilitated the use of the power-loom; and it was no less painful to feel conscious of the utter inability to forward and assist his claims to national remuneration.

From other evidence brought forward, it appeared that Dr. Cartwright had expended between thirty and forty thousand pounds in prosecuting and bringing his mechanical inventions to perfection.

In the following year, a grant of ten thousand pounds was made, on the part of His Majesty’s government, to Dr. Cartwright, “for the good service he had rendered the public by his invention of weaving.”

It cannot be inconsistent with a liberal economy for a government to encourage ingenuity, which for want of support might be lost to the public; at the same time a government ought not to be called upon to indemnify individuals for losses and expenditure incurred in speculations, which (though eventually advantageous to the public) had been undertaken solely with a view of profit to themselves. But in the instance of Dr. Cartwright, compensation, rather than remuneration, was the principle on which he sought the attention of the legislature. A system of intimidation, against which the laws of his country had failed to protect him, had, for a series of years, prevented a fair trial being made of his machinery for weaving; and, in addition to the disappointment of his reasonable expectations of gain, a prejudice had also been created against the invention itself, which nothing but an extraordinary combination of circumstances could finally have overcome. This prejudice had a tendency to deprive him of the credit of the invention. It had been hastily concluded that the machine was inefficient, because it had not been adopted; and when, on being tried, it was found to succeed, its success was attributed wholly to the alterations engrafted upon it. Indeed, there is great reason to believe, that but for this public recognition from the legislature, Dr. Cartwright’s claim, even to the invention of the power-loom, would not have been generally admitted, although at the time of his application to parliament there does not appear to have been the slightest attempt made to invalidate his claim to originality on the part of those to whom the chief merit of the invention has subsequently been ascribed.

Admitting, however, that the grant to Dr. Cartwright was conferred as a reward to ingenuity, it ought, in justice to those members of His Majesty’s Government who proposed it, to be observed, that it was not incautiously or lightly made. It was not until two years after the presentation to the first lord of the Treasury, of the memorial from Manchester, that Mr. Perceval proposed in the House of Commons any remuneration to Dr. Cartwright; and he, in the meantime, had been required to produce satisfactory evidence in support of his allegations, whilst to his rivals, or opponents, ample opportunity had been given to rebut them.

The gratitude with which Dr. Cartwright received this act of justice, was heightened by the reflection that he owed it to the liberal feelings of a ministry, to whose leading members he was personally unknown, but to whom it was not unknown that his principal associates and connexions were chiefly amongst their political opponents.

The event has more than justified the view which the legislature of 1809 was led to form of the importance of the invention of the power-loom. The warmest advocate for mechanical enterprise, the most sanguine believer in its success, could hardly have anticipated that more than one hundred thousand power-looms should be employed in the island of Great Britain alone. Yet such, at the present time, is the astonishing fact; and these looms, now brought, by the incessant application of ingenuity, to an extreme degree of perfection, are producing yearly millions of pieces of almost every variety of fabric that can be applied to the useful or ornamental clothing of mankind.

Having received the sum awarded by parliament, and being now sixty-six years of age, Dr. Cartwright was anxious to pass the remainder of his life in retirement and tranquillity; and having decided on settling in Kent, he purchased a small farm at Hollanden, situated between Sevenoaks and Tunbridge. At this place he spent the last years of his existence, amusing himself with various experiments in agriculture, chemistry, and mechanics, and occupied, to the utmost of his ability, in promoting the welfare of his fellow-creatures.

To the poor he was always a kind and judicious adviser, and as a magistrate, able and enlightened. His friendly assistance in the church was always at the service of the neighbouring clergy; and we may be allowed in this place to remark, that his manner of performing his clerical duties was truly solemn and impressive.

In society no man was ever more popular; his conversation, full of information, conveyed in a lively and pleasing manner, was entirely free from assumption or dogmatism; and the kindness and simplicity of his deportment made his company agreeable to all, especially to the young, for whom, in common with many other men of superior genius and attainments, he had a particular predilection. In the “Life of Crabbe,” (vol. i. pp. 135, 136,) there is a very appropriate description of Dr. Cartwright, which is the more remarkable, as it shews the impression he made on the writer, then a child of six or seven years old:—“During my father’s residence at Stratherne,” says the Rev. George Crabbe, “and also at his other country places, he very rarely paid or received visits except in his clerical capacity; but there was one friend, whose expanding versatility of mind and rare colloquial talents made him a most welcome visitor, and he was a frequent one. I allude to Dr. Edmund Cartwright, a poet and mechanist of no small eminence, who at this period was the incumbent of Goadby, and occasionally lived there, though his principal residence was at Doncaster, where vast machines were worked under his direction. Few persons could tell a good story so well—no man could make more of a trite one. I can just remember him; the portly, dignified old gentleman of the last generation—grave and polite, but full of humour and spirit.”

About 1809, Dr. Cartwright communicated to the Board of Agriculture an account of some experiments on the effects of sugar in fattening sheep. He gave to fifteen sheep four ounces of sugar each per diem, mixed with other food, and in the short space of twenty-eight days found that, on the average, they had increased one-fifth in weight, and that two of them had gained upwards of one-fourth. He suggested that the duty might be deducted on sugar thus applied, and that to protect the revenue, the sugar might be rendered useless for other purposes by mixing it with linseed, palm, or train oils, assafœtida, charcoal, or other substances, which, though nauseous to the human palate, were found not to diminish the zest with which the sheep devoured the sugar. He thus sums up his conclusions:—

“1. That sugar may be given with great advantage to sheep, if not confined, especially if they have access to green food, however small in quantity.

“2. That sugar may be given to them, with every prospect of a beneficial effect, in the quantity of four ounces per day to each sheep.

“3. That sugar, supposing it to be purchased at 4d. per lb. (which it might be, if duty free), would, at the rate of four ounces per day, be paid for in a return of flesh, exclusive of the advantage of expeditious feeding, and the benefit to be derived from the manure.

“4. That six ounces per day to each sheep exceeds the maximum that can be given with the best advantage.

“5. That the advantage of stall-feeding sheep altogether upon sugar and dry food, of whatever nature that food may be, is extremely problematical.”

From this period of Dr. Cartwright’s residence at Hollanden, his mechanical pursuits were chiefly speculative, and his habits those of a retired rather than a practical philosopher; yet there is abundant proof that the rust of old age never settled on his brilliant faculties, and a few extracts from his letters will shew the constant vigour and activity, as well as that singular elasticity and cheerfulness of spirit, which years of disappointment and anxiety had failed to extinguish or repress.

Among his chief correspondents was his old friend, Dr. Pearson, an eminent physician, particularly distinguished for his knowledge of chemistry, to whom he addressed the following playful invitation, which, like all his poetical effusions, was composed with a readiness and facility almost entitling them to be considered as extemporaneous:—

In the latter end of the year 1820, Dr. Cartwright had the satisfaction of receiving the following interesting letters from Sir Stamford Raffles:—

Dr. Bardsley’s zealous and friendly exertions in behalf of Dr. Cartwright’s claims to parliamentary remuneration have been already mentioned. It will not, therefore, be matter of surprise, that one whose heart was so warm and generous should not only feel the obligation, but delight to own it; for Dr. Cartwright, though very apt to forget the favours he bestowed on others, could never forget those which he had received himself.

In a letter addressed to this gentleman on the 20th Nov. 1820, Dr. Cartwright says, “The world is more your debtor than you are aware of; the leisure and independence, for which I was mainly indebted to your friendship, will enable me, as I hope, to benefit the public to an extent which I could never have foreseen.” He then mentions his experiments in the application of human power, and proceeds to inform his correspondent of his success in using salt and water as a remedy for mildew. “There are two methods,” says he, “in applying it.^[42] Two men to spread the mixture, and one to supply them with it, will get over four acres in a day; six or eight bushels of salt are sufficient for an acre, the expense of which is trifling at the price for which it can be procured for farming purposes. It is paid for in the improvement of the manure made from the salted straw. The mildew on wheat is ascertained to be a parasitical plant, of the fungus kind. The principal constituent in the composition of fungi being water (witness the manufactory of mushroom catsup), when brought in contact with the salt, their aqueous particles are absorbed by the salt, and the fungi immediately die. Salt has no effect upon the wheat at the time the mildew is upon it, as the straw is then fibrous, and on fibre, whether vegetable or animal, salt acts rather as a preservative than otherwise.”

In 1819, Dr. C. had communicated to the “Philosophical Magazine,” (vol. liii. p. 425,) an account of a locomotive carriage which he had constructed, to be worked by human power. On the axle of the driving wheels were two cranks, connected with treadles, worked by each foot of the driver alternately. By means of shoulder-straps affixed to the carriage, the operator could, when necessary, apply a considerable muscular force, in addition to his absolute weight, to the propulsion of the vehicle. During the three following years, Dr. Cartwright employed this carriage for the conveyance of necessaries from the neighbouring market towns, and, occasionally, even from London. Indeed, it would appear, from the following letter, that he had brought it to a considerable degree of perfection.

In September, 1822, Dr. Cartwright visited Dover, and writing from thence to Dr. Bardsley, he says, “I am not a little gratified by the partial view you take of my endeavours to make myself useful to the world so long as it shall please God to continue me in it. I came here for the benefit of warm sea-bathing, having been much unhinged by the hot weather in August. I have only bathed twice, and am now as stout again as ever. In a conversation I had with the bath man, I learned that to fill his cistern in a given time was full work for two athletic men; I told him of my principle of exerting human power, and that if he would furnish me with a workman, I would shew him how to apply it to his pump. In the course of a day the work was finished, and now an active lad will do the business in half the usual time, and, comparatively speaking, with very little fatigue. If the success of this experiment should lead to the building of a vessel to be navigated upon the same principle, you will have the opportunity of going next year to Calais without the risk of fire or explosion, or the danger of being sunk or overset; for if the vessel is constructed as I propose, to sink or overset it will be, morally speaking, impossible. Mrs. Cartwright and I are delighted with the prospect of shewing you what a comfortable spot your kindness has contributed to place us in. It will not be more than twenty miles out of the direct road from London to Dover, and I am willing to believe you will find the air of Hollanden of great benefit to Mrs. Bardsley and yourself; of its salubrity, as far as I am concerned, I can speak in the highest terms, and I do not think, considering the delicate state of health Mrs. Cartwright has been in for some years, that she could have been better anywhere else. The other friend to whom I feel indebted, jointly with yourself, for the ease and comfort of my present existence, was Hawkins Browne, whose weight and influence carried the business of which you laid the foundation stone through the House of Commons. A posthumous work of his has lately been published, entitled ‘Essays, &c.,’ printed for Cadell. I sent for it, merely for the purpose of keeping it as a memorial of a dear and valued friend. To my most agreeable surprise, I found it a work of superlative merit. If you have not seen it, I would recommend it to your perusal. It is the best connected chain of reasoning on the subject of morals and religion I ever met with.

“A few weeks ago I sent in a paper to the Royal Society, of which I am a member. It has been read, and, I hear, been complimented on its profundity and acuteness; but as it is considered purely theoretical, it is not admissible into their transactions, which are confined to absolute facts, or truths that can be substantiated by mathematical demonstration, which mine certainly cannot, at least by me.

“It is a new theory of the planetary system, as far as relates to the power by which the planets are impelled round the sun. As soon as I get home, I will send you a copy of the paper. You will, I hope, make all due allowance for it, as being an initiatory treatise of a young philosopher just commencing his philosophical studies and career.^[43]

“A steam vessel arrived this morning from Ramsgate on a party of pleasure, the passengers above 300. They returned after an early dinner. Just as they were ready to set off, two others arrived from France: they had all bands of music on board. The day was uncommonly fine, the pier crowded by spectators; it was a most splendid sight, and I must own I felt no little gratification in reflecting on the share I had in contributing to the exhibition. You probably do not know that Fulton, who first brought steam navigation forward, was a most intimate friend of mine, and of course I lent him all the assistance in my power, of which I believe there is one proof still in existence—I mean, a model, to shew how the power of steam might be applied. When I went to Woburn, I gave it to Lord John Russell, then about ten or eleven years old, as a plaything: it went by clock-work. His lordship used frequently to amuse himself with setting it afloat on the stew-ponds in the garden. If it is not worn out, his younger brothers may possibly amuse themselves with it to this day.”

Hitherto the subject of these memoirs had enjoyed, as he himself gratefully acknowledges in the preceding letter to Dr. Bardsley, an extraordinary exemption from the usual infirmities of age. To this exemption, it is probable that early rising, and the temperate habits of his life, had mainly contributed. His fine intellectual countenance still beamed with undiminished intelligence; his benevolent and placid character retained all its natural cheerfulness; while his firm step and healthful complexion seemed to promise many years of prolonged usefulness and activity.

But we are now approaching the period when his robust constitution began to shew symptoms of increasing weakness, and notwithstanding the watchful attention and solicitude which Mrs. Cartwright bestowed on his declining health, it was evident that the failure was rapid, and that no human power could arrest its progress.

Surely, in this case, the sudden transition may be considered as a merciful dispensation, when we compare it with those instances in which imbecility, fretfulness, and suffering accompany a lengthened existence, and when, as the great moralist expresses it,

Not so our veteran mechanic, who in July 1823, within three months of his lamented death, writes thus to Dr. Pearson:—

In another letter to Dr. Pearson, written about this time, Dr. Cartwright thus pursues the subject. “You are aware,” says he, “that if a sufficient quantity of gunpowder to make a complete stroke of the piston were to be fired off at once, the explosion would not only be highly dangerous, but, from its instantaneous effect, equally useless. Now, by giving a subdued and continuous action, the engine would be perfectly under command, and its action steady and equable. I will endeavour to explain how this is produced. Supposing it would require sixty grains of powder to make a complete stroke of the piston, instead of firing off the whole at once, it is to be delivered by a contrivance something like the drill-box of a sowing machine, only, we will say, three grains at a time, and at equal intervals, so that each individual explosion would be but the one-twentieth part of the whole. Supposing, therefore, the stroke of the piston and its return to occupy two seconds of time, there would be ten minor explosions in a second, which, though individually feeble, compared with the mass of powder, yet the aggregate expansion and force would be the same; but by being subdivided, and the explosions following in succession, the action of the engine would be uniform and steady. In addition to what I have said above, I will further observe, that the engine will be so constructed as to make it next to impossible that the powder should explode improperly; and even if it should, it will be so contrived, that such an accident, supposing it to happen, will be attended with no danger. I intend to call my engine, par excellence, the safety machine. You know very well, my dear sir, that some of the most deadly poisons, if administered judiciously, and in small doses, become remedies both safe and judicious. I am only applying those principles and practices to mechanical bodies which you have so often successfully applied to bodies that are animated.”

A return of these symptoms induced Dr. Cartwright to try the effect of change of air and warm bathing. He accordingly removed to Hastings, on the 8th of October, 1823; but he no longer derived the same benefit which he had experienced from his excursion to Dover in the preceding year.

Yet though the powers of life were thus rapidly sinking, his mind was as strong as ever; and it was afterwards remarked by his nephew, the Rev. Henry Hodges, that while occasionally sitting with his uncle on the beach at Hastings, he was equally charmed by the vigour and cheerfulness of his conversation, and could scarcely bring himself to believe that the hour was at hand, when that harmonious voice would be mute for ever.

Aware of his own precarious state, Dr. Cartwright bore his illness with that sweetness and submission which might have been expected from the character which we have been endeavouring thus faintly to delineate, and humbly resigning himself to the will of his God and Saviour, he expired on the 30th of October, 1823. His remains were interred in the church at Battle, in Sussex.^[46]

Several brief notices of Dr. Cartwright have already appeared in print—viz., in the Annual Obituary for 1823, in the Gentleman’s Magazine for December in the same year, in the Monthly Magazine for January, 1824, in the Dictionnaire des Contemporains, and in the Algemeine Deutsche Real Encyclopädie, or Conversations Lexicon, published in 1827.^[47] A short account of Dr. Cartwright has also been published in a volume of the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, as well as another notice in the Gallery of British Portraits. There is a brief account of his discovery of the power-loom in two articles in the Edinburgh Review for June, 1827, and October, 1833, and also a sketch of his life in the Penny Cyclopædia.

The following letter was written soon after Dr. Cartwright’s death, by Dr. Bardsley, to Samuel Oldknow, Esq., but the suggestion it contained was not carried into effect:—

With this appropriate testimony of respect to Dr. Cartwright’s memory—a testimony as creditable to the venerable writer, whose zeal thus extended beyond the grave, as it is just to the object of his unwearied friendship, we close this brief and, we fear, imperfect memoir of one of the most ingenious and amiable of men.

In a case where natural partiality may be supposed to bias the judgment of the writer, it seems almost presumptuous to guide that of the reader; and yet we hope we may be pardoned for pointing out, that what appears particularly worthy of admiration in the character of Dr. Cartwright, and which ought to be held out as deserving of imitation, is that generous self-devotion, that constant benevolence of purpose, which, from youth to age, never lost sight of the smallest available opportunity of promoting the benefit of others.

————

A.
ARMINE AND ELVIRA: A LEGENDARY TALE.

(See p. 17.)

The preceding Memoir has been chiefly devoted to the history of Dr. Cartwright’s mechanical and scientific labours. But as some of our readers may wish to be further informed as to his poetical powers, we have been induced to republish one of his early productions, which, though enjoying great popularity in its day, has been long out of print. The reader will perceive that it belongs to the refined and classic school of the last century, before poets had ventured on those brilliant but eccentric flights which attract so much favour at the present day.

B.
LETTERS FROM SIR W. JONES.

(See p. 45.)

Amongst the letters from Sir W. Jones to Dr. Cartwright, which are inserted in the Life of the former by Lord Teignmouth, there are two, of which portions only are published by his lordship. As the suppressed passages tend to throw light upon Sir William’s character and opinions, they are here published entire, and distinguished by italics.

C.
PORTION OF MR. CARTWRIGHT’S POWER-LOOM,

AS DESCRIBED IN HIS PATENT OF 1790.

(See p. 67.)

A. The lathe, or frame which carries the reed.

B. The crank which moves the lathe, having a wheel upon its axis, which receives motion from C, a wheel on the principal axis. a a. The pickers, b b. The picker strings, passing over pulleys, at c c, to the springs. d. A hook, or radius, turning with its axis at e, which axis passes through the lathe, and also forms the axis of another hook, f, expressed by dotted lines, which rises up through the fly. The picker, as it is driven back by the shuttle, depresses the hook i, and consequently depresses the point of the hook, or radius, g; and this hook being connected with the hook d, by means of a wire passing from above the centre of the hook, or radius, g, to below the centre of the hook d, the point of the hook d is elevated or receives an oblique direction when the hook i is depressed, in the same manner as when the hook f, upon its own axis, is depressed.

k. A spring which keeps the hook d in a perpendicular direction, when the pickers are not driven or put back; in which case, when the lathe comes to, a lever, struck by the hook d, disconnects the loom from the moving power, and causes it to stop.

C. A wheel giving motion to the axis on which are the tappets for treading the shed. m m. Tappets for working the shuttle-springs, n n. The shuttle-springs.

PORTION OF MR. CARTWRIGHT’S POWER-LOOM OF 1790.

o. A worm or wheel for giving motion to the calender-rollers, that wind off the cloth.

p. A wheel receiving motion from a wheel of the mill.

D.
CORDELIER, OR ROPEMAKING MACHINE.

(See p. 146.)

Among the various mechanical contrivances which Mr. Cartwright reduced to practice in his mill at Doncaster was a machine for rope-making, to which he gave the name of the “Cordelier.” This invention was thought very highly of by Mr. Fulton,—who had also turned his thoughts to the same object, as is shewn by his letters inserted pp. 141, 146. An engraving of Mr. Cartwright’s Cordelier is given in the frontispiece, and is thus described in his specification of May 15, 1792.

A, the axis; B, the top, having holes through it for the strands to pass, and which serves for a gudgeon for the machine to turn upon; C, D, pulleys fixed to the axis; E E E, jacks, or spole frames; F, dead wheel within which the axis revolves; G G G, counter wheels upon the pulley D; H H H, the jack, or spole frame wheels; I I I, delivering rollers, receiving motion by means of a wheel upon the axis of one of them from K K K, hollow worms, within which they respectively revolve. The gudgeons of the jack, or spole frame next the top, are hollow, through which the strands are delivered to the top. L L, drawing rollers.

E.
MR. CARTWRIGHT’S PATENT BRICKS.

(See p. 118.)

The principle of these bricks consists in making the two opposite sides of a brick with a groove or rabbet in the middle. The groove must be a little more than half the width of the side of the brick, to allow room for the mortar. (See fig. 1.)

Fig. 1.

This is the simplest form of these bricks, but the principle will be preserved, though the form of the groove or rabbet may vary, provided the opposite side of the brick vary in proportion, so as to fit together when built into a wall. (See figure 2, where A and B are the two opposite sides of a brick.)

Fig. 2.

For the purpose of breaking the joints in the depth of the wall, bricks may be made of different lengths, though of the same width. Buildings constructed with these bricks will require no bond timbers, as the walls can neither bulge nor crack without breaking through the bricks themselves.

In applying this principle to arches, the sides of the grooves and the shoulders should be radii of a circle of which the arch is a segment, though if the circle be very large, a minute attention to this point is scarcely necessary. When the arch is very flat it may be well to have the shoulders dovetailed, to prevent the arch from cracking across, as is seen in figure 3.

Fig. 3.

When the bricks are as wide at the bottom as at the top, the manner of dovetailing them is obvious, but when they are wider at the top, the sides of the shoulders must be parallel on one side of the brick (Fig. 3, A.) and the side of the groove on the other. (B.)

The appearance of the bricks in the face of an upright wall, and also on both surfaces of an arch (when not dovetailed) is shewn in figure 4.

Fig. 4.

The mode of constructing an arch is shewn in figure 5.

Fig. 5.

F.
MR. CARTWRIGHT’S PRIZE ESSAY ON MANURES.

(See p. 206.)

With Notes by Sir Humphry Davy.

There are few arts of practical application in which more experiments have been tried than in agriculture. In that department of it which relates to the article of manures alone, they have been almost innumerable. The theories on which they have been founded, or have given rise to, have been nearly as numerous as the experiments themselves. Yet it will be admitted, that the experiments on manures have not been hitherto so diversified as the nature of the subject might demand; their object being, for the most part, merely confined to the comparison of one manure with another. The result of such experiments often proves very fallacious, from the manner in which each respective manure produces its effects not being taken into consideration, and by not adverting to the peculiarities of the different soils on which they might have been tried. Hence a manure which under one set of experiments is found to be valuable, under another is condemned as useless; and that which is esteemed useless by the first experimenter, in the hands of the next is considered as the reverse. This benefit, however, has arisen from these experiments, imperfectly conducted as they have been: they furnish reasonable data for estimating the quantum of one manure as equivalent to the quantum of another of the same class, so as to make it a matter of mere pecuniary calculation, according to local circumstances, which is to be preferred.

There are many facts yet to be ascertained respecting the nature of manures, on which the general opinion is by no means agreed; and even from those facts which are already ascertained, the conclusions are not always uniform.

This uncertainty seems in part to have arisen from not considering the manner in which the different substances used as manures act under different circumstances. Were all substances so used, the immediate food of plants, their operation, in proportion to the quantity of nutriment which each substance might afford, would, under all circumstances of variation of soil, be nearly the same; but this we find is by no means the case. Hence the conclusion is, that there are substances used as manures whose beneficial effects proceed from other causes than the mere furnishing sustenance to the growing vegetable. To investigate these causes has been the object of the experiments detailed in this essay. As there has been no set of experiments, as far as I know, for the express purpose of elucidating this view of the subject, familiar as the ideas it suggests are to every one who has paid any attention to the philosophy of manures, I thought I might render some small service at least to the cause of agriculture by stating them.

The substances employed as manures are, mineral, vegetable, and animal, or animalized matter:^[48] of these, some appear to produce their effects chiefly, if not altogether, by their mechanical operation on the soil itself, by altering its texture; others, by their chemical agency on the different substances contained in the soil; others, by furnishing nutriment or stimulus to the assimilating or (if I may so express myself) the digestive organs of the plants themselves.

The method which I have adopted, as being that which appeared the most obvious for arriving at the deductions I was in pursuit of, has been, first, to try the manures in each class separately, which might furnish the opportunity of remarking their simple operation, and then to use them in combination, from whence might be deduced their chemical influence on each other.

The mineral substances I have employed are—lime, gypsum, sulphuric acid, and common salt.

The vegetable substances are—peat, peat-ashes, wood-ashes, decayed leaves, saw-dust, malt-dust, alkaline salts, and (though not strictly in all cases a vegetable production) soot.

The animal substances are—bone-dust and chandlers’ graves. The animalized matters are stable and fold-yard dung. The vegetable and animal, or animalized matters, that might have been used as manures, are almost infinite; but as I consider them as respectively the same in their component parts, only varying as one or other component part may chance to be more or less concentrated, and to predominate, I confined myself to such as can be most easily obtained.

Having appropriated half an acre to each set of experiments, I divided it into sixty equal parts, which were manured (the first excepted) as follows:—

On the 14th of April, 1804, the whole was planted with potatoes; and that the experiment might be conducted with all possible accuracy, each part received the same number of sets. On the 14th of May, a few days after the plants appeared, No. 9, malt-dust, was perceptibly the most vigorous, next to which, in succession, were the following:—

It will be necessary here to observe, that from No. 9 to No. 3 inclusive, the gradation of excellence was obviously perceptible. From No. 2 to No. 55 inclusive, there was little or no perceptible difference. From No. 4 to No. 49 the plants were considerably inferior to those included in No. 2 and No. 55.

It is worthy of remark that, in this stage of the business, the experiment is in favour of malt-dust, soot, and graves; and the reason why it is so seems to be apparent. Sugar,^[51] mucilage,^[52] and carbon,^[53] being the principal ingredients and constituent parts in the composition of vegetables, it is natural to suppose that those substances which are most readily disposed to putrefy, or which present themselves in a state of the nearest assimilation to the plant which is to be fed by them, will be more immediately imbibed than such as must previously be decomposed either by their own internal fermentation or by the action of external causes.

On the 28th of May, the apparent vigour of the plants was in the following order:—

The variations between this table and the former are worthy of observation. In the first table, sixteen of the experiments take place of No. 1, in this, twenty-eight have the superiority. The same reason which is applied to the former table may assist us in accounting for the results of this. The different manures beginning now to develop themselves, and to be decomposed, give out (though as yet in moderate proportion) the requisite aliment to the plants they are to sustain.

On the 2nd of July, Nos. 26 and 21 had taken the lead of No. 9; and on the 24th of the same month No. 35 had visibly outstripped them all.

On the 21st of September, when the roots were taken up, the order of precedence was as follows:—

The final result of these experiments not only tends to ascertain some doubtful facts, but leads, it is presumed, to some important conclusions.

The first article used as manure is sulphuric acid. The use of this substance was first suggested, if I mistake not, by the late ingenious Dr. G. Fordyce; whether it ever was brought to the test of experiment, I am not able to ascertain. It appears, however, that its effects are beneficial; but whether those effects are produced by its assisting in the decomposition^[54] of animal or vegetable matter in the soil, by stimulating the organs of the plant, or by supplying it with oxygen, are questions which I will not take upon me to answer. Dr. George Fordyce, if I remember right, leans to the latter opinion.^[55]

In experiment No. 16, where the sulphuric acid is combined with lime, my object was to try the effect of an artificial gypsum, in which, however, the lime very much predominated. A reference to the foregoing table will shew that it may be used with considerable efficacy. The expense of gypsum in many parts of the kingdom, remote from where it is found, admitting not of its being applied to agricultural purposes, it occurred to me that a factitious gypsum might be a valuable succedaneum.

In experiment No. 28, the sulphuric acid being diluted with a sufficient quantity of water, and the salt mixed with it, the whole was thrown upon the unslaked lime; by this commixture of sulphuric acid and salt, I was of opinion that the marine acid would fly off, leaving the soda; and that the heat and effervescence excited by slaking the lime might possibly assist in the operation.

If we compare this experiment with No. 4, it certainly is not without a beneficial effect; but whether in consequence of the expulsion of marine acid, it may be difficult to determine.

Opinions have been long divided on the subject of sea-salt as a manure. From this set of experiments, at least, there is reason to conclude it possesses considerable activity. It is matter of observation, that in thirteen different combinations of salt with other substances, four only are superior to salt used alone—namely, No. 32, 41, 30, and 44; and in eight out of thirteen the salt added to the efficacy of the matters combined with it;—as, for example,

In four instances, the salt appears to have done harm:

In the two last of the above experiments, possibly the antiseptic quality of the salt might retard the putrefactive process, so as to render the bone-dust and graves less efficacious than they would have been had the salt been omitted.

Were I to hazard a conjecture on the general good effect of salt in these experiments, I should attribute it, in a considerable degree, to its property of attracting moisture; for I observed that those parts of the field where the salt was applied were for a considerable time visibly moister than the rest,—I mean, so long as the dry weather continued; after the rains fell, that distinction, of course, was obliterated.

But in none of these experiments have theory and practice been so at variance as in the application of lime and its different combinations. The general good effect with which lime is applied led me to expect that, though the simple application of it might not prove strikingly beneficial, yet combined with other manures, and those so different in their qualities, its effects could not but be obvious.

No. 4, lime alone, and No. 27, combined with pond-mud, are the least productive. In sixteen experiments it does not appear to have been particularly efficacious, except in four instances; when applied by itself it does harm rather than good, producing only 150 lb. The produce of No. 27, when mixed with the pond-mud, is the same. This latter fact is rather curious.^[56] The soil on which the experiment was tried was a loose ferruginous sand, but was brought to its present texture by a very thick covering of pond mud; so that it received no accession of fertility by the additional quantity that was given to it, nor did the lime meet with anything to operate upon in that additional quantity, which was not in the soil before.

Gypsum, though used with great success on the Continent and in America, has not hitherto been considered as a very efficacious manure by the English farmer. My experiments, however, induce me to think very favourably of it, especially when combined with other substances.

To these instances we may add No. 16, factitious gypsum.

The most striking of these experiments is No. 35; and it is to be remarked, in general, that previous to the middle of July, the plants where the gypsum had been used gave no indication of superiority; their subsequent vigour can be accounted for on no other ground than on the supposition that the septic quality of the gypsum had not, till then, produced its effects in the decomposition of the substances (the wood-ashes excepted) which the gypsum was combined with.^[57]

Of soot, the most remarkable circumstance is its efficacy in combination with salt, in experiment 41, and this efficacy I am disposed to attribute to a properly in salt taken notice of before—namely, its attraction of moisture; a property which could not fail of being beneficial when the salt was combined with so hot and dry a manure as soot, which, from its acrid nature, requires to be much diluted.

It was expected that wood-ashes, from the power which alkaline salts have of decomposing animal and vegetable matter, would have been more efficacious than they appear to have been by these experiments. By referring, however, to the foregoing table, it will be seen that they have in no instance been applied without efficacy.

The article of which I had the greatest doubt was saw-dust, from its known effect of destroying weeds when spread tolerably thick on gravel walks. In the first stages, indeed, of the business, it was very unpromising. The plants at first were very backward and sickly; by degrees, however, they recovered themselves, which I attributed to the acid, or tanning principle in the saw-dust being spent or washed out by the subsequent rains. That the saw-dust, even after it had lost its tanning principle, should have no material operation on the soil the first year is not to be wondered at, as the carbon, which is its principal ingredient, will remain for some time in a state of great insolubility. There can be little doubt of its effects being very apparent at a future season.

It will be seen, by referring to the former tables, that malt-dust is very immediate in its operations; but from the last table it would appear that its effects are not so permanent as some other manures of slower dissolution, and which require longer time before they can be decomposed and become soluble in water.

Though malt-dust may possess no durable property, yet its immediate and powerful operation in promoting a rapid vegetation points it out as a valuable manure, especially when it can be used as a top-dressing to plants in an advanced state of growth. In this mode I have used it, in a set of experiments unconnected with the present, with the greatest success, applying it to the potato crop immediately before earthing up.

The peat in the part of the country where these experiments are tried containing a considerable proportion of oxyde of iron, I was not very sanguine in my expectations of any very powerful effect from it, in whatever form it might be applied, on a soil of which the iron it already contains constitutes about a fifty-seventh part. Leaves, in a state of imperfect decay, bearing no very remote resemblance to peat in its simple state, uncombined with iron or sulphur, I wished to compare them together. I had, however, another object in view in introducing leaves into the experiment, which was, to recommend a practice, too much neglected, of collecting them in the autumn, (when it can be conveniently done,) either to be laid in a heap to ferment and rot, or to be mixed with dung; or which, perhaps, is a better way still, to furnish litter for the fold-yard, mixing with them a due proportion of straw or stubble. When singly applied, the advantage in this experiment is in favour of decayed leaves; in combination with other substances, they appear nearly upon a par.

It is usually calculated that three, if not four, loads of fresh dung from the fold-yard will be required to make one load after the dung has undergone the putrefactive process. I wished, therefore, to institute a comparison between them in these two different stages, with a view to ascertain the advantage or disadvantage of the usual method of not laying on dung till it is completely or nearly rotted. In this comparison I tried only three bushels of fresh dung against one of rotted dung.

The experiment, however, does not terminate here: their comparative effects must be pursued through subsequent seasons till the soil requires to be renovated afresh. It is reasonable to conclude that the dung which is now laid on fresh will continue its efficacy after the rotted dung is exhausted.

Dung combined with soot, No. 39; with wood-ashes, No. 42; and with gypsum, No. 33, seems to have been benefited by the combination; but its greatest effects are to be looked for in the succeeding crop.

Bone-dust being of difficult dissolution, it was natural to suppose its effects would be considerably augmented by combination with such substances as would assist in its decomposition. The justice of this opinion will appear by comparing the effect of bone-dust when used by itself, and when in combination with gypsum, or wood-ashes.^[59]

Bones are a manure as efficacious as permanent, and consequently they should be collected wherever they are to be met with—a practice, however, which is never attended to by the farmer, except in situations where there are mills for grinding them.

Of the same nature with bone-dust are chandlers’ graves; but from their more rapid tendency to become putrid and soluble in water, their operation as manure is also more rapid.

Of the fifteen simple manures, chandlers’ graves stand first, as they do also in combination; though soot, in combination, is scarcely inferior.

The operation of every manure must, in a greater or less degree, be influenced by the quality of the soil on which it is applied. That every possible light may be thrown on the subject of these experiments, I have subjoined an analysis of the soil on which they were tried.^[60] Four hundred grains gave of siliceous sand of different degrees of fineness about—

The 104 grains of finely-divided matter contained

Remainder principally silex and alumine. There was no indication of gypsum or phosphate of lime.

This analysis accounts, not unsatisfactorily, for two at least of the phenomena in the foregoing experiments—namely, the great activity of gypsum, and the inutility of peat-ashes. The soil, containing in itself no gypsum, receives from the application of that mineral an accession of active power which it wanted; and having already more than a necessary share of iron in its composition, it becomes, by the addition of peat-ashes, supersaturated with that which in certain proportions is an invigorating stimulant, but when too abundant, operates as a poison.

Two sets of experiments, and with the same proportion of manures, were tried, on a soil of a very different nature, with buck-wheat and turnips. As my object in these two sets of experiments was to try the intrinsic effects of manures, unaided by any vegetating principle in the soil, I chose the poorest I could meet with. Of its poverty judgment may be made by the following analysis:—

The finely divided matter lost nearly half its weight by incineration, which shews that it contained a great deal of vegetable matter. The residuum was principally a mixture of aluminous and siliceous earths, coloured red by oxyde of iron, and containing very little calcareous matter. There was no indication of either gypsum or phosphate of lime.

The detail of these experiments will be short.

July 6th, 1804, I sowed one piece with turnips, the other with buck-wheat. On the 26th of the same month, each piece was examined minutely. Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 14, 49, 50, 54, 58, 60, shewed little or no marks of vegetation. The rest were only in the seed leaf. On the 16th of August, one-half of the turnips and about two-thirds of the buck-wheat were dead. From that period to the 15th of September, after a few alternations of health and sickness, the turnips all died away, except Nos. 12, 18, 21, 24, 25, 26, 30, 35, 39, 42, 47, 56.

On these experiments I have to observe, generally, that where the manures made use of, whether stimulant or nutritive, (as, for instance, salt or malt-dust) did not contribute in some degree to the texture and consistence of the soil, the plants scarcely got into the seed leaf; and that what little health and vigour they afterwards possessed seemed to depend more on the texture and consistence which the soil acquired from the respective manures, than on any other circumstance. Hence the beneficial effects of lime on these soils, as also of clay and argillaceous marls.

It may not be foreign to the purpose of this essay to observe, that adjoining to the piece where these experiments were tried is a field of the same original quality, which within these few years has been reclaimed from a state of nature, and brought into a state of cultivation and fertility, chiefly by improving its texture by a thick coat of marly clay.

Enough has been said, it is presumed, in the detail of the foregoing experiments, to shew the general nature and properties of manures. Respecting their application, I have to observe, that the circumstance of most importance to attend to is the texture of the soil; where it is too loose, such manures should be applied as will add as much as possible to its solidity and consistence, such as marly clay, lime, thoroughly digested dung, graves, or any other unctuous and fertilizing substance which is of little bulk, and which, when reduced to its first principles by decomposition, will not increase the openness and porosity of the soil.

For stronger soils I should recommend, not only semi-digested dung, but dung or litter even in as fresh a state as it could conveniently be applied. Decayed leaves, also, are an excellent manure for strong land; being of very slow dissolution, when once mixed with the soil it is a long time before they permit it to resume its natural tenacity. Lime, also, is beneficially applied to strong as well as light land; being more open in its texture and less adhesive than clay, and less open in its texture and more adhesive than sand, it is applied with equal benefit to soils of either description. I am speaking now merely of its mechanical agency, but of all ameliorating applications to strong land, perhaps sand is the best. The reason is too obvious to insist upon.

Besides a general knowledge of the nature and properties of the manures he employs, the farmer should also be acquainted with the component parts of the soil he intends they should operate upon; otherwise he may be in danger of aggravating its defects, or, at least, wasting his efforts to no purpose.

As a general rule it may be observed, that no mineral manure should be applied to a soil abounding in the same mineral already. As mineral manures appear to operate more by their chemical agency than in any other way, their principal use seems to be to correct and neutralize what is noxious in the original composition of the soil, and to assist in the decomposition of those substances which, in their present state of insolubility, are useless.

For the purpose of preparing fold or stable manure for the field, it has been proposed to manufacture it (if I may so express myself) under covered buildings, with a view of defending it from the influence of the elements. In this there is certainly more of refinement than practical utility. Add to this the inconvenience of having to carry the manure perhaps a mile or two, at a time when, if it were even laid in the very field where it is wanted, the farmer can hardly find time to spread it before the seed ought to be in the ground.

It is needless to dwell upon the expensiveness of this plan. Landlords already find the providing and keeping in repair such buildings as are of unavoidable necessity a tax sufficiently heavy, without incumbering themselves with others, which, perhaps, their tenants would not thank them for.

The most advantageous, and in the end, perhaps the cheapest way, is, to form the dunghill, or compost heap, as near to the field where it is to be used as conveniently may be. It is true, more labour is required in the first instance; but labour is of different value at different seasons. The farmer can better appropriate four days, at some seasons of the year, to the leading his dung from the foldyard to the field, that it may be ready against the time it is wanted, than he can spare one day in the hurry of seed time.

In forming a dunghill, it is of more importance than is commonly imagined to mix a certain portion of soil with it. When dung is formed into a heap by itself, it is exposed on all sides to the rain and to the exhaling influence of the sun and wind; by mixing and covering it with soil, these inconveniences may in a great measure be prevented. But this is not all; a dunghill thrown up in a common way loses, by unavoidable drainage and evaporation, a greater proportion of its fertilizing principles than can be well calculated. What it loses by drainage is, indeed, obvious to the eye; and it is easy to conceive what it must lose by evaporation, by only observing the steam which is perpetually rising from it during its fermentation. But when soil is mixed with it, the drainage is prevented, and the gaseous fluid and volatile alkali, which would otherwise fly off, are prevented from escaping; or, if they quit the dunghill, are absorbed and retained by the soil.

To ascertain how far soil, when only laid upon a dunghill, absorbs and retains those fertilizing principles which would otherwise be lost in the atmosphere, I took from an old hot-bed, which had been employed through the winter in forcing asparagus, as much soil as would fill a trench one foot deep and six feet square. From the same heap of earth whence this soil was taken, but which had been fallow through the winter, I filled another trench of the same dimensions. I planted the two with lettuces, all, as nearly as possible, of equal size and vigour. When full grown, I drew and weighed them. The produce of the first trench was 42 lb.; of the latter, 33 lb. If the increased fertility of soil is so great from merely lying on the surface of a dunghill, what must it be when generally mixed with it? To this it may perhaps be objected, that by mixing soil with dung you impede or retard its fermentation. This, however, ought to be no objection; unless the former is hurried in point of time, as dung cannot ferment too slowly.

In forming a compost heap, the farmer cannot bring together too many or too discordant ingredients, as they will all mutually assist in the decomposition of each other. Amongst other articles, I particularly recommend bones, unless where there is a bone-mill. These should be laid in the middle of the heap, where the fermentation is greatest. When the heap is removed, the bones are to be taken out and put into the next compost heap that may be made, as they will undergo a partial dissolution in every heap which they are put into; each heap will, as far as that dissolution goes, be benefited by them, till at length the bones are totally dissolved.

Before I conclude this essay, it may be necessary to observe, that it has been my endeavour (and in which I am willing to hope I have succeeded) to express myself in such terms as to be intelligible, not only to the theoretical and scientific, but to the mere practical farmer. I have endeavoured also to avoid, as much as possible, indulging in theory and hypothesis. Though the inferences which I have occasionally drawn seem warranted by the facts that have presented themselves, yet are they offered with the greatest diffidence. Sensible of the uncertainty attendant on experiments, liable not only to the influence of latent, and perhaps inscrutable, causes in the element in which they have been tried, but subject also to every variation of the atmosphere, it would have been rashness and presumption to have spoken with absolute decision on points which possibly may yet require many years, if not ages, to determine.

G.
MANCHESTER MEMORIAL, AUGUST, 1807.

(See p. 222.)

To His Grace the Duke of Portland, First Lord, and the other Lords Commissioners of his Majesty’s Treasury.

The Memorial of the undersigned inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood of Manchester,

    Sheweth,—

That the great advantages which have arisen to this country from the increase of its manufactures, and the consequent extension of its commerce, have been chiefly derived from the application of the powers of water and steam to the operations of spinning and weaving, which before were performed by the slow, expensive, and less effectual strength of man.

That the Reverend Edmund Cartwright, D.D., by his various useful inventions to render the process of weaving practicable by the above powers, as well as by his machines for combing wool, and other mechanical inventions for the improvement of British manufactures, has rendered most essential services to this country.

That the continued application of Dr. Cartwright to the discovery and improvement of these inventions, has not only deprived him of the pecuniary advantages which he might have derived from them, but has caused him to expend a large private fortune in bringing to perfection his valuable inventions.

That, under these circumstances, your Memorialists humbly hope that Government will be pleased to reward his important services with some substantial mark of their favour and the gratitude of the country.

H.
LIST OF DR. CARTWRIGHT’S PATENTS.

ERRATA.

T. C. Savill, Printer, 107, St. Martin’s Lane.

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The Itinerary of Antoninus (as far as relates to Britain). The Geographical Tables of Ptolemy, the Notitia, and the Itinerary of Richard of Cirencester, together with a classified Index of the contents of the Archælogia (Vols. i. to xxxi.) are given in an Appendix.

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“Mr. Akerman’s volume contains a notice of every known variety, with copious illustrations, and is published at very moderate price; it should be consulted, not merely for these particular coins, but also for facts most valuable to all who are interested in the Romano-British history.”—Archæological Journal.

Ancient Coins of Cities and Princes, Geographically arranged and described, Hispania, Gallia, Britannia, by J. Y. Akerman, F.S.A., 8vo. with engravings of many hundred coins from actual examples, cloth, 18s

Numismatic Illustrations of the Narrative Portions of the New Testament, fine paper, numerous woodcuts from the original coins in various public and private collections, 1 vol. 8vo. cloth, 5s 6d

Lectures on the Coinage of the Greeks and Romans, delivered in the University of Oxford, by Edward Cardwell, D.D., Principal of St. Alban’s Hall, and Professor of Ancient History, 8vo. cloth, reduced from 8s 6d to 4s

A very interesting historical volume, and written in a pleasing and popular manner.

Essay on the Numismatic History of the Ancient Kingdom of the East Angles, by D. H. Haigh, royal 8vo. 5 plates, containing numerous figures of coins, sewed, 6s

A Hand-Book of English Coins, from the Conquest to Victoria, by L. Jewitt, 12mo. 11 plates, cloth, 1s

Heraldry and Topography.

The Curiosities of Heraldry, with Illustrations from Old English Writers, by Mark Antony Lower, Author of “Essays on English Surnames;” with Illuminated Title-page, and numerous engravings from designs by the Author, 8vo. cloth, gules, appropriately ornamented, or, 14s

“The present volume is truly a worthy sequel (to the ‘Surnames’) in the same curious and antiquarian line, blending with remarkable facts and intelligence, such a fund of amusing anecdote and illustration, that the reader is almost surprised to find that he has learnt so much, whilst he appeared to be pursuing mere entertainment. The text is so pleasing that we scarcely dream of its sterling value; and it seems as if, in unison with the woodcuts, which so cleverly explain its points and adorn its various topics, the whole design were intended for a relaxation from study, rather than an ample exposition of an extraordinary and universal custom, which produced the most important effect upon the minds and habits of mankind.”—Literary Gazette.

“Mr. Lower’s work is both curious and instructive, while the manner of its treatment is so inviting and popular, that the subject to which it refers, which many have hitherto had too good reason to consider meagre and unprofitable, assumes, under the hands of the writer, the novelty of fiction with the importance of historical truth.”—Athenæum.

English Surnames. A Series of Essays on Family Nomenclature, Historical, Etymological, and Humorous; with Chapters on Canting Arms, Rebuses, and the Roll of Battel Abbey, a List of Latinized Surnames, &c. by Mark Antony Lower. The second edition, enlarged, post 8vo. pp. 292, with 20 woodcuts, cloth, 6s

To those who are curious about their patronymic, it will be found a very instructive and amusing volume—mingling wit and pleasantry, with antiquarian research and historical interest.

An Index to the Pedigrees and Arms, contained in the Heralds’ Visitations, in the British Museum, alphabetically arranged in Counties, 8vo. cloth, 10s 6d

An indispensable work to those engaged in Genealogical and Topographical pursuits, affording a ready clue to the Pedigrees and Arms of nearly 20,000 of the Gentry of England, their Residences, &c. (distinguishing the different families of the same name in any county), as recorded by the Heralds in their Visitations between the years 1528 to 1686.

History and Antiquities of the Ancient Port and Town of Rye in Sussex, compiled from Original Documents, by William Holloway, Esq., thick 8vo. only 200 printed, cloth, £1. 1s

Pedigrees of the Nobility and Gentry of Hertfordshire, by William Berry, late and for fifteen years Registering Clerk in the College of Arms, Author of the “Encyclopædia Heraldica,” &c. &c. folio, (only 125 printed), bds. £3. 10s, reduced to £1. 5s

A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England, Ireland and Scotland, by J. Burke, Esq. medium 8vo. Second Edition, 638 closely printed pages, in double columns with about 1000 arms engraved on wood, fine portrait of James I., and illuminated title-page, extra cloth, £1. 8s reduced to 10s

This work, which has engaged the attention of the Authors for several years, comprises nearly a thousand families, many of them amongst the most ancient and eminent in the kingdom, each carried down to its representative or representatives still existing, with elaborate and minute details of the alliances, achievements, and fortunes, generation after generation, from the earliest to the latest period. The work is printed to correspond precisely with the last edition of Mr. Burke’s Dictionary of the Existing Peerage and Baronetage: the armorial hearings are engraved in the best style, and are incorporated with the text as in that work.

History and Antiquities of Dartford in Kent, with Incidental Notices of Places in its Neighbourhood, by J. Dunkin, Author of the “History of the Hundreds of Bullington and Ploughley in Oxfordshire; “History of Bicester;” “History of Bromley,” &c. 8vo. 17 plates, cloth. Only 150 printed, 21s

Historic Sites and other Remarkable and Interesting Places in the County of Suffolk, by John Wodderspoon, with Prefatory Verses by Bernard Barton, Esq., and a Poetical Epilogue by a “Suffolk Villager.” Improved edition, fine woodcuts, post 8vo. pp. 232, closely printed, and containing as much matter as many 12 volumes, cloth, only 4s 6d

History of Banbury, in Oxfordshire, including Copious Historical and Antiquarian Notices of the Neighbourhood, by Alfred Beesley, thick 8vo. 684 closely printed pages, with 60 woodcuts, engraved in the first style of art, by O. Jewitt, of Oxford, (pub. at £1. 5s) now reduced to 14s

“The neighbourhood of Banbury is equally rich in British, Roman, Saxon, Norman, and English Antiquities, of all which Mr. Beesley has given regularly cleared accounts. Banbury holds an important place in the history of the Parliamentary War of the Seventeenth Century, and was the scene of the great Battle of Edgehill, and of the important fight of Cropredy Bridge. Relating to the events of that period, the author has collected a great body of local information of the most interesting kind. By no means the less valuable part of Mr. Beesley’s work, is his account of the numerous interesting early churches, which characterize the Banbury district.”—The Archæologist.

Odd Parts to complete copies, 1s. 6d. instead of 2s. 6d.

History and Antiquities of the Isle of Axholme, in Lincolnshire, by the Venerable Archdeacon Stonehouse, thick 4to. fine plates, reduced from £3. 3s to 18s

The Local Historian’s Table-Book of Remarkable Occurrences, Historical Facts, Traditions, Legendary and Descriptive Ballads, &c. &c. connected with the Counties of Newcastle-on-Tyne, Northumberland, and Durham, by M. A. Richardson, royal 8vo. profusely illustrated with woodcuts, now complete in 8 vols, royal 8vo. cloth, 9s each, or the Divisions sold separately as follows:—

Historical Division, 5 vols. Legendary Division, 3 vols.

The legendary portion will be found very interesting volumes by those who take no interest in the historical one.

Critical Dissertation on Professor Willis’s “Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral,” by C. Sandys, of Canterbury, 8vo. 2s 6d

“Written in no quarrelsome or captious spirit: the highest compliment is paid to Professor Willis, where it is due. But the author has certainly made out a clear case, in all very important instances, of inaccuracies that have led the learned Professor into the construction of serious errors throughout. It may be considered as an indispensable companion to his volume, containing a great deal of extra information of a very curious kind.”—Art-Union.

Bibliotheca Cantiana, a Bibliographical Account of what has been published on the History, Topography, Antiquities, Customs, and Family Genealogy of the County of Kent, with Biographical quotes, notes by John Russell Smith, in a handsome 8vo. volume, pp. 370, with two plates of facsimiles of Autographs of 33 eminent Kentish, Writers, 14s reduced to 5s—large paper, 10s 6d

The History of the Town of Gravesend in Kent, and of the Port of London, by R. P. Cruden, late Mayor of Gravesend, royal 8vo. 37 fine plates and woodcuts, a very handsome volume, cloth, 843, reduced from £1. 8s to 10s

The Visitor’s Guide to Knole House, near Seven Oaks in Kent, with Catalogue of the Pictures contained in the Mansion, a Genealogical History of the Sackville Family, &c. &c. by J. H. Brady, F.R.A.S., 12mo. 27 woodcuts by Bonner, Sly, &c. cloth, 4s 6d. Large Paper, 10s

Illustrations of Knole House, from Drawings by Bonner, Sly, &c. 8vo. 16 plates, with Descriptions, 5s

Greenwich; its History, Antiquities, and Public buildings, by H. S. Richardson, 12mo. fine woodcuts by Baxter, 1s 6d

The Folkestone Fiery Serpent, together with the rumours of the Dovor Mayor; being an Ancient Ballad full of Mystery and pleasant Conceit, now first collected and printed from the various MS. copies in possession of the inhabitants of the South-east coast of Kent, with Notes, 12mo. 1s

A Brief Account of the Parish of Stowting, in Kent, and of the Antiquities lately discovered there, by the Rev. F. Wrench, Rector, 8vo. three folding plates, etched by the Author, sewed, 2s 6d

History of Portsmouth, Portsea, Landport, Southsea, and Gosport, by Henry Slight, Esq. 8vo. Third Edition, bds. 4s

A Hand-Book to Lewes in Sussex, Historical and descriptive, with Notices of the Recent Discoveries at the Priory, by Mark Antony Lower, 12mo. many engravings, cloth, 2s

Chronicles of Pevensey in Sussex, by M. A. Lower, 12mo. woodcuts, 1s

The Archæologist and Journal of Antiquarian Science. Edited by J. O. Halliwell, 8vo. Nos. I. to X. complete, with index, pp. 490. with 19 engravings, cloth, reduced from 10s 6d to 5s 6d

Containing original articles on Architecture, Historical Literature, Round Towers of Ireland, Philology, Bibliography, Topography, Proceedings of the various Antiquarian ties, Retrospective Reviews, and Reviews of recent Antiquarian Works, &c.

Historia Collegii Jesu Cantabrigiensis à J. Shermanno olim praes. ejusdem Collegii. Edita J. O. Halliwell, 8vo. cloth, 2s

History and Antiquities of the Hundred of Compton, Berks, with Dissertations on the Roman Station of Calleva Attrebatum, and the Battle of Ashdown, by W. Hewitt, Jun. 8vo. 18 plates, cloth. Only 250 printed, 15s—reduced to 9s

Newcastle Tracts; Reprints of Rare and Curious Tracts, chiefly illustrative of the History of the Northern Counties; beautifully printed in crown 8vo. on a fine thick paper, with facsimile Titles, and other features characteristic of the originals. Only 100 copies printed, Nos. I. to XLIX. £5. 5s

Purchasers are expected to take the succeeding Tracts as published; the Series is nearly completed.

A Journey to Beresford Hall, in Derbyshire, the Seat of Charles Cotton, Esq. the celebrated Author and Angler, by W. Alexander, F.S.A., F.L.S., late Keeper of the Prints in the British Museum, crown 4to. printed on tinted paper, with a spirited frontispiece, representing Walton and his adopted Son Cotton in the Fishing-house, and vignette title-page, cloth, 5s

Dedicated to the Anglers of Great Britain and the various Walton and Cotton Clubs: only 100 printed.

Biography, Literary History, and Criticism.

A New Life of Shakespeare, founded upon recently discovered Documents, by James Orchard Halliwell, F.R.S., F.S.A., with numerous illustrations of objects never before engraved, from drawings by F. W. Fairholt, F.S.A., in 1 vol. 8vo. cloth, 12s

An Introduction to Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, by J. O. Halliwell, 8vo. cloth (250 printed), 3s

An Account of the only known Manuscript of Shakspeare’s Plays, comprising some important variations and corrections in the Merry Wives of Windsor, obtained from a Playhouse copy of that Play recently discovered, by J. O. Halliwell, 8vo. sewed, 1s

On the Character of Falstaff, as originally exhibited by Shakespeare in the two parts of King Henry IV., by J. O. Halliwell, 12mo. cloth, (only 100 printed,) 2s

Shakesperiana, a Catalogue of the Early Editions of Shakespeare’s Plays, and of the Commentaries and other Publications illustrative of his Works, by J. O. Halliwell, 8vo. cloth, 3s

“Indispensable to everybody who wishes to carry on any inquiries connected with Shakespeare, or who may have a fancy for Shakespearian Bibliography.”—Spectator.

England’s Worthies, under whom all the Civil and Bloody Warres, since Anno 1642 to Anno 1647, are related, by John Vicars, Author of “England’s Parliamentary Chronicle,” &c. &c. royal 12mo. reprinted in the old style, (similar to Lady Willoughby’s Diary,) with copies of the 18 rare portraits after Hollar, &c. half morocco, 5s

Copies of the original edition have been sold from £16 to £20.

The portraits comprise, Robert, Earl of Essex; Robert, Earl of Warwick; Lord Montagu, Earl of Denbigh, Earl of Stamford, David Lesley, General Fairfax, Sir Thomas Fairfax, O. Cromwell, Skippon, Colonel Massey, Sir W. Brereton, Sir W. Waller, Colonel Langhorne, General Poyntz, Sir Thos. Middleton, General Brown, and General Mitton.

Autobiography of Joseph Lister, of Bradford, in Yorkshire, to which is added a contemporary account of the Defence of Bradford, and Capture of Leeds by the Parliamentarians in 1642, edited by Thomas Wright, 8vo. only 250 copies printed, cloth, 4s

Love Letters of Mrs. Piozzi, written when she was Eighty, to the handsome Actor, William Augustus Conway, aged Twenty-seven, 8vo. sewed, 2s

“——written at three, four, and five o’clock (in the morning) by an Octogenary pen, a heart (as Mrs. Lee says) twenty-six years old, and as H. L. P. feels it to be, all your own.”—Letter V. 3rd Feb. 1820.

Collection of Letters on Scientific Subjects, illustrative of the Progress of Science in England temp. Elizabeth to Charles II. edited by J. O. Halliwell, 8vo. cloth, 3s

Comprising letters of Digges, Dee, Tycho Brahe, Lower, Harriott, Lydyat, Sir W. Atty, Sir C. Cavendish, Brancker, Pell, &c.; also the autobiography of Sir Samuel Irland, from a MS. in Lambeth Palace, Nat. Tarpoley’s Corrector Analyticus, &c. at the Subscribers £1.

A Rot among the Bishops; or a Terrible Tempest in the Sea of Canterbury, set forth in lively emblems to please the judicious Reader, by Thomas Stirry, 1641, 18mo. (a satire on Abp. Laud,) four very curious woodcut emblems, cloth, 3s

A facsimile of the very rare original edition, which sold at Bindley’s sale for £13.

Bibliotheca Madrigaliana.—A Bibliographical Account of the Musical and Poetical Works published in England during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, under the titles of Madrigals, Ballets, Ayres, Canzonets, &c. &c. by Edward F. Rimbault, LL.D., F.S.A., 8vo. cloth, 5s

It records a class of books left undescribed by Ames, Herbert, and Dibdin, and finishes a most valuable Catalogue of the Lyrical Poetry of the age to which it refers.

Who was “Jack Wilson” the Singer of Shakespeare’s Stage? An attempt to prove the identity of this person with John Wilson, Dr. of Musick in the University of Oxford, a.d. 1644, by E. F. Rimbault, LL.D. 8vo. 1s

Popular Poetry, Stories, and Superstitions.

The Nursery Rhymes of England, collected chiefly from Oral Tradition, edited by J. O. Halliwell. The Fourth Edition, enlarged, with 38 Designs by W. B. Scott, Director of the School of Design, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 12mo. in very richly illuminated cloth, gilt leaves, 4s 6d

“Illustrations! And here they are; clever pictures, which the three-year olds understand before their A, B, C, and which the fifty-three-year olds like almost as well as the Times.”—Literary Gazette.

“We are persuaded that the very rudest of these jingles, tales, and rhymes, possess strong imagination-nourishing power; and that in infancy and early childhood an inkling of ancient nursery lore is worth whole cartloads of the wise saws and modern stances which are now as duly and carefully concocted by experienced litterateurs, into instructive tales for the spelling public, as are works of entertainment for the reading public. The work is worthy of the attention of the popular antiquary.”—Tait’s Mag.

Wonderful Discovery of the Witchcrafts of Margaret and Joan Flower, daughters of Philip Flower, near Bever (Belvoir), executed at Lincoln for confessing themselves actors in the destruction of Lord Rosse, son of the Earl of Rutland, 1618, 8vo. 1s

One of the most extraordinary cases of Witchcraft on record.

Saint Patrick’s Purgatory; an Essay on the Legends of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, current during the Middle Ages by Thomas Wright, M.A., F.S.A., &c. post 8vo. cloth, 6s

“It must be observed that this is not a mere account of St. Patrick’s Purgatory, but a complete history of the legends and superstitions relating to the subject, from the earliest times, rescued from old MSS. as well as from old printed books. Moreover, it embraces a singular chapter of literary history, omitted by Warton and all former writers with whom we are acquainted; and we think we may add, that it forms the best introduction to Dante that has yet been published.”—Literary Gazette.

“This appears to be a curious and even amusing book on the singular subject of Purgatory, in which the idle and fearful dreams of superstition are shown to be first narrated as tales, and then applied as means of deducing the moral character of the age in which they prevailed.”—Spectator.

Trial of the Witches at Bury St. Edmunds, before Sir M. Hale, 1664, with an Appendix by Charles Clark, of Totham, Essex, 8vo. 1s

“The most perfect narrative of anything of this nature hitherto extant.”—Preface.

Account of the Trial, Confession, and Condemnation of Six Witches at Maidstone, 1652; also the Trial and Execution of Three others at Faversham, 1645, 8vo. 1s

These Transactions are unnoticed by all Kentish historians.

An Essay on the Archæology of our Popular Phrases and Nursery Rhymes, by H. B. Ker, 2 vols. 12mo. new cloth, 4s (pub. at 12s)

A work which has met with great abuse among the reviewers, but those who are fond of philological pursuits will read it now it is to be had at so very moderate a price, and it really contains a good deal of gossiping matter. The author’s attempt is to explain every thing from the Dutch, which he believes was the same language as the Anglo-Saxon.

The Merry Tales of the Wise Men of Gotham, edited by James Orchard Halliwell, Esq. F.S.A., post 8vo. 1s

Miscellanies.

Illustrations of Eating, displaying the Omnivorous Character of Man, and exhibiting the Natives of various Countries at feeding-time, by a Beef-Eater, fcap. 8vo. with woodcuts, 2s

Elements of Naval Architecture, being a Translation of the third part of Clairbois’ “Traité Elémentairé de la Construction des Vaisseaux,” by J. N. Strange, Commander, R.N., 8vo. with 5 large folding plates, cloth, 5s

Poems, partly of Rural Life (in National English) by William Barnes, Author of “Poems in the Dorset Dialect,” 12mo cloth, 5s

Waifs and Strays (a Collection of Poetry), 12mo only 250 printed, chiefly for presents, sewed, 1s 6d

Book in the Press.

Facts and Speculations on the History of Playing Cards in Europe, by W. A. Chatto, Author of the ‘History of Wood Engraving, with Illustrations by J. Jackson,’ 8vo. profusely illustrated with engravings, both plain and coloured.

G. NORMAN, PRINTER, MAIDEN LANE, COVENT GARDEN.

TRANSCRIBER NOTES

Misspelled words and printer errors have been corrected. Where multiple spellings occur, majority use has been employed.

Punctuation has been maintained except where obvious printer errors occur.

Some illustrations were moved to facilitate page layout.

A cover was created for this eBook and is placed in the public domain.

[The end of A memoir of the life, writings, and mechanical inventions of Edmund Cartwright by Jane Margaret Strickland]