POWER LOOMS

[Stanley]

POWER LOOMS

You’ve done it again Young Regan! Brew the coffee and read on……

Start from the point where you understand that in the early days of the industry from roughly the mid 18th century onwards the capital holders in the industry round here were the families who put raw cotton out to the Domestic Industry. Most of the staple was issued to the cottagers as raw staple and the vast majority of the processing, cleaning, carding, spinning and weaving was done in the cottages. Notice that I said staple, it could be either flax (linen), silk, wool or cotton. The later we look at in NE Lancashire, the greater the proportion of cotton. The large cotton imports didn’t start through Liverpool until c.1800. The shorthand here is that those dealing in wool were ‘clothiers’ and those in cotton were ‘manufacturers’.

All these masters had one problem in common, matching production to demand. As the demand increased this problem worsened and triggered innovation as mechanics recognised the problems and strove to produce more efficient machinery. Lack of efficient machinery wasn’t the only problem, most cottagers worked the land and in haytime or harvest the crop took precedence and production fell. If trade was good and returns to the cottagers high, in the absence of a consumer economy the cottagers took time off, St Monday was the bane of the manufacturers. Quality control was difficult and there was the ever-present problem of embezzlement of yarn, the ‘rong’ trade.

These pressures meant that the manufacturers were on the look out for any improved machinery that they could use in a central location, under one roof, where they could lock the workers in and control them, in other words, the factory system. In practical terms, from 1700 to 1820 this meant water power. Other power was used in the early days like horse engines and even ‘Irishmen’ turning a wheel in the cellar.

He only name that most people recognise in this context is Arkwright but he was simply the man who took the available technology and made it work. From 1750 onwards crude engines for cleaning (the Willow) carding and spinning were invented and used. Many of the early mills started with this technology long before Arkwright arrived on the scene. The focus of this innovation was on the ‘bottlenecks’ in the process. Cleaning and carding were attacked first and by c.1770 there were many small water-powered cotton mills engaged in this process. Once clean staple had been cracked the bottleneck shifted to twist and yarn. Improvements were made to the hand powered jenny and manufacturers like Peel had ‘Jenny shops’. The next innovation suitable for water power was the throstle, a crude continuous spinning process but producing a weak yarn unsuitable for warp threads which had to be strong to withstand the weaving process in the loom. By 1780/90 the Arkwright patents had been overturned and the water frame became standard kit, its great advantage was that it could produce warp yarn as well as weft twist. This technological explosion moved the bottleneck to weaving.

The search for a power loom was long and fraught with difficulty. Men had been chasing it many years. The usual prime inventor is usually cited as the Reverend Cartwright, an amateur who heard some manufacturers talking and decided to solve the problem. The usual date accepted is that his looms were in use by 1785 but they were not a commercial success. It was Richard Roberts who made the greatest contribution. He was a general engineer interested in many fields and realised that the growing textile industry was a great market. In 1821 he improved Avery Wilkinson’s reed making machine and in 1822 started production of a high speed power loom that was so successful that by 1825 he was making 4000 a year. In 1825 he patented his greatest invention, the self-acting mule which was also a great success.

As for the switch from water to steam power, a crude rotative engine was available from the late 1770s but was unsuccessful. Far more successful was the use of the steam pumping engine (non-rotative) to return water from below the wheel to the mill pond above. In 1788 Boulton and Watt cracked the problem with the condensing engine and the crank. Due to a stupid glitch in the patent system when a button maker patented the crank they had to use the sun and planet motion instead of a plain crank but this was soon sorted out and the rotative engine became the beam engine we all recognise. Once there was a rotative engine the power could be put straight onto a shaft to drive machinery in the mill. For many years such engines were used in conjunction with a water wheel and used to govern the speed. Some mills were using this system by 1790 but by c.1810 the purely steam powered factory was a reality.

So, the answer to the question! Would there have been any powered looms in the mill before then? (1861) Yes, certainly. Powered looms were possible from c.1790 onwards but not commercially viable. It’s almost certain that manufacturers would be trying them out. Roberts’ power loom (1825) opened the flood gates and the last bottleneck was conquered. Many weaving sheds were powered solely by water power. Old Coates in Barlick was certainly weaving using water c.1830 onwards and later installed an engine as well. The first definite date for an engine in Barlick is 1827 at Clough and as this was an insurance policy date, could have been installed before then. In 1845 Bracewell built Butts mill as a combined spinning and weaving mill powered solely by steam. I have found PLWs in the 1841 census in Barlick.

One final complication, don’t assume that because technology was available it was immediately taken up. There is a powerful economic force called inertia. In other words, once an investment has been made it is difficult to discard it for something new. So Mills like Roughlee, who were making a profit using old technology would tend to stick with it. New mills like Butts would start with the most modern machinery obtainable. So, the pockets of resistance to change would have been in the old water powered mills that had been established for years.

SCG/13/03/06