COTTON-SPINNING 
ap as a barber, and does not appear to have had either the AD Lee 
technical acquaintance with the cotton trade, or the mechani- 
cal skill, which might be expected in a great inventor. Still 
he possessed such business ability as to inspire the confidence through the 
of wealthy patrons, who supplied him with the necessary which 
funds’, “By adopting various inventors’ ideas he completed Li righ 
a series of machines for carding and roving. He was enabled successful. 
50 do this the more easily by having the command of a large 
capital. The inventors of the improvements had not the 
means of carrying them into effect on an extensive scale; 
shey found the game, but from want of capital were unable to 
secure it, whilst Mr Arkwright by availing himself of their 
inventions and by inducing ‘men of property to engage with 
him to a large amount’ reaped all the advantages and 
obtained all the rewards?” ; and he succeeded in rendering 
the ideas of other men a practical success. Roller-spinning 
had been patented by Lewis Paul in 1738, but his rights 
1ad expired. The same principle was applied by Thomas 
Highs in the waterframe*, which was the basis on which 
Arkwright worked. He set up a spinning-mill with horse- 
power® at Nottingham in 1771, and afterwards made use of 
water power in his mill at Cromford, in Derbyshire. In 
1775 he obtained a patent, which embraced the inventions of 
Lewis Paul and others. Arkwright's exclusive claims were though he 
ignored by other manufacturers, and he had recourse to the Jailed to. 
sourts to enforce them; but finally, in the action which he 2s linge 
brought against Colonel Mordaunt, Arkwright failed to main- 
sain his alleged rights®; and his appeal to the public, entitled 
The Case of Mr Richard Arkwright, did not create the 
t He had expended £12,000 on the enterprise before he began to make 
any profit. 
2 R. Guest, History of the Cotton Manufacture, 27. 
8 B. Woodcroft, Brief Biographies, p. 8. This machine was apparently 
smployed for spinning fine wool as well as cotton. Dyer, The Fleece, bk. mr. in 
Anderson Poets, Vol. x. p. 569, 571. 
4 Guest, Compendious History of the Cotton Manufacture, 18. A model of 
‘his machine was made by John Kay the watchmaker and was exhibited by 
Arkwright in asking for assistance to prosecute his enterprise. Woodcroft, 
ap. cit. 10. 
¥ Baines, Cotton Manufacture, 186. 
3 The evidence is discussed at some length by Guest, British Cotton Manu- 
factures, a reply to an article in the Edinburgh Review (1828), 17. 
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