Fig. 1 is a plan, and fig. 2 is an end view of the machine for constructing the screw.

AA is the cast-iron bar, upon which the die-frame, B B, is made to move. cccc, two strong springs, attached to the die-frame, having rollers, d d d d, in each end, moving upon the angular parallel edges of the bar, A A. E, a small frame for holding the cutter; the cover being removed to show the action of the cutter upon the steel cylinder, of which the screw is to be made. F, the steel cylinder; the point of the cutter, (which must be adjusted to an angle, varying according to the pitch of thread wanted,) is seen projecting from the frame E, being pressed forward by the screw G. One end of the cylinder F, acts upon the centre in the head-stock I. The journal upon the other end of the cylinder, works into the steel collar V. kkkk, four small screws for pressing forward the springs cccc. illl, four small eyes in the dieframe, to which cords are attached, passing over the pulleys m m m m; weights being hooked on at the other ends of the cords, sufficient to overcome the friction of the dieframe. N, the handle to turn the cylinder.

In beginning to make the screw, the two weights to the left are hooked on to the ends of the cords, and the cylinder is turned round by the handle, until the cutter traverses the length of the cylinder, when the weights are removed to the cords on the right hand. By continuing this operation alternately from right to left, an original and perfect screw is produced, as exhibited in fig. 3. In the end view of the machine, fig. 2, o o represents one of the feet by which it is fastened to a bench.

The same letters refer to the same

parts of the machine in both figures where those parts are exhibited.

Having obtained, as already described, one screwed cylinder; this is removed, and another of the same size is put into the machine. The same operation is performed on it as on the last; but it is not screwed to a full thread, the sharp cutter being removed when the spaces and threads are of an equal size, and a square cutter is put in its place, by means of which is obtained, what is technically termed a square thread, as shown in fig. 4. In the same manner, a third, and a fourth cylinder are screwed, each being successively a degree smaller than the preceding. The small frame holding the cutter is now removed, and replaced with dies, a set of which is to be screwed with each of the above cylinders. When the dies are to bu screwed, they are placed in the dieframe with one of the cylinders already made, and pressed against it by the screws Gg, until they are fully screwed. After this, they are replaced with another cylinder, and another set of dies, which are likewise to be screwed. The same operation is performed with a third and a fourth set; (the first set of dies only, having a sharp thread, the other set having square threads,) after which they are to be tempered. The headstock is now removed to the left, to admit the cylinder of which the perfect screw is to be formed, and fastened at any required distance, the machine being constructed to cut a screw above three feet in length. The cylinder being placed between the sharp dies, which are gently pressed by the screws Gg, is turned round by the handle, until the die-frame reaches the left hand of the cylinder; it is then turned in the contrary way, and

is melancholy to relate that this ingenious man died soon afterwards, in great misery. While Hargreave was encountering poverty and persecution, Arkwright was making trials to change the process of spinning then in use, but from his want of mechanical skill, had great difficulties in getting any machine, or combination of machinery, to answer the idea he had formed in his mind. It was long after this period before his plans were brought into practice; and, indeed, it is confidently asserted that he borrowed his inventions from others. We shall briefly state the substance of the allegations brought against his originality.

In the year 1767, Arkwright had given up his business as a barber, and was travelling through the country for the purpose of buying hair. He came to Warrington, formed an intimacy with a watch-maker named John Kay, and showed some plan of his towards obtaining perpetual motion. Kay ridiculed his idea, and told him that his ingenuity might be better employed in finding out some method of spinning to supersede the common one-thread wheel. Kay had formerly been employed to make a spinning-engine for a Mr. Hayes, and the knowledge he had acquired by this means he communicated to Arkwright. The mechanical knowledge of the latter was but slender, while Kay, as might be presumed from his business as a watch-maker, was well acquainted with machinery and mechanical combinations. Kay and Arkwright made a machine in conjunction; but the merit of the first suggestion of the principle, it is said, is attributable to Kay.

Such is the account that ascribes the invention to Kay, and merely the im provement of the machinery to Arkwright. But it must be observed, in the first place, that the machine which Kay constructed for Mr. Hayes did not succeed; and it is well-known that many others besides Hayes were at this time engaged in making experiments to change. the mode of spinning. The carding engine had lately been introduced, and the necessity of expediting the process of spinning had led to all sorts of mechanical experiments:-but all these were uniformly unsuccessful. If Arkwright borrowed his notions from another, it is singular that he should have been engaged for so many years afterwards in bringing his improvement to any degree

of perfection. Had Kay's communication been at all important, it is highly unlikely that Arkwright would have had so many difficulties to encounter in bringing his machine into practical operation; nor would he have required so much pecuniary aid, nor so much important information from skilful mechanics, as we know that he received. From the time that Mr. Arkwright began his experiments on spinning, till he brought his machinery to perfection, five years elapsed, and he expended more than twenty thousand pounds, without receiving any return. This money was, of course, advanced by others, by those who had confidence in his integrity, as well as his talents;-his rivals (as usual) reproached him in after life with having made his fortune by means of borrowed capital, and employed against him all those invidious reflections that are aimed at those whose success raises them above the dead level of mediocrity.

Mr. Arkwright now entered into partInership with Mr. Smalley of Preston, (his native place;) but, as occurred to the unfortunate Hargreave, the spinners rose to put down their machinery-their establishment was ruined, and they were both forced to remove to Nottingham. At this place he persuaded two bankers: of the name of Wright, to advance him considerable sums for the purpose of bringing his machinery to perfection. But when they found the advances. becoming heavier than they had antici`pated, and the success doubtful, they advised him to get Mr. Need, an eminent stocking manufacturer, to take their interest in his establishment off their hands, When Mr. Need was applied to, he referred Arkwright to his partner, Mr. Shute, and said he would be guided by his opinion of the utility of the improvement. Shute was a man of great mechanical skill: he saw at a glance the advantages of the proposed plan, and the facility with which any of its remaining defects might be obviated. The advances of the Messrs. Wrights were repaid to them, and Messrs. Shute and Need entered into partnership with Mr. Arkwright, for the purpose of spinning cotton with rollers. He took out a patent for his spinning frame in 1769, and erected a mill at Nottingham to be set in motion by horses. In 1771, at Cromford, in: Derbyshire, he erected another mill to be moved by water...

The spinning frame has justly been

held to be a wonderful invention. It has nothing in common with the spinning wheel, except that it performs the same process. The machinery for drawing and spinning the cotton was his grandest conception-all his subsequent inventions, though of great importance, did not require the same originality of mind, as they were rather improvements and combinations of his former invention than new ideas. It is said that Arkwright obtained the first idea of his improvements from seeing the action of the common rolling mill in iron-works, and conceived that a system of rollers might be so adapted as to perform the operations of spinning. It is certain

that the first patent he obtained, was for the improvement he called the water spinning frame, and that upon the principles of this machine all his subsequent improvements were founded.

While Mr. Arkwright was beginning to enjoy some of the benefits of his inventions, his patent was contested in 1772, on the ground that his improvements were not original; every effort of malice and envy was exerted to resist his rights; but he prevailed over all opposition, and from this time henceforth, this patent was no more disputed. He made farther improvements in the machinery for preparing cotton, and brought his whole spinning frame to its highest state of perfection in 1775; but the patent he took out was again disputed; and, after a litigation of several years, his rights were set aside, under the pretext that all the mechanical applications combined with it were not original-and his patent was cancelled in the year 1785.

Though his patent was cancelled, Mr. Arkwright now enjoyed the full tide of prosperity. Wealth flowed profusely into his lap; and, if his first difficulties were many, his final success was cheering. He was for a short time in partnership with David Dale, Esq. of the Lanark Cotton Mills. His spinning machines were spreading over the kingdom, and he received an annual sum-the tribute of invention it might be called-for each spindle employed. His success raised him enemies, whom his irritability of temper did not tend to conciliate; while his competitors in the struggle for wealth meanly taunted him with the lowness of his original station, and thereby showed that they would never

have emerged from obscurity had such been their lot. It was in allusion to his original occupation, and to his connection with Mr. Dale, that he is reported to have said of his enemies-that "he would put his razor into the hands of a Scotchman who would shave them all." He was particularly friendly to Scotchmen, and gave them free access to his establishments.

The improvements introduced by Watt into the steam engine, now rendered it of primary importance in giving motion to machinery, and the benefit of Arkwright's inventions were soon rapidly extended by its application to cotton spinning. The first steam engine erected by Boulton and Watt, for Arkwright, was in the year 1790, at Cromford, in Derbyshire.

We have little interesting to relate concerning the remaining incidents of the life of Arkwright. On the 22d December, 1786, he received the honour of Knighthood, on presenting an address to his Majesty from the Sheriff and Hundred of Wicksworth. He died at his seat at Cromford, in Derbyshire, on the 3d August, 1792.

Sir Richard Arkwright was of a hasty and capricious temper; and, though a man of great powers of mind, he could never entirely shake off the rude habits of early life, nor adopt the sentiments which befitted the rank to which his talents had raised him. The benefit which England has derived from his improvements may be conceived, when we look back to the rudeness and infancy of the cotton manufacture fifty years ago; and, when we find, that at the present moment, next to agriculture, it is the most important and most extensive occupation in which the inhabitants of this country are engaged. The value of the cotton goods manufactured in Great Britain amounts to the enormous sum of forty millions a-year, twenty millions of which are exported. Nearly six millions' worth of cotton goods are annually manufactured in this city and neighbourhood. Every country in Europe has participated in the benefit of the spinning frame. In fact, the extension of the cotton manufacture that has been accomplished by Arkwright and his successors, is an incident altogether unprecedented in the history of commerce.

Glasgow, 17th July, 1824.

Y.