318
The profit here supposed to be made, is merely an assuuip.tion. In establishments of this kind, it varies much. The a-mount of the whole transactions exceeding sixty thousand poundsSterling ; a small rise or fall in the market,' either on the raw orfinished material; the judgment, propriety, and economy exer-cised in the various departments ; the good construction and or-der of the machinery, as well as other contingent circumstances,■will have considerable effect in producing either loss or gain. Awheel, and supply of water for it, equal to twenty horses’ pow-er, will, in many situations, cost much less than a steam-engine;but, if thirty miles of land-carriage is incurred, to transportnearly two tons of wool from market, and return as much yamweekly, the expense of men and horses, and other incidentalcharges, arising partly from local distance, the difference willnot be so much in favour of the water-wheel, as at first sight itmay appear. The difficulty of procuring lodgings, and feed-ing work-people in remote situations, is further to be added tothe amount, independent of the capital sunk in buildings; al-though, on the other hand, something additional may be put int.he scale, for the advantages resulting to the employer from hiswork-people living in a rural district, where most waterfalls are,and secluded from temptations, of various sorts, to which atown life subjects them.
Additional Particulars regarding the Cotton Mamifactures ofScotland .
In the sketch that has been given of the cotton spinning ofScotland , almost all that is necessary to state, on the comparisonof water and steam, as artificial moving powers in that country,has been done. Indeed the remarks will apply, with nearly e-qual force, to the seats of this and most other manufactures inEngland. Abundance of fuel has now fixed them in Yorkshire ,Lancashire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire , See. ; and thecataracts of Cumberland, Wales, Cornwall, and Derbyshire , arelittle regarded.
From the preparation of cotton wool, until it arrives at thestate of yarn, we now proceed to its fabrication into cloth.
Previous to the invention of the spinning machinery, no at-tempt was made to employ cotton yarn into any thing but wefts.When this invention had acquired that degree of practical ma-turity, as to produce cotton-twist, of sufficient strength to en-dure the fatigue of weaving, as warps; cloths for printing, whol-ly of cotton, began to be woven at Blackburn in Lancashire .This was about the year 1772 ; and, not long afterwards, a simi-lar manufacture was successfully attempted in Scotland . Thesecloths received the Indian appellation of Calicoes.
As the quality and fineness of cotton-twist for warps were im-proved, almost every variety of cloth manufactured in the ex-tensive districts of Hir.dostan, were successiuUv imitated; and