59
�
�
ing them elves atisfie
d
�
w th the three trials
-
�f
the
engines without any attachment, except the clothing
on the cylinders and side pipes.
It will be noticed that these experiments prove that
there is a saving of fuel in using high-pressure steam
I so great to s�e the work going on, th�t �y fa�her sat
I
low-pressure steam in the same manner.
1
�;. �
I
could make a likeness of nearly every piece of that
Although
youth.
of
After
Smith
had
later came out
�vith
· '
Mo
� ��
Brown, to
Illy
finished
I forged the iron work, and turned
ing Machines.
the rollers and spindles, in part.
tonal allowed for their trials was not sufficient to ' tooth, at one operation.
When the card rims and wheels were
wanting, I went with Slater to Mamfield, Massachu­
the people in the shop that he could make a machine
surface condenser, the report says that the short in- "to make the tooth, prick the leather, and bet the
All the turning
was done with hand tools, and by hand power, with
the
machine, so as to make a perfect card tooth, he told crank wheels.
no swing of fuel was experienced by the use of the
·
Water Frame, and Breaker, and two Finishers, Card­
machine-so durable are the first impressions on the
mind
·
while he _ father's at Pawtucket, to commence an Arkwright
on
At this time, seventy years afterward, I
worked.
with using
and working expansively, as compared
to look
me on Mr. Smith's bench,
·
setts, to a furnace owned by a French gentleman,
named Dauby, who came I think with Lafayett's
boilers, in place of dirty water from the river which is
Jeremiah Wilkinson carried on the business of army, who has a son and one daughter now living in
making hand cards for carding sheep's wool, and i t Utica and Auburn. The card rims broke in cooling.
being difficult to import wire, he drew the wire out 1I1r. Slater said the iron shrunk more than the En­
charged with carbonate of lime and forms incrusta-
by horse power.
in
deter::aine the extent of economy
using surface
condensers, by which clean water is obtained for the
glishiron.
In 1784 or '5, my father put the anchor �hop in
tions.
operation, at Pawtucket Falls on she
A peculiar result, and one not accounted for in
Blackstone carried one way, and when the hub cooled would re­
turn, and leave the wheel not divided against itself­
river, in North Providence, Rhode Island.
this report, has also been obtained in working these
Hold him we would make a crooked arm,
that would let the rim move round-the arms being
Cincinn�ti engines. It is this: the power required to
About this time, I heard of cotton yarn being made
which proves a remedy in all cases, if the arms are
lift the water is not proportioned to the varying
in or near East Greenwich, in which John Reynolds
made the width the right way, to let the curve spring
The report says on this head,
and James Macarris, who employed a Mr. Mackwire,
"It appears that in elevating water some 27 feet
or Maguire, to make yarn on a jenny, for which I
hights of the water.
higher than at lower stages of the river
I
forged and ground spindles.
than was
made a small machine
done at these trials, the indicated power to overcome
to grind with, which had a roll�r of wood to roll on
the additional head was increased only three per
the stone, which turned the spindle against the stoue,
and so ground the steel spindles perfectly.
cent, while the difference of lift was some sixteen per
vVe wish they
family, than by labor.
I heard
the
About
year
1786·7,
my
father bought the
machinery for c u tting iron bcrewe,
called
the fly
screws, for pressing paper-of Israel Wilkinson, of
Smithfield, the son of Israel who built the Hope fur­
About this time also, a number of gentlemen in nace for the Browns and othera-and with the help of
are called" comlJination engines," but their peculiarities are not described.
I told him
cast iron broke more often by division in its own
of no other machines for carding cotton.
The hydraulic motors at Cincinnati
cent greater."
easy, with sufficient strength of iron.
the town of Providence, commenced some machinery
had been
a
Mr. Crabb, who was employed by the Browns, John,
Joseph, Nicholas ani l\Ioses, in building the sperm
Andrew Dexter, merchant, the
for working cotton.
worked at full stroke during these trials, when the
on
what
is
now
called
India
S. Newton Dexter, of Oriskany, Oneidil.
candle
works,
whether any gain was obtained by expansion at the
county, N. Y; Aaron Mann, father of Samuel F.
Point.
They used a screw of cast iron, about seven
Mr. Shield, may at
Mann, of Providence; Lewis Peck, merchant; Daniel
inches in diameter, and five or six feet long, which
highest pressure was carried
The engineer,
same pressure.
father of
in order to ascertain
was cut by setting it upright, with a wooden guide
some future time favor the public with a record of Anthony, and I think Moses Brown, of Providence,
were aiding in the
such experiments.
work.
My father was applied to,
screw, which was connected with an iron socket, with
to make iron work for a machine for carding cotton,
a mortise to hold the cutter, which was fastened with
which was done by the help of a carpenter, named
an iron wedge.
INTERESTING REMINISCENCES,
After Wilkinson had
Joshua Lindley, and a brass founder, named Daniel
D,wid Wilkinson s Account of the first Cut Katls
e ver
'
made-The Beginning of the Cotton Manufacture in this idence.
The
circles, or rims, were made
card
finished the candle works,
with Mr. Crabb, he put in operation works for mak­
Jackson, father of Samuel and John Jackson, of Prov-
ing scr�ws, in Smithfield, and cut in the same man­
of
'I'he
ner as the English plan, brought over by Mr. Crabb.
Ste a mboat in 1791-"!lachineryfor the FIrSt C\mal, and card was put in operation in the Market House cham-
The old man (old Israel Wilkinson), went to differ­
ber, in Providence, and was turned by a colored man,
ent furnaces ill Massachusetts, to mold his screws.
named Prince Hopkins, who had lost one leg, and I
There were no molders who would undertake it.
think one arm, in tlullivan's expedition at Newport,
father had once seen old Israel Wilkinson mold one
Country-The
first
Leather Belts-Proposal for a
wrought iron, as there was no furnace near.
many other C'uri()/1s lJlalters.
The following letter WilS contributed by the Hev·
Dr. Taft,
of Pawtucket, R. I., to a committee of the
Hhode Island
Society,
screw, and, after he had bought these old tools of
The cotton was taken from the
a few years before.
for the Encouragement of
My
Domestic Industry, who were appointed to collect in­
card in rolls about eighteen inches long, and carried
young Israel, as he was called, and at a time when he
formation in
one mile from town to Moses Brown'A, where it was
wanted some molding done, he took me (then about
made into roping, by a young woman in Mr. Brown's
fifteen years old) into his chaise alld carried me to
employ, named Amey Lawrence.
Hope furnace, about fourteen miles from Providence,
reLLtion
to the introduction of the
power loom into this country.
We doubt not that it
will be read with great interest ;-
About this time, too, Daniel Anthony made a trip to , in Scituate, to mold a paper-mill screw, as they had
Autumn, 1846.
In April, 1776, Eleazer Smith, who had been at Bridgewater, and returning said he had some parts of: no molder at their furnace who would undertake to
I
work for Jeremiah IVilkinson, Jr., a Quaker of Cum­
a
berland, came to my father's blacksmith shop, which
which was commenced by a European, in the employ i or seen a thing molded , in my life.
was
of
making
scythe�, in the
town of Cumberland,
machine, called
the
Water
Frame,
mold one.
I had never seen a fmnace in operation,
about a month.
He soon had one under way
in Providence, which was made and finished in Paw-
dred
going into the card-making business.
tucket, and put in operation there, by Anthony's
holes
Smith told my father of .Jeremiah Wilkinson's making
two sons, Joseph and Richard, assisted occasionally,
dried-clay molds, hooped
card tacks of cold iron.
by two other sons, Daniel and William.
In laying the strip of leather
pounds each-were
five-inch top,
seven inches diameter.
The rollers bands.
I stayed there
The screws weighed about five hun­
teeth, fur Daniel Anthony, of Providence, who was
While at work,
I molded three
or four screws before I left for home.
Colonel Orr, of Bridgewater, and given up, or the
few parts thrown by.
Rhode Island, to make a machine to manufacture card
Arkwright
They
with
cross
were cast in
and strapped
with iron
I took the screws home to Pawtucket and
'1hey were made for
around the hand card , he lacked four large tacks to
were made of half-inch wrought iron, with swells of cut and finished them there.
hold the corners in place, while dliving the tacks
brass cast on, and fluted with files. The bobbin: Hudson & Goodwin, of New York, and LazarusBeach,
'
which receiv�d the yarn from the spindle was made of Danbury, Connecticut. vVe made many screws of
around the outer edge.
He took a plate of au old
door lock off the floor, cut four points with shears,
I
!
and made heads in the vice; but afterward made a
with a score in the bottom, to receive a cross cat-gd wrought iron fur clothiers' presses, and oil mills
'
twine, with a tightening wooden thumb screw, like but they were imperfect, and I told my father I want­
steel bow with 8cores in it, and put it in the vice, and
a violin, to regulate the taking up-which Mr. Sla-
ed to make a machine to cut screws on centers, which
in that way made tacks.
ter performed in his first water frames, by making a
would make them more perfect.
I think in 1777, my f'lther made a small pinch
wide flat bottom to the bobbin, set on a wooden commence one.
press, with different-sized impressions, placed on all
c10th washer, to regulate the taking up, as the fric-
oak log,
tion would increase by
with a stirrup for the foot,
and
sat
me
astraddle on the log, to heading nails, which were
cut with common shears.
plates drawn by trip hammer.
and needed more friction.
(llfr. Slater ran hi� first i to our knowledge, for Samuel Slater's old factory.
machinery by rope bands, for his carding m�chines,
This was the com­
roping and drawing, as the use of belts was not then
mencement, in the world, of making nails from cold
known in this country.
iron.
heard of were made by John Blackburn, when he was
I think about 18:20, I went to Cu mberland, with
furnace, or reverberatory, for casting iron, in which
weight as the bobbin filled, , were cast the first wing-gudgeons known in America,
off the
He cnts the points
He told me I might
My father, in 1791, built a small air
[1'0 be Concluded in our next.]
•.. ���-
English Common Roads,
Thefirst leather belts I ever
setting a mule in operation for Mr. Slater.
The editor of the
Wisconsin Farmer, who is now in
Mr. Sla-
Europe, gives the description of the common roads in
Samuel Greene, my nephew, and purchased of Jere­
ter informed me that there had been a new machine
the Isle of Wight, and these 3.re no better than the
miah Wilkinson, the old shears, with which he cnt
for making yarn, invented in England, which was a
rest of the highways in England, Scotland and Ire­
the first four nails.
mixture of the jack and jenny and the Arkwright land.
of age at
He was, I think, ninety years
that time.
The shears
were a
pair of
tailor's shears, with bows straightened out, and the
blades cut off half the length.
They were deposited
with the Historical Society, in Providence, by Samuel
Greene.
Water Frame.)
He says :-" Of all public improvements, the
roads appeared to us the most remarkabl e.
I assisted the Anthonys in finishing and keeping
in order their machine.
There being no
are mostly narrow, but
They
the smoothest and hand-
someBt we ever saw, inclosed with beautiful green
cotton gins
at the South, they
hedges all the way, subbtantially macadamized with
(the Providence people above referred to) imported
a surface as smooth as any sanded garden walk, and
My father, Oziel Wilkinson, lived in the town of
some of the cotton in seed, and picked it off by hand,
Smithfield, Rhode Island, in 1775, at the commence­
furthermore without any of those miserable ditches
which being in bad condition, and the machinery im-
which make most roads in America so unpleasant
ment of the war, and owned
a
with a hammer worked by water.
zer
blacksmith
Ehop,
It was here Elea­
Smith made the machine for Daniel Anthony.
I
",as then about five years old, and my curiosity waS
perfect, they made some few tuns of yarn, and hid
and unsafe, they afforded us constant pleasure and
the
made our afternoon pedestrianation of 14 miles seem
machinery
machinery,
and
by.
Moses
advertised
Brown
in
New
bought
York,
kought Mr. Samuel Slater to Providence.
© 1862 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.
the
whic,h
but a single hour's promenade in some delightful
park."