ead as warp for the manufacture of
calicoes, instead of the linen warp formerly used together with the
cotton weft, and thus a cloth solely of cotton was for the first time
produced in England. It met at once with a great demand, but, on account
of an act passed in 1736 for the protection of the woollen manufactures
of England against the calicoes of India, it was liable to a double
duty, which at the instance of the Lancashire manufacturers was speedily
enforced. Notwithstanding their strenuous opposition, Arkwright,
however, in 1774 obtained an act specially exempting from extra duty the
"new manufacture of stuffs wholly made of raw cotton-wool." Up to this
time more than twelve thousand pounds had been expended by Arkwright and
his partners on machinery, with little or no return; but after the new
act the cotton manufacture created by his energy and genius developed
with amazing rapidity, until it became the leading industry of the North
of England.

While struggling against the mingled inertness and active opposition of
the manufacturers, Arkwright had all the while been busily engaged in
augmenting the capability and efficiency of his machinery, and in 1775
he brought out a patent for a series of adaptations and inventions by
means of which the whole process of yarn manufacture--including carding,
drawing, roving, and spinning--was performed by a beautifully arranged
succession of operations on one machine. With the grant of this patent,
every obstacle in the way of a sufficient supply of yarn was overcome,
and, whatever might happen to Arkwright, the prosperity of the cotton
manufacture was guaranteed. Afterward the invention was adapted for the
woollen and worsted trade with equal success.

The machine of Arkwright was adapted for roving by means of a revolving
cam. For the process of carding, additions and improvements of great
ingenuity were affixed to the carding-cylinder patented by Lewis Paul in
1748, transforming it into an entirely new machine. The most important
of these were the crank and comb, said to have been used by Hargreaves,
but which it is now known that Hargreaves stole from Arkwright; the
perpetual revolving cloth called the feeder, said to have been used by
John Lees, a Quaker of Manchester, in 1778, but which Arkwright had
undoubtedly used previously at Cromford; and filleted cards on the
second cylinder, which also must have been used by Arkwright in 1778,
although a manufacturer named Wood