The wide range of Watt's interest

His power of getting at the

His stores of miscellaneous knowledge were immense, an yet less astonishing than the command he had at all times ove them. It seemed as if every subject that was casually started in conversation with him had been that which he had beer last occupied in studying and exhausting; such was the copiousness, the precision, and the admirable clearness of the information which he poured out upon it without effort or hesitation. Nor was this promptitude and compass of knowledge confined in any degree to the studies connected with his ordinary pursuits. That he should have been minutely and extensively skilled in chemistry and the arts, and in most of the branches of physical science, might perhaps have been conjectured; but it could not have been inferred from his usual occupations, and probably is not generally known, that he was curiously learned in many branches of antiquity, metaphysics, medicine, and etymology, and perfectly at home in all the details of architecture, music, and law. He was well acquainted, too, with most of the modern languages and familiar with most of recent literature. Nor was it at all extraordinary to hear the great mechanician and engineer detailing and expounding, for hours together, the metaphysical theories of the German logicians, or criticising the measures or the matter of the German poetry.

His astonishing memory was aided, no doubt, in a great heart of things measure, by a still higher and rarer faculty, by his power of digesting and arranging in its proper place all the information he received, and of casting aside and rejecting, as it were instinctively, whatever was worthless or immaterial. Every conception that was suggested to his mind seemed instantly to take its place among its other rich furniture, and to be condensed into the smallest and most convenient form. He never appeared, therefore, to be at all encumbered or perplexed with the verbiage of the dull books he perused, or the idle talk to which he listened; but to have at once extracted, by a kind of intellectual alchemy, all that was worthy of attention, and to have reduced it, for his own use, to its true value and to its simplest form. And thus it often happened that a great deal more was learned from his brief and vigorous account of the theories

and arguments of tedious writers than an ordinary student could ever have derived from the most painful study of the originals; and that errors and absurdities became manifest from the mere clearness and plainness of his statement of them, which might have deluded and perplexed most of his hearers without that invaluable assistance.

versation

It is needless to say that, with those vast resources, his con- The delight versation was at all times rich and instructive in no ordinary of his condegree; but it was, if possible, still more pleasing than wise, and had all the charms of familiarity, with all the substantial treasures of knowledge. No man could be more social in his spirit, less assuming or fastidious in his manners, or more kind and indulgent towards all who approached him.

affected

His talk, though overflowing with information, had no re- The unsemblance to lecturing or solemn discoursing, but, on the con- charm of trary, was full of colloquial spirit and pleasantry. He had a his manner certain quiet and grave humor, which ran through most of his conversation, and a vein of temperate jocularity which gave infinite zest and effect to the condensed and inexhaustible information which formed its main staple and characteristic. There was a little air of affected testiness, and a tone of pretended rebuke and contradiction, with which he used to address his younger friends, that was always felt by them as an endearing mark of his kindness and familiarity, and prized accordingly, far beyond all the solemn compliments that ever proceeded from the lips of authority. His voice was deep and powerful, though he commonly spoke in a low and somewhat monotonous tone, which harmonized admirably with the weight and brevity of his observations, and set off to the greatest advantage the pleasant anecdotes which he delivered with the same grave brow and the same calm smile playing soberly on his lips. . . His health, which was delicate from his youth upwards, His vigorous seemed to become firmer as he advanced in years; and he old age preserved, up almost to the last moment of his existence, not only the full command of his extraordinary intellect but all

...

The tran

never more delightful or more instructive than in his las visit to Scotland in the autumn of 1817. Indeed, it was afte that time that he applied himself, with all the ardor of earl life, to the invention of a machine for mechanically copying all sorts of sculpture and statuary, and distributed among his friends some of its earliest performances, as the productions of a young artist just entering on his eighty-third year.

This happy and useful life came, at last, to a gentle close. quillity of his He had suffered some inconvenience through the summer, but last days was not seriously indisposed till within a few weeks from his death. He then became perfectly aware of the event which was approaching, and, with his usual tranquillity and benevolence of nature, seemed only anxious to point out to the friends around him the many sources of consolation which were afforded by the circumstances under which it was about to take place. He expressed his sincere gratitude to Providence for the length of days with which he had been blessed, and his exemption from most of the infirmities of age, as well as for the calm and cheerful evening of life that he had been permitted to enjoy, after the honorable labors of the day had been concluded. And thus, full of years and honors, in all calmness and tranquillity, he yielded up his soul, without a pang or struggle, and passed from the bosom of his family to that of his God.

Section 56. The Factory System

Beginnings of the factory system were made, even before the invention of machinery, by those wealthy merchants who collected several looms in one building and employed workmen to operate them. But the extensive modern factory, with its thousands of machines, was not introduced until after the astounding inventions of Hargreaves, Arkwright, and Crompton. It so happened that one of these men, Arkwright, who is accused, with good reasons, of having taken some of his leading ideas from other inventors, was a shrewd business man and foresaw

the possibilities of industry on a large scale. The rise of the factory system and the labors of Arkwright are fully described by Baines, an early student of the cotton industry, from whose writings the following extract is made.

tablishment

of the factory system

Hitherto the cotton manufacture had been carried on almost 209. Arkentirely in the houses of the workmen ; the hand or stock cards, wright's esthe spinning wheel, and the loom required no larger apart ment than that of a cottage. A spinning jenny of small size might also be used in a cottage, and in many instances was so used; when the number of spindles was considerably increased adjacent workshops were used. But the water frame, the carding engine, and the other machines which Arkwright brought out in a finished state required both more space than could be found in a cottage and more power than could be applied by the human arm. Their weight also rendered it necessary to place them in strongly built mills, and they could not be advantageously turned by any power then known but that of

water.

The use of machinery was accompanied by a greater division The advanof labor than existed in the primitive state of the manufacture; tage of manufacturing on a the material went through many more processes, and, of course, large scale the loss of time and the risk of waste would have been much increased if its removal from house to house at every stage of the manufacture had been necessary. It became obvious that there were several important advantages in carrying on the numerous operations of an extensive manufacture in the same building. Where water power was required it was economy to build one mill, and put up one water wheel rather than several. This arrangement also enabled the master spinner himself to superintend every stage of the manufacture; it gave him a greater security against the wasteful or fraudulent consumption of the material; it saved time in the transference of the work from hand to hand; and it prevented the extreme inconven

ience which would b

ed from the failus

cles

The beginnings of the factory system

Early use of

water power

Arkwright's

extensive business

which made it advantageous to have a large number of machines in one manufactory was, that mechanics must be employed on the spot to construct and repair the machinery, and that their time could not be fully occupied with only a few machines.

All these considerations drove the cotton spinners to that important change in the economy of English manufactures, the introduction of the factory system; and when that system had once been adopted, such were its pecuniary advantages that mercantile competition would have rendered it impossible, even had it been desirable, to abandon it. The inquiry into the moral and social effects of the factory system will be made hereafter. At present we observe that although Arkwright, by his series of machines, was the means of giving the most wonderful extension to the system, yet he did not absolutely originate it. Mills for the throwing of silk had existed in England, though not in any great number, from the time of Sir Thomas Lombe, who, in 1719, erected a mill on the river Derwent, at Derby, on the model of those he had seen in Italy.

It has been seen that Wyatt's first machines, at Birmingham, were turned by asses, and his establishment, at Northampton, by water. So Arkwright's first mill, at Nottingham, was moved by horses; his second, at Cromford, by water. "During a period of ten or fifteen years after Mr. Arkwright's first mill was built (in 1771), at Cromford, all the principal works were erected on the falls of considerable rivers; no other power than water having then been found practically useful. There were a few exceptions, where Newcomen's and Savery's steam engines were tried. But the principles of these machines were defective and their construction bad, the expense in fuel was great, and the loss occasioned by frequent stoppages was ruinous."

...

Arkwright was now rapidly making a large fortune, not merely by the sale of his patent machines and of licenses to use them, but much more by the profits of his several manufactories, for, having no less enterprise than judgment and skill, and being supported by large capital and very able partners, he greatly extended his concerns, and managed them all with such ability as to make them eminently prosperous. He