“I am sure that it can be done,” replied Dr. Cartwright; and he set to work to prove it. He had never invented anything, and he had never seen a loom in operation. But, in three years' time, he produced a power loom which threw the shuttle both back and forth, of itself. By later inventions, he greatly improved this first effort. Weavers became able to keep up with the spinners. A single weaver can now tend four or more looms, which work much faster than the old hand looms. Cloth thus became much cheaper and more plentiful than it had ever been before. At first, the looms were run by water power, which had been used for ages to run flour and grist mills. But water power was very uncertain, for the amount of water in the streams changed with the seasons; moreover, it was not to be had at all places. Fortunately, it was not long before the steam engine was invented, to aid not only spinning and weaving, but the countless other operations of modern life to which machinery was soon applied. steam For nearly two thousand years men had known of the expansive power of steam; but it was not until the beginning of the eighteenth century that this Invention force was made practically useful, in the form of the of a steam pump for pumping water out of engine. mines. The illustration on page 300 shows the form of this crude engine. The steam entered a "cylinder” under the "piston-head," and thus raised the cross-beam. The top of the cylinder was open, and when the steam under the piston-head was sufficiently condensed by cooling, the pressure of the air above forced back the piston, and all was ready for another stroke. The troubles with this early steam engine were chiefly these: it was very slow and weak in its action; it wasted a great amount of steam, and so used up much fuel: and it could only work in one direction. The real inventor of the modern steam engine was James Watt, a maker of mathematical and astronomical instruments. While repairing a model of one of these early steam pumps, he noticed its waste of steam, and set to work to remedy it. It would take too long to describe all of the changes which he made. It is enough to say that his first changes made the steam engine quickworking, powerful, and saving of fuel; but it was still useful only for pumping. His later inventions, however, enabled it to turn a wheel, and so adapted it to all kinds of work. In 1785, the steam engine was first applied to running spinning machinery, and its use spread rapidly. By the end of the eighteenth century, there were as many steam engines in use in England as there were water and wind mills. But engines and machinery are largely made of iron, and, until the latter part of the eighteenth century, iron was scarce and costly. So all these inventions would have been of little use if it had not been for improvements in the manufacture of iron and steel. iron For ages iron ore had been "smelted" that is, melted and freed of its impurities-by mixing it with burning charcoal. But the forests of England, Improveom which the charcoal was made, were ments in decreasing rapidly, and it was clear that little making. increase could be made in the amount of iron produced, as long as charcoal was used as the fuel. It was found, however, that the smelting could be done just as well, and much cheaper, by using coke, made from ordinary coal; and the supply of coal was abundant. At the same time, the bellows, which fanned the fire and made it burn with sufficient heat, were replaced by other inventions which gave a stronger and steadier draft; and improvements were also made in the tools for hammering out the iron for wrought iron, and in casting it. Furthermore, Watt's improved engines benefited mining, by making it easier and cheaper to pump out water, and so to operate deep mines. From year to year these improvements have gone steadily on, and the result is that the supply of this necessary metal has constantly become more plentiful and cheap, as the increased use of machinery has created new demands for it. Important changes were also made in the conditions under which manufacturing was done. Formerly, manufacturing was carried on under the "domestic system" —that is, each workman (a weaver, or the like), set up his own tools, in his own house, used materials which he himself paid for; then when his goods were made he sold them to the dealers, and received the price for them himself. He was his own employer, and supplied his own capital; he worked when he pleased, and how he pleased; and his wife and children assisted him. Ordinarily, too, he had a garden, or little farm, which he cultivated; and so he was not dependent for his living entirely on his manufacturing. Rise of the factory system. The new inventions caused the "factory system" to take the place of the "domestic system." Machines in large numbers were now brought together under the roof of one "factory," in order to take advantage of the steam or water power; and these were the property of an "employer" who hired people for "wages" to run them. The employer supplied the materials, and received the manufactured goods, which he sold as he pleased. The work people had to move to the crowded towns, where usually the factories were situated, and so they could no longer have their gardens. In these ways, the working people became more dependent on their employers, and the problems of "labor" and "lack of employment" first began to arise. The fact that women, and little children often only six years old, were hired for a great deal of the work, and that they were forced to labor long hours, in dark, close, and unhealthy rooms, gave rise to additional problems, which by and by demanded solution. With these changes in manufacturing, there came also changes in the means of transportation. travel and transpor Down to the eighteenth century, the means of travel and transportation remained just about what they were in the most ancient days-except that the roads changes in were often worse than they had been under the Roman Empire. Half of the year, the only tation. means of travel was on horseback, because of the mudholes with which the roads were filled. Heavy articles— such as grain, coal, iron, and the like-could scarcely be carried from place to place; and often scarcity, or famine, might prevail in one district, while another district had more than enough, but could not get its produce to market. About the year 1640, stage coaches came into use in England, but often it took three weeks for one of these to go from London to Edinburgh. In the last half of the eighteenth century, improvement began through the "turnpike" roads, which were kept in repair with the money collected as "tolls" from those who used them. Better methods of road-making were |