Cotton mule spinning after Richard Roberts

Abstract

Patents and records of textile machine makers provide a greater understanding of the development of mule spinning in the cotton industry after the invention of the self-acting mule by Richard Roberts in 1830. Hand mules continued in use for the spinning of finer yarns, and developed into machines that were hand controlled rather than hand powered. They were built in considerable numbers until the 1860s and some machines continued in use after 1900. Other persons invented self-acting mules but the only one to achieve any success was that by James Smith of Deanston, examples of which were built in small numbers until at least the 1860s. Refinements enabled the self-actor to replace hand mules after the 1860s, but they continued to incorporate the inventions of Roberts. Winding was a crucial area and machine makers adopted different approaches that reflect the range of yarns their machines were to spin.

Keywords:

• Cotton industry
• spinning
• hand mules
• self-acting mules
• patents

Acknowledgments

Howard Bolton, who is one of the few people who thoroughly understands mules through restoring and working some of the surviving examples, provided valuable comments on an earlier draft of this article. The referees provided some valuable comments which have helped to improve the final version.

Notes

1 Roger N. Holden, ‘The Origins of the Power Loom Revisited’, International Journal for the History of Engineering and Technology, 84.2 (2014), 135–59.

2 Richard L. Hills, Power in the Industrial Revolution (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1970). W. English, The Textile Industry (London: Longmans, 1969). Readers unfamiliar with the early developments are referred to the relevant sections of these two books.

3 Mary B. Rose, ed., The Lancashire Cotton Industry: A History Since 1700 (Preston: Lancashire County Books, 1996).

4 Richard L. Hills, ‘Hargreaves, Arkwright and Crompton: Why Three Inventors?’, Textile History, 10 (1979), 114–26.

5 John W. S. Hearle, ‘The 20th Century Revolution in Textile Machines and Processes. Part 1: Spinning and Weaving’, Industrial Archaeology Review, 35.2 (2013), 87–99. John W. S. Hearle, ‘The 20th Century Revolution in Textile Machines and Processes. Part 2: Texture Yarns and Other Technologies’, Industrial Archaeology Review, 36.1 (2014), 32–47. Kenneth C. Jackson and Benham Pourdeyhimi, ‘Technological Innovation and Industrial Decline: The Case of the Automatic Loom in the British Cotton Industry’, Industrial Archaeology Review, 44.1 (2022), 48–60.

6 Harold Catling, The Spinning Mule (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1970). Readers unfamiliar with the mule spinning process and terminology, some of which is assumed in this paper, are referred to this book.

7 Harold Catling, ‘Kinematics and Control of the Winding Process in the Spinning Mule’ (PhD thesis, Queen Mary College, London, 1965).

8 Richard L. Hills, Life and Inventions of Richard Roberts, 1789–1864 (Ashbourne: Landmark, 2002), 137–55.

9 D. A. Farnie, ‘Platt Bros. & Co. Ltd of Oldham, Machine-Makers to Lancashire and to the World: An Index of Production of Cotton Spinning Spindles, 1880–1914’, Business History, 23.1 (1981), 84–6. D. A. Farnie, ‘The Marketing Strategies of Platt Bros & Co. Ltd of Oldham, 1906–1940’, Textile History, 24.2 (1993), 147–61.

10 Stephen Van Dulken, British Patents of Invention, 1617–1977: A Guide for Researchers (London: The British Library, 1999).

11 This database was created in the now obsolete LocoFile and had to be laboriously recreated in Microsoft Access from a hard copy printout that had been carefully filed away. This allowed some revision of the material contained in the database and correction of some errors. However, it is certain there are still errors remaining and some indeed may have been introduced during the process of recreation. However, it is believed that the error rate is such that it does not invalidate the data presented in this paper.

12 All manufacturers catalogues, manuals and text books referred to are in the author’s own collection.

13 Roger N. Holden, ‘Ring and Mule Spinning in the Nineteenth Century: A Technological Perspective’, The Journal of Industrial History, 6.2 (2003), 34–60. Reprinted in: John F. Wilson, Steven Toms and Nicholas D. Wong, eds., The Cotton and Textile Industry: Innovation and Maturity (Abingdon: Routledge, 2021), 30–65.

14 James Montgomery, The Carding and Spinning Master’s Assistant or The Theory and Practice of Cotton Spinning (Glasgow, 1832), 170–1.

15 James Montgomery, The Theory and Practice of Cotton Spinning or The Carding and Spinning Master’s Assistant (Glasgow, 1833), 187–98.

16 It is not feasible in a short paper like this to go into all the processes in detail, the development of which and the machines used would be a detailed study in its own right. Although written in the 1960s and referring to some later developments, a good overview of yarns and the processes used in the Lancashire cotton industry for those unfamiliar with the subject will be found in: L. H. C. Tippett, A Portrait of the Lancashire Textile Industry (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969), 34–7, 49–66.

17 The terms ‘spindle drafting’ and ‘drafting against twist’ appear to have only come into common use later in the twentieth century, earlier writers tend to refer to ‘carriage draft’.

18 William S. Murphy, The Textile Industries, vol. 3, (London: Gresham, 1910), 120. W. E. Morton and G. R. Wray, An Introduction to the Study of Spinning (London: Longmans, 3rd edn, 1962), 145–6. Catling, Spinning Mule, 143. D. T. Jenkins and K. G. Ponting, The British Wool Textile Industry 1770–1914 (Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1987), 110.

19 The Textile Institute, Textile Terms and Definitions (11th edn, Manchester: The Textile Institute, 2002), 225. Elsewhere the term ‘mule drafting’ is used synonymously for spindle drafting: G. A. R. Foster, Manual of Cotton Spinning, vol. 4, pt 1: The Principles of Roller Drafting and the Irregularity of Drafted Materials (Manchester and London: The Textile Institute & Butterworths, 1958), 15.

20 For example, at a certain museum that has a pair of woollen mules on display, the information board describes the mule as combining ‘…features from the spinning jenny and Arkwright’s process of roller drafting’ despite the fact that the machines on display do not use Arkwright’s roller drafting. This is then compounded by the statement that ‘By 1900 mules were up to 150 feet long and had up to 1,300 spindles’ which is only applicable to cotton mules, woollen mules were never of this length. Finally, the display is illustrated by the engraving from Edward Baines History of the Cotton Manufacture in Great Britain (1835), Plate 11, which shows cotton mule spinning.

21 Note that patents granted only provisional protection have not been included. Between 1852 and 1883 116 patents related to mule spinning only achieved provisional protection. The possibility of filing a provisional specification prior to the full specification was introduced in 1852. For some patents a full specification was never filed, from 1852 to 1883 these were published and included in the Abridgements. But from 1884 such patents were not published and the archive was destroyed. Van Dulken, British Patents of Invention, 4, 31.

22 Platt Brothers & Co. Ltd, Catalogue of Cotton Spinning & Weaving Machinery (Oldham, [c.1911]), 185–6.

23 Van Dulken, British Patents of Invention, 90.

24 B[ritish] P[atent] 26169, 10/11/1910, M. Mamloff.

25 Eli Spencer, ‘On Recent Improvements in the Machinery for Preparing and Spinning Cotton’, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (1880), 492–528, 516.

26 The name Ainsworth’s Mill is ambiguous since there were a number of firms in Bolton with the name Ainsworth who were supplied with hand mules by Dobson & Barlow.

27 Andrew Ure, The Cotton Manufacture of Great Britain, Vol. 2 (London, 1836), 198, 402 (NB pagination of later editions varies).

28 Catling Spinning Mule, 64. He does not state the source of this information.

29 L[ancshire] A[rchives] DDPSL/2/25/6 Platt-Saco-Lowell archives, Dobson & Barlow Ltd, Mule Order Book, Jan. 1879–May 1884, 20 and 39.

30 LA DDPSL/1/36/7, Platt-Saco-Lowell archives, Platt Bros & Co. Ltd, Mule Headstock Book, Sept 1877–May 1878, 55.

31 LA DDPSL/2/25/3, Platt-Saco-Lowell archives, Dobson & Barlow Ltd, Mule Order Book, Feb 1863-Feb 1869, 236–7; DDPSL/2/25/4, Feb 1869-Jan 1874, 81.

32 Kurt Neste, The Mule Spinning Process (Manchester, 1865), 62.

33 Spencer, ‘Machinery for Preparing and Spinning Cotton’, 515.

34 LA DDPSL/2/25/10, Platt-Saco-Lowell archives, Dobson & Barlow Ltd, Mule Order Book, Apr 1900–Jun 1902, 95.

35 Thomas Thornley, Practical Treatise upon Self-Acting Mules (3rd edn, Manchester, 1906), 629–31.

36 Catling, Spinning Mule, 57.

37 BP 6560, 20/2/1834, J. Smith; 8054, 30/4/1839, J. Smith; 10080, 24/2/1844, J. Smith.

38 BP 6475, 21/9/1833, J. Robertson.

39 Evan Leigh, The Science of Modern Cotton Spinning (Manchester, 1871–2), 244–6.

40 BP 1229, 19/5/1860, S. Fielden & A. Fielden.

41 BP 507, 3/1/1884, T. Griffiths.

42 Thornley, Self-Acting Mules, 484

43 This model is in private ownership.

44 BP 1879, 15/5/1792, W. Kelly.

45 John Moss, The Cotton Manufacturers, Managers and Spinners New Pocket Guide (1848), 62.

46 BP 11902, 14/10/1847, M. Curtis and R. Lakin; 2547, 3/11/1853, P. McGregor.

47 For example, BP 2438, 21/10/1853, granted to James Greenbank and Samuel Pilkington, who were overlookers at the firm of John Park & Sons, Withnell, who presumably used these mules.

48 BP 6813, 14/4/1835, J. Whitworth; 7226, 19/11/1836, J. Whitworth. Ure, Cotton Manufacture, Vol. 2, 213–4.

49 LA, DDPSL/2/25/1, Platt-Saco-Lowell archives, Dobson & Barlow Ltd, Mule Order Book, Jun 1851-Dec 1858, 214, 224.

50 BP 6552, 6/2/1834, B. Dobson, J. Sutcliffe and R. Threlfall.

51 BP 4859, 14/3/1884, J. MacQueen.

52 BP 8557, 4/6/1884, J. MacQueen. ‘Walker and Hacking’s Improved Mule’, Textile Manufacturer, 15 December 1884, 563–6.

53 Leigh, Modern Cotton Spinning, 244.

54 BP 11902 14/10/1847, M. Curtis and R. Lakin; BP 1853, 23/8/1854, M. Curtis, W. H. Rhodes and J. Wain; BP 2057, 11/09/1855, M. Curtis, and J. Wain.

55 Leigh, Modern Cotton Spinning, 244–5.

56 Thomas Thornley, Practical Treatise on Mule Spinning (Manchester: John Heywood, 1899), 52, 59.

57 LA DDPSL/1/25/44, Platt-Saco-Lowell archives, Platt Bros & Co. Ltd, Mule Production Book, May 1924–Jun 1929, 123.

58 Catling, Thesis, 85.

59 Neste, Mule Spinning Process, plates 9 and 10. John Platt, ‘On Machinery for the Preparing and Spinning of Cotton’, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (1866), Plate 79.

60 Thornley, Self-Acting Mules, 25.

61 But often the term’ drag’ was used irrespective of whether the carriage was gaining or dragging. Reuben Fletcher, Practical Mule Spinning, Vol. 2 (Manchester: Emmott, 1929), 7. Platt Brothers & Co Ltd, Catalogue of Cotton Spinning & Weaving Machinery with Calculations (Oldham, n.d. [c.1911]), 210–3.

62 Joseph Nasmith, The Student’s Cotton Spinning (3rd edn, Manchester, 1896), 403.

63 Neste, Mule Spinning Process, 64. Nasmith, Cotton Spinning, 403. Thomas Thornley, Mule Spinning, 180–2. Anon, Cotton Mules (Part 2) (London: International Correspondence Schools Ltd, 1905), 23–4. William Scott-Taggart, Cotton Spinning, vol. 3 (5th edn, London: Macmillan, 1920), 232–4. Fletcher, Mule Spinning, Vol. 2, 7–8.

64 Montgomery, Cotton Spinning (1833), 172.

65 James Hyde, The Science of Cotton Spinning (Manchester: James Heywood, n.d. [c.1864]), 94–9.

66 Thornley, Mule Spinning, 180–2.

67 Fletcher, Mule Spinning, Vol. 2, 7.

68 Anon, Cotton Mules (Part 2), 17–8. Scott-Taggart, Cotton Spinning, vol. 3, 76–7.

69 Robert Porter, A Retrospective Examination of the Major Mechanisms and Some Unusual Features of Richard Threlfall’s Self-Acting Mules for Fine Spinning (Bolton: the author, 1986).

70 Scott-Taggart, Cotton Spinning, vol. 3, 227–6, 251. Catling, Spinning Mule, 127–8.

71 BP 2393, 10/11/1854, J. Wain; BP 771, 16/3/1870, R. Lakin, W. H. Rhodes, J. Wain and W. Greasley.

72 BP 1058, 11/5/1858, P. Halliwell; BP 3130, 17/12/1864, B. Dobson, W. Slater and R. Halliwell.

73 BP 12805, 12/10/1849, R. Lakin and W. H. Rhodes.

74 Howard & Bullough Ltd, Machinery Calculations (Accrington, 1908), 106.

75 Catling, Spinning Mule, 97.

76 BP 11902, 14/10/1847, M. Curtis and R. Lakin.

77 BP 1832, 20/7/1861, J. Platt and J. Buckley.

78 Catling, Thesis, 145–51.

79 Neste, Mule Spinning Process, 70. Platt, The Preparing and Spinning of Cotton, 236–7. Catling, Spinning Mule, 109–10.

80 Spencer, ‘Machinery for Preparing and Spinning Cotton’, 501–2. Catling, Spinning Mule, 110.

81 Asa Lees & Co. Ltd, Patent Self-Acting Mule for Spinning Cotton or Worsted (Oldham, c.1910), 3.

82 Catling, Spinning Mule, 110.

83 LA DDPSL/1/35/5, Platt-Saco-Lowell archives, Platt Bros & Co. Ltd, Mule Heads and Squares Book, Apr 1871–Aug 1871, 107.

84 Catling, Thesis, 227–8.

85 7694 mules were made by Dobson & Barlow between 1880 and 1902, of which 113 (1.5%) did not have governors.

86 The information on governor types fitted to mules comes from LA DDPSL/2/25, Platt-Saco-Lowell archives, Dobson & Barlow Ltd, Mule Order Books.

87 BP 2208, 31/7/1867, B. Dobson and J. Cocker.

88 BP 1838, 28/6/1870, A. Metcalf and W. Gibbons.

89 BP 10132, 9/8/1886, B. A. Dobson. LA DDPSL/2/37/1, Platt-Saco-Lowell archives, Dobson & Barlow Ltd., Register of Letters Patent March 1869-November 1902. This register only includes patents taken out by the company and not patents which they had acquired the rights to. Thus Metcalf and Gibbons patent is not included.

90 William Scott-Taggart, Cotton Spinning, vol. 3 (5th edn, London: Macmillan, 1920), 196–200. Joseph Nasmith, Modern Cotton Spinning Machinery, it’s Principles and Construction (Manchester, 1890), 225–7. Nasmith also describes another governor on this principle by Mons Dubs of France.

91 Dobson & Barlow, Machinery Calculations (1906); 144. Scott-Taggart, Cotton Spinning, vol. 3, 201–3.

92 BP 3928, 13/03/1890, J. Boardman. Scott-Taggart, Cotton Spinning, vol. 3, 200–2.

93 Catling, Thesis, 154.

94 Thornley, Self-Acting Mules, 301. Fletcher, Mule Spinning, Vol. 2, 14.

95 LA DDPSL/4/22/22, Platt-Saco-Lowell archives, Asa Lees & Co. Ltd, Tin Work Book, 1927–1945, 111, 178.

96 Roger N. Holden, ‘The End of an Era: Elk Mill 1926–1999’, Industrial Archaeology Review, 26:2 (2004), 115–27.

97 Holden, ‘Ring and Mule Spinning’.

98 R. T. D. Richards and A. B. Sykes, Woollen Yarn Manufacture (Manchester: The Textile Institute, 1994), 72–8.

99 Prasannan Parthasarathi, Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 155.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Roger N. Holden

Roger Holden is an independent researcher, a member of the Newcomen Society and the Association for Industrial Archaeology, with an interest in the Lancashire cotton industry on which he has published a number of books and papers in relevant journals. His most recent book was Manufacturing the Cloth of the World: Weaving Mills in Lancashire, published in 2017.