Abstract
APRIL 24 marks the bicentenary of the birth of Rev. Edmund Cartwright, who by his invention of the power-worked loom made a notable contribution to the progress of cotton manufacture. A descendant of a family long established at Marnham, Nottinghamshire, he was educated at Wakefield Grammar School and University College, Oxford, took holy orders, and married a lady of wealth. His first appointment was to the perpetual curacy of Brampton, Yorkshire, but in 1779 he was made rector of Goadby Marwood, Leicestershire. His interests at this time were mainly connected with agriculture and poetry, but a visit to Matlock in 1784 changed the current of his life. At that time the work of Paul, Hargreaves, Arkwright and Crompton had placed the spinners far ahead of the weavers, and at Matlock, Cartwright was present at a conversation when mechanical weaving was declared an impossibility. His latent powers of invention were aroused, and at Goadby Marwood, with the assistance of the local craftsmen, he made a crude loom in which the necessary movements were all made by mechanical power.
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Bicentenary of Dr. Edmund Cartwright. Nature 151, 472 (1943). https://doi.org/10.1038/151472a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/151472a0