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1 Radcliffe, William
SUBJECT AREA: Textiles[br]b. 1761 Mellor, Cheshire, Englandd. 1842 Mellor, Cheshire, England[br]English inventor of the sizing machine.[br]Radcliffe was brought up in the textile industry and learned carding and spinning as a child. When he was old enough, he became a weaver. It was a time when there were not enough weavers to work up all the yarn being spun on the recently invented spinning machines, so some yarn was exported. Radcliffe regarded this as a sin; meetings were held to prohibit the export, and Radcliffe promised to use his best endeavours to discover means to work up the yarn in England. He owned a mill at Mellor and by 1801 was employing over 1,000 hand-loom weavers. He wanted to improve their efficiency so they could compete against power looms, which were beginning to be introduced at that time.His first step was to divide up as much as possible the different weaving processes, not unlike the plan adopted by Arkwright in spinning. In order to strengthen the warp yarns made of cotton and to reduce their tendency to fray during weaving, it was customary to apply an adhesive substance such as starch paste. This was brushed on as the warp was unwound from the back beam during weaving, so only short lengths could be treated before being dried. Instead of dressing the warp in the loom as was hitherto done, Radcliffe had it dressed in a separate machine, relieving the weaver of the trouble and saving the time wasted by the method previously used. Radcliffe employed a young man names Thomas Johnson, who proved to be a clever mechanic. Radcliffe patented his inventions in Johnson's name to avoid other people, especially foreigners, finding out his ideas. He took out his first patent, for a dressing machine, in March 1803 and a second the following year. The combined result of the two patents was the introduction of a beaming machine and a dressing machine which, in addition to applying the paste to the yarns and then drying them, wound them onto a beam ready for the loom. These machines enabled the weaver to work a loom with fewer stoppages; however, Radcliffe did not anticipate that his method of sizing would soon be applied to power looms as well and lead to the commercial success of powered weaving. Other manufacturers quickly adopted Radcliffe's system, and Radcliffe himself soon had to introduce power looms in his own business.Radcliffe improved the hand looms themselves when, with the help of Johnson, he devised a cloth taking-up motion that wound the woven cloth onto a roller automatically as the weaver operated the loom. Radcliffe and Johnson also developed the "dandy loom", which was a more compact form of hand loom and was also later adapted for weaving by power. Radcliffe was among the witnesses before the Parliamentary Committee which in 1808 awarded Edmund Cartwright a grant for his invention of the power loom. Later Radcliffe was unsuccessfully to petition Parliament for a similar reward for his contributions to the introduction of power weaving. His business affairs ultimately failed partly through his own obstinacy and his continued opposition to the export of cotton yarn. He lived to be 81 years old and was buried in Mellor churchyard.[br]Bibliography1811, Exportation of Cotton Yarn and Real Cause of the Distress that has Fallen upon the Cotton Trade for a Series of Years Past, Stockport.1828, Origin of the New System of Manufacture, Commonly Called "Power-Loom Weaving", Stockport (this should be read, even though it is mostly covers Radcliffe's political aims).Further ReadingA.Barlow, 1870, The History and Principles of Weaving by Hand and by Power, London (provides an outline of Radcliffe's life and work).W.English, 1969, The Textile Industry, London (a general background of his inventions). R.L.Hills, 1970, Power in the Industrial Revolution, Manchester (a general background).D.J.Jeremy, 1981, Transatlantic Industrial Revolution. The Diffusion of Textile Technologies Between Britain and America, 1790–1830s, Oxford (discusses the spread of the sizing machine in America).RLH -
2 Crookes, Sir William
SUBJECT AREA: Electricity[br]b. 17 June 1832 London, Englandd. 4 April 1919 London, England[br]English chemist and physicist who carried out studies of electrical discharges and cathode rays in rarefied gases, leading to the development of the cathode ray tube; discoverer of the element thallium and the principle of the Crookes radiometer.[br]Crookes entered the Royal College of Chemistry at the age of 15, and from 1850 to 1854 held the appointment of Assistant at the college. In 1854 he became Superintendent of the Meteorological Department at the Radcliffe Observatory in Oxford. He moved to a post at the College of Science in Chester the following year. Soon after this he inherited a large fortune and set up his own private laboratory in London. There he studied the nature of electrical discharges in gases at low pressure and discovered the dark space (later named after him) that surrounds the negative electrode, or cathode. He also established that the rays produced in the process (subsequently shown by J.J.Thompson to be a stream of electrons) not only travelled in straight lines, but were also capable of producing heat and/or light upon impact with suitable anode materials. Using a variety of new methods to investigate these "cathode" rays, he applied them to the spectral analysis of compounds of selenium and, as a result, in 1861 he discovered the element thallium, finally establishing its atomic weight in 1873. Following his discovery of thallium, he became involved in two main lines of research: the properties of rarified gases, and the investigation of the elements of the "rare earths". It was also during these experiments that he discovered the principle of the Crookes radiometer, a device in which light is converted into rotational motion and which used to be found frequently in the shop windows of English opticians. Also among the fruits of this work were the Crookes tubes and the development of spectacle lenses with differential ranges of radiational absorption. In the 1870s he became interested in spiritualism and acquired a reputation for his studies of psychic phenomena, but at the turn of the century he returned to traditional scientific investigations. In 1892 he wrote about the possibility of wireless telegraphy. His work in the field of radioactivity led to the invention of the spinthariscope, an early type of detector of alpha particles. In 1900 he undertook investigations into uranium which led to the study of scintillation, an important tool in the study of radioactivity.While the theoretical basis of his work has not stood the test of time, his material discoveries, observations and investigations of new facts formed a basis on which others such as J.J. Thomson were to develop subatomic theory. His later involvement in the investigation of spiritualism led to much criticism, but could be justified on the basis of a belief in the duty to investigate all phenomena.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1897. Order of Merit 1910. FRS 1863. President, Royal Society 1913–15. Honorary LLD Birmingham. Honorary DSc Oxon, Cambridge, Sheffield, Durham, Ireland and Cape of Good Hope.Bibliography1874, On Attraction and Repulsion Resulting from Radiation.1874, "Researches in the phenomenon of spiritualism", Society of Metaphysics; reprinted in facsimile, 1986.For many years he was also Proprietor and Editor of Chemical News.Further ReadingE.E.Fournier D'Albe, 1923, Life of Sir William Crookes. Who Was Who II, 1916–28, London: A. \& C. Black. T.I.Williams, 1969, A Biographical Dictionary of Scientists. See also Braun, Karl Ferdinand.KF / MG -
3 Textiles
See also: INDEX BY SUBJECT AREA[br]Dore, Samuel GriswoldHeilmann, JosuéLevers, JohnLister, Samuel CunliffeMa JunSong Yingxing -
4 Johnson, Thomas
SUBJECT AREA: Textiles[br]fl. 1800s Englandd. after 1846[br]English developer of the sizing and beaming machine, and improver of the hand loom.[br]Thomas Johnson was an assistant to William Radcliffe c.1802 in his developments of the sizing machine and hand looms. Johnson is described by Edward Baines (1835) as "an ingenious but dissipated young man to whom he [Radcliffe] explained what he wanted, and whose fertile invention suggested a great variety of expedients, so that he obtained the name of the “conjuror” among his fellow-workmen". Johnson's genius, and Radcliffe's judgement and perseverance, at length produced the dressing-machine that was soon applied to power looms and made their use economic. Cotton warps had to be dressed with a starch paste to prevent them from fraying as they were being woven. Up to this time, the paste had had to be applied as the warp was unwound from the back of the loom, which meant that only short lengths could be treated and then left to dry, holding up the weaver. Radcliffe carried out the dressing and beaming in a separate machine so that weaving could proceed without interruption. Work on the dressing-machine was carried out in 1802 and patents were taken out in 1803 and 1804. These were made out in Johnson's name because Radcliffe was afraid that if his own name were used other people, particularly foreigners, would discover his secrets. Two more patents were taken out for improvements to hand looms. The first of these was a take-up motion for the woven cloth that automatically wound the cloth onto a roller as the weaver operated the loom. This was later incorporated by H.Horrocks into his own power loom design.Radcliffe and Johnson also developed the "dandy-loom", which was a more compact form of hand loom and later became adapted for weaving by power. Johnson was the inventor of the first circular or revolving temples, which kept the woven cloth at the right width. In the patent specifications there is a patent in 1805 by Thomas Johnson and James Kay for an improved power loom and another in 1807 for a vertical type of power loom. Johnson could have been involved with further patents in the 1830s and 1840s for vertical power looms and dressing-machines, which would put his death after 1846.[br]Bibliography1802, British patent no. 2,684 (dressing-machine).1803, British patent no. 2,771 (dressing-machine).1805, with James Kay, British patent no. 2,876 (power-loom). 1807, British patent no. 6,570 (vertical powerloom).Further ReadingThere is no general account of Johnson's life, but references to his work with Radcliffe may be found in A.Barlow, 1878, The History and Principles of Weaving by Hand and by Power, London; and in E.Baines, 1835, History of the Cotton Manufacture in Great Britain, London.D.J.Jeremy, 1981, Transatlantic Industrial Revolution. The Diffusion of Textile Technologies Between Britain and America, 1790–1830s, Oxford (for the impact of the dressing-machine in America).RLH -
5 Dandy Loom
The loom used previous to the invention of the power loom and was invented by William Radcliffe.
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William Radcliffe — (1761?, Mellor, Derbyshire – 20 May 1842, StockportDavid J. Jeremy, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/22994 ‘Radcliffe, William (1761?–1842)’] , Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 9 July 2008] ) … Wikipedia
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