Self Help by Samuel Smiles (desktop ebook reader txt) 📖

cheerfully, his poor wife could restrain her feelings

no longer, but sat down and cried bitterly. She had, however, only

a few more weeks to wait, for success long laboured for and richly

deserved, came at last, and a proud and happy man was John

Heathcoat when he brought home the first narrow strip of bobbin-net

made by his machine, and placed it in the hands of his wife.

 

As in the case of nearly all inventions which have proved

productive, Heathcoat’s rights as a patentee were disputed, and his

claims as an inventor called in question. On the supposed

invalidity of the patent, the lace-makers boldly adopted the

bobbin-net machine, and set the inventor at defiance. But other

patents were taken out for alleged improvements and adaptations;

and it was only when these new patentees fell out and went to law

with each other that Heathcoat’s rights became established. One

lace-manufacturer having brought an action against another for an

alleged infringement of his patent, the jury brought in a verdict

for the defendant, in which the judge concurred, on the ground that

BOTH the machines in question were infringements of Heathcoat’s

patent. It was on the occasion of this trial, “Boville v. Moore,”

that Sir John Copley (afterwards Lord Lyndhurst), who was retained

for the defence in the interest of Mr. Heathcoat, learnt to work

the bobbin-net machine in order that he might master the details of

the invention. On reading over his brief, he confessed that he did

not quite understand the merits of the case; but as it seemed to

him to be one of great importance, he offered to go down into the

country forthwith and study the machine until he understood it;

“and then,” said he, “I will defend you to the best of my ability.”

He accordingly put himself into that night’s mail, and went down to

Nottingham to get up his case as perhaps counsel never got it up

before. Next morning the learned sergeant placed himself in a

lace-loom, and he did not leave it until he could deftly make a

piece of bobbin-net with his own hands, and thoroughly understood

the principle as well as the details of the machine. When the case

came on for trial, the learned sergeant was enabled to work the

model on the table with such case and skill, and to explain the

precise nature of the invention with such felicitous clearness, as

to astonish alike judge, jury, and spectators; and the thorough

conscientiousness and mastery with which he handled the case had no

doubt its influence upon the decision of the court.

 

After the trial was over, Mr. Heathcoat, on inquiry, found about

six hundred machines at work after his patent, and he proceeded to

levy royalty upon the owners of them, which amounted to a large

sum. But the profits realised by the manufacturers of lace were

very great, and the use of the machines rapidly extended; while the

price of the article was reduced from five pounds the square yard

to about five pence in the course of twenty-five years. During the

same period the average annual returns of the lace-trade have been

at least four millions sterling, and it gives remunerative

employment to about 150,000 workpeople.

 

To return to the personal history of Mr. Heathcoat. In 1809 we

find him established as a lace-manufacturer at Loughborough, in

Leicestershire. There he carried on a prosperous business for

several years, giving employment to a large number of operatives,

at wages varying from 5l. to 10l. a week. Notwithstanding the

great increase in the number of hands employed in lace-making

through the introduction of the new machines, it began to be

whispered about among the workpeople that they were superseding

labour, and an extensive conspiracy was formed for the purpose of

destroying them wherever found. As early as the year 1811 disputes

arose between the masters and men engaged in the stocking and lace

trades in the south-western parts of Nottinghamshire and the

adjacent parts of Derbyshire and Leicestershire, the result of

which was the assembly of a mob at Sutton, in Ashfield, who

proceeded in open day to break the stocking and lace-frames of the

manufacturers. Some of the ringleaders having been seized and

punished, the disaffected learnt caution; but the destruction of

the machines was nevertheless carried on secretly wherever a safe

opportunity presented itself. As the machines were of so delicate

a construction that a single blow of a hammer rendered them

useless, and as the manufacture was carried on for the most part in

detached buildings, often in private dwellings remote from towns,

the opportunities of destroying them were unusually easy. In the

neighbourhood of Nottingham, which was the focus of turbulence, the

machine-breakers organized themselves in regular bodies, and held

nocturnal meetings at which their plans were arranged. Probably

with the view of inspiring confidence, they gave out that they were

under the command of a leader named Ned Ludd, or General Ludd, and

hence their designation of Luddites. Under this organization

machine-breaking was carried on with great vigour during the winter

of 1811, occasioning great distress, and throwing large numbers of

workpeople out of employment. Meanwhile, the owners of the frames

proceeded to remove them from the villages and lone dwellings in

the country, and brought them into warehouses in the towns for

their better protection.

 

The Luddites seem to have been encouraged by the lenity of the

sentences pronounced on such of their confederates as had been

apprehended and tried; and, shortly after, the mania broke out

afresh, and rapidly extended over the northern and midland

manufacturing districts. The organization became more secret; an

oath was administered to the members binding them to obedience to

the orders issued by the heads of the confederacy; and the betrayal

of their designs was decreed to be death. All machines were doomed

by them to destruction, whether employed in the manufacture of

cloth, calico, or lace; and a reign of terror began which lasted

for years. In Yorkshire and Lancashire mills were boldly attacked

by armed rioters, and in many cases they were wrecked or burnt; so

that it became necessary to guard them by soldiers and yeomanry.

The masters themselves were doomed to death; many of them were

assaulted, and some were murdered. At length the law was

vigorously set in motion; numbers of the misguided Luddites were

apprehended; some were executed; and after several years’ violent

commotion from this cause, the machine-breaking riots were at

length quelled.

 

Among the numerous manufacturers whose works were attacked by the

Luddites, was the inventor of the bobbin-net machine himself. One

bright sunny day, in the summer of 1816, a body of rioters entered

his factory at Loughborough with torches, and set fire to it,

destroying thirty-seven lace-machines, and above 10,000l. worth of

property. Ten of the men were apprehended for the felony, and

eight of them were executed. Mr. Heathcoat made a claim upon the

county for compensation, and it was resisted; but the Court of

Queen’s Bench decided in his favour, and decreed that the county

must make good his loss of 10,000l. The magistrates sought to

couple with the payment of the damage the condition that Mr.

Heathcoat should expend the money in the county of Leicester; but

to this he would not assent, having already resolved on removing

his manufacture elsewhere. At Tiverton, in Devonshire, he found a

large building which had been formerly used as a woollen

manufactory; but the Tiverton cloth trade having fallen into decay,

the building remained unoccupied, and the town itself was generally

in a very poverty-stricken condition. Mr. Heathcoat bought the old

mill, renovated and enlarged it, and there recommenced the

manufacture of lace upon a larger scale than before; keeping in

full work as many as three hundred machines, and employing a large

number of artisans at good wages. Not only did he carry on the

manufacture of lace, but the various branches of business connected

with it—yarn-doubling, silk-spinning, net-making, and finishing.

He also established at Tiverton an iron-foundry and works for the

manufacture of agricultural implements, which proved of great

convenience to the district. It was a favourite idea of his that

steam power was capable of being applied to perform all the heavy

drudgery of life, and he laboured for a long time at the invention

of a steam-plough. In 1832 he so far completed his invention as to

be enabled to take out a patent for it; and Heathcoat’s steam-plough, though it has since been superseded by Fowler’s, was

considered the best machine of the kind that had up to that time

been invented.

 

Mr. Heathcoat was a man of great natural gifts. He possessed a

sound understanding, quick perception, and a genius for business of

the highest order. With these he combined uprightness, honesty,

and integrity—qualities which are the true glory of human

character. Himself a diligent self-educator, he gave ready

encouragement to deserving youths in his employment, stimulating

their talents and fostering their energies. During his own busy

life, he contrived to save time to master French and Italian, of

which he acquired an accurate and grammatical knowledge. His mind

was largely stored with the results of a careful study of the best

literature, and there were few subjects on which he had not formed

for himself shrewd and accurate views. The two thousand workpeople

in his employment regarded him almost as a father, and he carefully

provided for their comfort and improvement. Prosperity did not

spoil him, as it does so many; nor close his heart against the

claims of the poor and struggling, who were always sure of his

sympathy and help. To provide for the education of the children of

his workpeople, he built schools for them at a cost of about 6000l.

He was also a man of singularly cheerful and buoyant disposition, a

favourite with men of all classes and most admired and beloved by

those who knew him best.

 

In 1831 the electors of Tiverton, of which town Mr. Heathcoat had

proved himself so genuine a benefactor, returned him to represent

them in Parliament, and he continued their member for nearly thirty

years. During a great part of that time he had Lord Palmerston for

his colleague, and the noble lord, on more than one public

occasion, expressed the high regard which he entertained for his

venerable friend. On retiring from the representation in 1859,

owing to advancing age and increasing infirmities, thirteen hundred

of his workmen presented him with a silver inkstand and gold pen,

in token of their esteem. He enjoyed his leisure for only two more

years, dying in January, 1861, at the age of seventy-seven, and

leaving behind him a character for probity, virtue, manliness, and

mechanical genius, of which his descendants may well be proud.

 

We next turn to a career of a very different kind, that of the

illustrious but unfortunate Jacquard, whose life also illustrates

in a remarkable manner the influence which ingenious men, even of

the humblest rank, may exercise upon the industry of a nation.

Jacquard was the son of a hardworking couple of Lyons, his father

being a weaver, and his mother a pattern reader. They were too

poor to give him any but the most meagre education. When he was of

age to learn a trade, his father placed him with a bookbinder. An

old clerk, who made up the master’s accounts, gave Jacquard some

lessons in mathematics. He very shortly began to display a

remarkable turn for mechanics, and some of his contrivances quite

astonished the old clerk, who advised Jacquard’s father to put him

to some other trade, in which his peculiar abilities might have

better scope than in bookbinding. He was accordingly put

apprentice to a cutler; but was so badly treated by his master,

that he shortly afterwards left his employment, on which he was

placed with a