But since then
achievements in steam have dwarfed even the great work of
Corliss. And to do a kind of herculean task that was hardly
dreamed of in 1876 another type of engine has made its entrance:
the steam turbine, which sends its awful energy, transformed into
electric current, to light a million lamps or to turn ten
thousand wheels on distant streets and highways.
CHAPTER IV. SPINDLE, LOOM, AND NEEDLE IN NEW ENGLAND
The major steps in the manufacture of clothes are four: first to
harvest and clean the fiber or wool; second, to card it and spin
it into threads; third, to weave the threads into cloth; and,
finally to fashion and sew the cloth into clothes. We have
already seen the influence of Eli Whitney's cotton gin on the
first process, and the series of inventions for spinning and
weaving, which so profoundly changed the textile industry in
Great Britain, has been mentioned. It will be the business of
this chapter to tell how spinning and weaving machinery was
introduced into the United States and how a Yankee inventor laid
the keystone of the arch of clothing machinery by his invention
of the sewing machine.
Great Britain was determined to keep to herself the industrial
secrets she had gained. According to the economic beliefs of the
eighteenth century, which gave place but slowly to the doctrines
of Adam Smith, monopoly rather than cheap production was the road
to success.
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