Cotton Ma- are increasing their machinery) will, by the estimate nufacture. received, work more than 80,000 spindles at the commencement of the year 1811. "That the capital required to carry on the manufacture on the best terms, is estimated at the rate of a hundred dollars per spindle; but it is believed that not more than at the rate of sixty dollars is generally employed. Each spindle produces annually about 36 lbs. of yarn from 45 lbs. of cotton, and the value of the yarn may be averaged as worth one dollar twelve and a half cents per lb. Eight hundred spindles employ forty persons, viz. five men, and thirty-five women and children. "That the increase of carding and spinning cotton by machinery in establishments for that purpose, exclusively of that done in private families, has been fourfold during the last two years, and tenfold in three years. Thirty-six of these mills, working 20,406 spindles, are situated within thirty miles of Providence. The remainder are scattered all over the country." Morse, in the last edition of his Geography, gives the same account of the state of the cotton manufacture of America, at the end of the year 1810, as this report; and adds, that the cloths manufactured were bed-ticking, stripes and checks, ginghams, cloths for shirts and sheetings, counterpanes, webbing and coach laces, diapers, jeans, vesting, cotton kerseymeres, fustians, cords, and velvets. In the enumeration given of the manufactures carried on in the separate states of the Union, the cotton manufacture seems to be confined to the States of Rhode Island, Massachusets, New Jersey, and New York. The spinning works mentioned in the preceding report, appear all to have been upon a very small scale, and the number of hands employed, to the quantity of machinery specified, much greater than is found necessary in this country, where labour is so much cheaper. The capital too, said to be used for carrying on the business, seems unnecessarily large. The farther progress and recent state of this manufacture, we learn from a report of a Committee of the House of Representatives, presented in the spring session of 1816. This report states, "That the quantity of cotton manufactured in the year 1815 was 90,000 bales," a quantity nearly equal to that used in the cotton manufacture of France. "That the quantity used in 1810 was 10,000 bales; in 1805, 1000 bales; and in 1800, 500 bales." This statement, the Committee say, "they have no reason to doubt; nor have they any to question the truth of the following succinct statement of the capital which is employed, of the labour which it commands, and of the products of that labour." Cotton cloth of various kinds manufac- Cotton Ma (yards) 81,000,000 nufacture. (doll.) 24,000,000 The report proceeds to say, "That the manufacturers of cotton, in making application to the national government for encouragement, have been induced to do so for many reasons. They know that their establishments are new and in their infancy; and that they have to encounter a competition with foreign establishments that have arrived at maturity, that are supported by a large capital, and that have from the government every protection that can be required." "The committee, from the views which they have "That from and after the 30th day of June next, per cents At this time the duty upon cotton goods imported into the United States was 15 per cent. But before charging it, 10 per cent. was added to the invoice, and the duty levied upon the gross sum,— raising it by this means to 16 per cent. Upon the recommendation of the Committee, in consequence of the above report, 10 per cent. more was imposed, and the whole being charged upon L. 110 for every L. 100" of neat value, brought it up to 27 per cent. But, besides this, all cotton goods below 134d. per yard, were ordered to be rated at 13 d., and the difference added to the amount of the invoice before calculating the duty. This regulation was meant as a particular encouragement to the home manufacture of the coarser articles. The great extent of the American cotton manufacture, stated in the preceding report, is more like what the sanguine views of the parties had contemplated, than what had been actually achieved. Indeed, it would have been impossible, even in a country with an extensive population, and established manufacturing habits, to have reared in the time a manufacture of the magnitude they mention. But whatever prosperity it had attained, was put an end to by the restoration of peace with England; and this, notwithstanding of the heavy tax levied on foreign cotton goods. American capital and industry 3 G Cotton Ma- immediately returned to their former channels, in nufacture which they will probably continue to seek their em Coulomb. ployment, until the settling of new lands becomes less advantageous, and a more abundant population gives a greater command of labour. That the failure of these attempts. however, was not occasioned by any defect in the plan or general conduct of the establishment, we know from a gentle man who visited the principal cotton works in America in the year 1816. He found the machinery in many of them of excellent construction, and those who had the charge of them, men who had been bred in this country, and who were possessed both of skill and judgment. But the circumstances in the state of America, which we have mentioned, were so ad verse to the nature of the undertaking, as to render success, in the opinion of these persons, impos sible. We have now completed our account of the cotton manufacture; a branch of industry which, next to the Cotton Ma cultivation of the soil, furnishes, we believe, a more nufacture extensive employment to labour and capital than be- Coulomb. longs to any of the other occupations of man. Even in the brief statistical details to which we have been necessarily confined, the political economist will, perhaps, be able to discover circumstances, which have retarded or facilitated the progress of industry and improvement. In the history of this manufacture, during the short period that it has existed in Britain, readers of every description will meet with matter to engage their attention; while the display of human ingenuity and talent, in the inventions and discoveries to which it has given rise, and the influence of these upon the human character, are calculated not only to excite general interest, but to furnish valuable and instructive materials for the speculations of the philosopher. (T. T.) COULOMB (CHARLES AUGUSTIN), a profound and ingenious theoretical mechanic and natural philosopher, descended from a distinguished family of Montpelier, was born at Angoulême, the 14th of June 1736. He felt, at an early period of his life, a strong preference for mathematical studies, and would gladly have devoted his whole attention to the pursuit of science; but he found it more convenient to enter the military profession as an engineer. This department, however, afforded him ample scope for the exercise of his powers of observation and calculation: and after having been ordered on service to America, and remaining abroad nine years, with some injury to his health, he presented to the Academy of Sciences, in 1773, a memoir on cohesion, and on the resistance of various works of masonry, which, for the accuracy and originality of the views that it exhibits, for the clearness and neatness of the demonstrations, and for the practical utility of the results, is fully equal to any of his later productions, and shows a mind still in the vigour of youth, and yet matured by the approach of middle age. The Academy paid him the compliment of making him one of its correspondents, and in 1779 he had the satisfaction of sharing, with the laborious Van Swinden, the prize proposed for improvements in the construction of compasses. He resided for some time at Rochfort, where he had abundant opportunity of prosecuting, in the naval arsenal, his experimental researches on friction, which obtained him in 1781 the double prize for the theory of the effects of simple machines: in the same year he had the good fortune to be stationed permanently at Paris, and becoming a member of the Academy, devoted himself entirely to the investigation of the laws of electricity and magnetism, and of the force of frictions and resistances of various kinds. He is generally supposed to have been the first that proved, by direct experiments, the law of the decrease of electrical and magnetic forces in the proportion of the squares of the distances: but it must not be forgotten that the late Lord Stanhope had published an experiment, five years before the date of Mr Coulomb's researches, which sufficiently established this law with respect to electricity; although the extension of the same law to the operation of magnetism appears to belong exclusively to Mr Coulomb. He continued to occupy himself in these researches till the time of the revolution, when he was expelled from Paris by the decree that banished all the nobility; having before given up the appointment of Intendant general of fountains, and having otherwise very materially suffered in his property. He retired with his friend Borda to a small estate which he possessed at Blois; and during his residence there, made some observations on vegetable physiology, which he afterwards presented to the Institute. He was recalled to Paris in order to take a part in the new determination of weights and measures, which had been decreed by the revolutionary government. He returned, soon after, into the country, wishing to devote himself to the care of his family, and of the remains of his little fortune. But upon the establishment of the National Institute, he again became an inhabitant of the metropolis. He had, however, occasion to undertake a tour of considerable extent, in discharging the duty of an inspector of public instruction; and he was remarked, in his examinations of the young students, for the singular good nature and paternal tenderness of his manners. He still continued his application to his favourite pursuits, and in particular to the investigation of the magnitude of forces of various kinds, by means of the principles of torsion. And his last study was an inquiry respecting the universal diffusion of the magnetic power through nature, which he at first supposed to be almost unlimited; although he afterwards found reason to conclude, that its general cause was the presence of a minute quantity of iron. A short summary of his numerous and elaborate memoirs will best illustrate the extent and accuracy of his researches. 1. Statical Problems relating to Architecture. Mém. Sav. Etr. VII. 1773. p. 343. The fluxional modes of ascertaining maxima and minima are applied, in this admirable memoir, to the determina |