PROCEEDINGS. Pursuant to the foregoing notice, the stated annual meeting of the NEW ENGLAND COTTON MANUFACTURERS' ASSOCIATION was held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on Wednesday, April 29, 1891, at 10 o'clock A.M. The President, Mr. WALTER E. PARKER, Occupied the chair. The call for the meeting was read by the Secretary. Upon motion, the following were appointed a committee to nominate officers of the Association for the ensuing year: The Secretary presented his annual report, together with those of the Treasurer and the Auditor. Voted, That the reports be accepted and placed on file. The PRESIDENT. While the nominating committee are preparing a list of officers perhaps it would be as well to take up the first paper on the programme, by Gen. WILLIAM F. DRAPER of Hopedale, entitled the " History of Spindles." Mr. DRAPER. Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: - Some twenty years or more ago, in the early days of this Association, I remember a discussion in which my respected father took a prominent part, on the question whether it was desirable that any man interested in a new machine or a new process should have the opportunity to come before this body CALL FOR MEETING. DEAR SIR: BOSTON, April 1, 1891. -The stated Annual Meeting of the Association will be held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boylston Street, Boston, on Wednesday, April 29, 1891, at 10 o'clock A.M., for the choice of officers for the ensuing year and the transaction of other appropriate business. The Board of Government takes pleasure in announcing the following subjects for discussion: Gen. WILLIAM F. DRAPER of Hopedale, Mass., will give a brief HISTORY OF SPINDLES. Mr. CHARLES H. FISH of Manchester, N. H., will present a paper upon the use of OIL FUEL UNDER BOILERS. This will be followed by statements from other members, detailing their experience in this matter. Mr. O. S. HUSSEY, engineer of the Thomson-Houston Motor Company, will read an article upon the ADAPTABILITY OF ELECTRICITY TO MILL WORK. Mr. EDWARD ATKINSON will discuss the subject of FoOOD AND FEEDING IN RELATION TO WAGES. Examples of food cooked over a common factory lamp (such as is used where kerosene oil is burned for lighting), in what may become a workman's dinner-pail, will be furnished as a mere sample of what can now be done in a family, or upon a large scale. Copies of the three first-named papers will be printed in advance of the meeting, and will be supplied to any member who shall apply for them to the Secretary. By order of the Board of Government, AMBROSE EASTMAN, Secretary. PROCEEDINGS. Pursuant to the foregoing notice, the stated annual meeting of the NEW ENGLAND COTTON MANUFACTURERS' ASSOCIATION was held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on Wednesday, April 29, 1891, at 10 o'clock A.M. The President, Mr. WALTER E. PARKER, occupied the chair. The call for the meeting was read by the Secretary. Upon motion, the following were appointed a committee to nominate officers of the Association for the ensuing year: The Secretary presented his annual report, together with those of the Treasurer and the Auditor. Voted, That the reports be accepted and placed on file. The PRESIDENT. While the nominating committee are preparing a list of officers perhaps it would be as well to take up the first paper on the programme, by Gen. WILLIAM F. DRAPER of Hopedale, entitled the "History of Spindles." Mr. DRAPER. Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: - Some twenty years or more ago, in the early days of this Association, I remember a discussion in which my respected father took a prominent part, on the question whether it was desirable that any man interested in a new machine or a new process should have the opportunity to come before this body and read a paper stating the reason why his improvement or his process should be adopted. It was then decided, after considerable discussion pro and con, that that was a desirable course; that any one interested in a new invention would certainly have every reason to state all the desirable results which attended its use, while discussions and suggestions by practical men would serve as a corrective in case of exaggeration. I believe that that decision was a correct one, and under it I feel no diffidence in presenting to you a paper upon spindles, although I am very largely interested in their manufacture. In one sense, however, this paper cannot be considered as an advertisement. The history of spindles, of the improvement in spindles, simply represents an accomplished fact; it does not speak of a result yet to be attained. One thing more before going on to the paper. I have been before you, gentlemen, and in almost all of your offices, many times during the last twenty years, to induce you to adopt some of these new and improved forms of spindles. At such times I used all the arguments in my power, and I have to say to-day that I never have appreciated the advantages of the spindles which our firm has introduced to the extent that I have done since investigating the facts and collating them in a paper. THE HISTORY OF SPINDLES. BY WILLIAM F. DRAPER, HOPEDALE, MASS. I have been requested by your president to prepare a paper on the "History of Spindles," to be read at this meeting. A paper of this kind, if made full and reasonably complete, would be far more lengthy than any of you would care to hear, or possibly read. I shall, therefore, pass over rapidly the early developments of spindles and spinning, and give more time to the present highly perfected structures which are now in use in your mills. Spinning as an art cannot be traced to its earliest conception, as it dates back of all existing records and traditions. The mummies of Egypt confront us wrapped in linen of superior texture, and in every nation the first advance toward civilization began with the use of woven fabrics. The production of cloth of any kind requires the production of yarn in advance. Spinning is the art of producing yarn, and consists in methods of twisting short vegetable or animal fibres into a continuous thread. This invention has been discovered at different times by every intelligent race, and Columbus, when first landing on American soil, found the natives clad in cotton cloths. To-day in different sections of the world may be found illustrations in actual use of every step in the development of the now nearly perfect machinery; the native Mexican, with her distaff, toiling not many miles distant from the Rabbeth spindle in a cotton mill. Whether the latter will stay in use as long as its older rival, time alone can determine; but I have no question but that it has already turned off more work, in its ten years of existence, than the distaff in its thousands. The amount of human labor eased by modern invention in this line is enormous. The prime necessities of life are |