Edmund Cartwright FSA (24 April 1743 – 30 October 1823) was an English inventor. He graduated from Oxford University and later invented the power loom. At the age of 19, he married Elizabeth McMac, a local woman. He was the brother of Major John Cartwright, a political reformer and radical, and George Cartwright, an explorer of Labrador.

Life

Edmund Cartwright was the fourth son of William Cartwright and his wife Anne, born in Marnham, Nottinghamshire. He studied at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Wakefield. He enrolled at University College, Oxford, in 1760, where he studied before reaching the required age starting in 1757. He earned his B.A. degree in 1764 and his M.A. degree in 1766. He was chosen as a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1764. He received the degree of DD in 1806.

He was ordained as a deacon in the Church of England in 1765 and became a priest in 1767. Cartwright was appointed rector of Kilvington in 1767. In addition to other church positions, he became rector of Goadby Marwood, Leicestershire, in 1779. In 1783, he was elected a prebendary at Lincoln Cathedral.

For a time, Cartwright served as chaplain to the Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey and acted as tutor to the Duke's son, the future Prime Minister Lord John Russell. After receiving a grant from Parliament, Cartwright bought a small farm in Kent, where he spent the rest of his life.

Edmund Cartwright died in Sussex after a long illness and was buried at Battle.

Power loom

In 1784, Cartwright created his first power loom and got a patent for it in 1785 after working with textile workers in Manchester. This design showed that the idea could work, but it was not widely used. However, the basic design of his loom influenced similar machines until the 20th century. Later improvements by other inventors are often credited with making powered looms practical. In 1809, Parliament gave Cartwright £10,000 to support his invention.

In 1789, Cartwright got a patent for another loom, which became a model for future inventors. For a mechanically driven loom to succeed, either one person had to manage multiple machines, or each machine needed to produce more fabric than a manually operated one. Cartwright added features like a system to control thread movement, mechanisms to stop the loom if threads broke, and a way to treat warp threads while the loom was working. He began making fabric in Doncaster using these looms but found many problems with them. He tried to fix these issues by adding parts like cranks, improving the shuttle system, and using tools to stretch fabric automatically. However, his mill was taken over by creditors in 1793.

In 1792, Cartwright received his last patent for weaving machines, which included multiple shuttle boxes for making patterned fabrics. Despite these efforts, his machines did not work well because the process of treating warp threads while the loom was stopped caused problems. His ideas for treating threads while the loom was running failed. These issues were solved in 1803 by William Radcliffe and his assistant Thomas Johnson, who invented the beam warper and the dressing sizing machine.

In 1790, Robert Grimshaw of Gorton, Manchester, built a weaving factory at Knott Mill to use 500 of Cartwright’s power looms. However, only 30 looms were installed when the factory burned down, likely due to arson by hand loom weavers who feared losing their jobs. The factory was not rebuilt because the future of powered looms seemed uncertain.

In May 1821, Cartwright was chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Other inventions

Cartwright patented a wool combing machine in 1789 and a machine for making rope (called a cordelier) in 1792. He also designed a steam engine that used alcohol instead of water.

Works

Cartwright had John Langhorne as a tutor and became a minor poet. He published the poem Armine and Elvira in 1770, followed by The Prince of Peace in 1779, which criticized the American Revolutionary War. His collection Sonnets to Eminent Men (1783) included an ode to Thomas Howard, 3rd Earl of Effingham, a notable supporter of American independence.

Family

In 1772, Cartwright married Alice Whitaker, the daughter of Alderman Richard Whitaker of Doncaster, who died in 1785. Their second daughter, Elizabeth (1780–1837), married Reverend John Penrose and wrote books using the name "Mrs. Markham." Their daughter, Mary, married Henry Eustatius Strickland, a younger son of Sir George Strickland, 5th Baronet. Mary was the mother of Hugh Edwin Strickland and wrote a book titled A Memoir of the Life, Writings, and Inventions, of Edmund Cartwright, D.D. FRS (1843). This book included a memoir written by Cartwright himself.

Cartwright’s son, the Rev. Edmund Cartwright (1773–1833), was a member of the Royal Society and the Society of Antiquaries of London. The youngest child of this marriage was Frances Dorothy Cartwright, a poet and biographer of her uncle, Major John Cartwright, a well-known radical.

In 1790, Cartwright married Susannah Kearney, the daughter of John Kearney. He was survived by Susannah and the four children from his first marriage. During his childhood, he had many siblings, including the famous John Cartwright.