5026. MANUFACTURES, Household.—[further continued].
Our manufacturers are
now very nearly on a footing with those of
England. She has not a single improvement
which we do not possess, and many of them
better adapted by ourselves to our ordinary
use. We have reduced the large and expensive
machinery for most things to the
compass of a private family, and every family
of any size is now getting machines on a
small scale for their household purposes.
Quoting myself as an example, and I am
much behind many others in this business,
my household manufactures are just getting
into operation on the scale of a carding machine
costing $60 only, which may be worked
by a girl of twelve years old, a spinning machine,
which may be had for $10, carrying six
spindles for wool, to be worked by a girl also,
another which can be made for $25, carrying
twelve spindles for cotton, and a loom, with
a flying shuttle, weaving its twenty yards a
day. I need 2,000 yards of linen, cotton, and
woollen yearly, to clothe my family, which
this machinery, costing $150 only, and worked
by two women and two girls, will more than
furnish.—
To General Kosciusko. Washington ed. vi, 68.
Ford ed., ix, 362.
(M.
June. 1812)
