Biography of Edmund Cartwright, English Inventor

Biography of Edmund Cartwright, English Inventor Edmund Cartwright (April 24, 1743–October 30, 1823) was an English inventor and clergyman. He patented the first power loom- an improved version of the handloom- in 1785 and set up a factory in Doncaster, England, to manufacture textiles. Cartwright also designed a wool-combing machine, an instrument for making rope, and a steam engine powered by alcohol. Fast Facts: Edmund Cartwright Known For: Cartwright invented a power loom that improved the speed of textile production.Born: April 24, 1743 in Marnham, EnglandDied: October 30, 1823 in Hastings, EnglandEducation: University of OxfordSpouse: Elizabeth McMac Early Life Edmund Cartwright was born on April 24, 1743, in Nottinghamshire, England. He graduated from Oxford University and married Elizabeth McMac at the age of 19. Cartwrights father was the Reverend Edmund Cartwright, and the younger Cartwright followed in his fathers footsteps by becoming a clergyman in the Church of England, serving initially as the rector of Goadby Marwood, a village in Leicestershire. In 1786, he became a prebendary (a senior member of the clergy) of  Lincoln Cathedral (also known as St. Marys Cathedral)- a post he held until his death. Cartwrights four brothers were also highly accomplished. John Cartwright was a naval officer who fought for political reforms to the British Parliament, while George Cartwright was a trader who explored Newfoundland and Labrador. Inventions Cartwright was not only a clergyman; he was also a prolific  inventor, though he didnt begin experimenting with inventions until he was in his 40s. In 1784, he  was inspired to create a machine for weaving after he visited inventor Richard Arkwrights cotton-spinning mills in Derbyshire. Although he had no experience in this field and many people thought his ideas were nonsense, Cartwright, with the help of a carpenter, worked to bring his concept to fruition. He completed the design for his first power loom in 1784 and won a patent for the invention in 1785. Although this initial design was not successful, Cartwright continued to make improvements to subsequent iterations of his power loom until he had developed a productive machine. He then established a factory in Doncaster to mass produce the devices. However, Cartwright had no experience or knowledge in business or industry so he was never able to successfully market his power looms and primarily used his factory to test new inventions. He invented a wool-combing machine in 1789 and continued to improve his power loom. He secured another patent for a weaving invention in 1792. Bankruptcy Cartwright went bankrupt in 1793, forcing him to close his factory. He sold 400 of his looms to a Manchester company but lost the remainder when his factory burned down, possibly due to arson committed by handloom weavers who feared they would be put out of work by the new power looms. (Their fears would eventually prove to be well-founded.) Bankrupt and destitute, Cartwright moved to London in 1796, where he worked on other invention ideas. He invented a steam engine powered by alcohol and a machine for making rope, and helped Robert Fulton with his steamboats. He also worked on ideas for interlocking bricks and incombustible floorboards. Improvements to Power Loom Cartwrights power loom needed some improvements, so several inventors took on the challenge. It was improved upon by Scottish inventor William Horrocks, the designer of the variable speed batton, and also by American inventor  Francis Cabot Lowell. The power loom was commonly used after 1820. When it became efficient, women replaced most men as weavers in textile factories. Although many of Cartwrights inventions were not successful, he was eventually recognized by the House of Commons for the national benefits of his power loom. The legislators awarded the inventor a prize of 10,000 Britsh pounds for his contributions. In the end, despite Cartwrights power loom being highly influential, he received little in the way of a financial reward for it. Death In 1821, Cartwright was made a Fellow of the Royal Society. He died two years later on October 30, 1823, and was buried in the small town of Battle. Legacy Cartwrights work played a pivotal role in the evolution of textile production. Weaving was the last step in textile production to be mechanized because of the difficulty in creating the precise interaction of levers, cams, gears, and springs that mimicked the coordination of the human hand and eye. Cartwrights power loom- though flawed- was the first device of its kind to do this, accelerating the process of manufacturing all kinds of cloth. According to the Lowell National Historical Park Handbook,  Francis Cabot Lowell,  a wealthy Boston merchant,  realized that in order for America to keep up with Englands textile production, where successful power looms had been in operation since the early 1800s, they would need to borrow British technology. While visiting English  textile mills, Lowell memorized the workings of their power looms (which were based on Cartwrights designs), and when  he returned to the United States, he recruited a master mechanic named Paul Moody to help him recreate and develop what he had seen. They succeeded in adapting the British design  and the machine shop established at the Waltham mills by Lowell and Moody continued to make improvements in the loom. The first American power loom was constructed in Massachusetts in 1813. With the introduction of a dependable power loom, weaving could keep up with spinning as the American textile industry was underway. The power loom allowed the wholesale manufacture of cloth from ginned cotton, itself a recent innovation of  Eli Whitney. Though primarily known for his inventions, Cartwright was also an esteemed poet. Sources Berend, Ivn. An Economic History of Nineteenth-Century Europe: Diversity and Industrialization. Cambridge University Press, 2013.Cannon, John Ashton.  The Oxford Companion to British History. Oxford University Press, 2015.Hendrickson, Kenneth E., et al.  The Encyclopedia of the Industrial Revolution in World History. Rowman Littlefield, 2015.Riello, Giorgio.  Cotton: the Fabric That Made the Modern World. Cambridge University Press, 2015.

Inner Circle English - Definition and Examples

Inner Circle English s The Inner Circle is made up of countries in which English is the first or the dominant language. These countries include Australia, Britain, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United States. Also called the core English-speaking countries. The inner circle is one of the three concentric circles of World English  identified by linguist Braj Kachru in Standards, Codification and Sociolinguistic Realism: The English Language in the Outer Circle (1985). Kachru describes the inner circle as  Ã¢â‚¬Å"the traditional bases of English, dominated by the mother tongue varieties of the language.† The labels inner, outer, and expanding  circles represent the type of spread, the patterns of acquisition, and the functional allocation of the English language in diverse cultural contexts. These labels remain controversial. What is the Inner Circle? Inner circle nations are countries where English is spoken as a first language (mother tongue or L1). They are very often nations to which very large numbers of people migrated from the U.K. For example, the U.S. and Australia are inner circle nations...Whether a country is in the inner, outer, or expanding circle ... has little to do with geography but more to do with history, migration patterns and language policy... [W]hile Kachrus model does not suggest that one variety is better than any other, inner circle nations are, in fact, perceived as having greater ownership over the language, in that they have inherited English as their L1. Even among inner circle nations, not all nations can claim authenticity of the English language. The U.K. is widely perceived as being the origin of the English language and is seen as the authority on what counts as standard English; inner circle nations tend to be regarded as authentic speakers of English (Evans 2005). However, . . . the English us ed even in inner circle nations is not homogenous.  (Annabelle Mooney and Betsy Evans,  Language, Society and Power: An Introduction, 4th ed. Routledge, 2015) Language Norms The most generally held view is that the Inner Circle (eg. UK, US) is norm-providing; this means that English language norms are developed in these countries and spread outwards. The Outer Circle (mainly New Commonwealth countries)   is norm-developing, easily adopting and perhaps developing its own norms. The Expanding Circle (which includes much of the rest of the world) is norm-dependent, because it relies on the standards set by native speakers in the Inner Circle. This is a one-directional flow and learners of English as a foreign language in the Expanding Circle look to the standards set in the Inner and Outer Circles.​  (Mike Gould and Marilyn Rankin,  Cambridge International AS and A Level English Language. Cambridge University Press, 2014)  Ã‚   In the so-called inner circle English is multifunctional, transmitted through the family and maintained by governmental or quasi-governmental agencies (e.g. media, school, etc.), and is the language of the dominant culture. The outer circle contains countries (usually multilingual) colonized by English-speaking powers. English is typically not the language of the home, but transmitted through the school, and has become part of the countrys chief institutions. Norms come officially from the inner circle, but local norms also play a powerful role in dictating everyday usage.  (Suzanne Romaine, Global English: From Island Tongue to World Language. The Handbook of the History of English, ed. by Ans van Kemenade and Bettelou Los. Blackwell, 2006)[W]hile inner circle nations are now well in the minority among users of English, they still exert strong proprietary rights over the language in terms of norms. This applies far more to discourse patterns than to grammatical rules or pronunciat ion norms (the latter varying considerably between the inner circle countries in any case). By discourse patterns, I mean the way spoken and written discourse is organised. In many fields of scholarship, the major international journals are now published entirely in English. . . . At present, English speakers from inner circle countries still hold a great deal of control in terms of assessing contributions and reviewing books in English.  (Hugh Stretton, Australia Fair. UNSW Press, 2005) Problems With the World Englishes Model [W]ith regard to inner circle Englishes in particular, the model ignores the fact that although there is relatively little differentiation between written norms, this is not the case between spoken norms. The model, thus, in its broad categorisation of varieties according to large geographical areas, does not take into account the considerable spoken dialectal variation within each of the varieties identified (e.g., American English, British English, Australian English)...Secondly, a problem exists with the World Englishes model because of its reliance on a fundamental distinction between native speakers of English (i.e., from the inner circle) and non-native speakers of English (i.e., from the outer and expanding circles). There is a problem with this distinction because attempts so far at precise definitions of the terms native speaker (NS) and non-native speaker (NNS) have proved highly controversial ...Thirdly, Singh et al. (1995:284) believe that the labelling of inner circle (o ld) English and outer circle (new) English is overly value-laden since it suggests that older Englishes are more truly English than those historically younger varieties in the outer circle. Such a distinction seems even more problematic because, . . . historically, all varieties of English other than English English are transpalnted.(Robert M. McKenzie,  The Social Psychology of English as a Global Language. Springer, 2010)