The Wheeling Repository

The following particulars respecting the Cotton Manufactory at Mendham, in the state of New-Jersey, which are copied from a Trenton paper, are peculiarly interesting at the present eventful period.

"Notwithstanding the extraordinary expenses attendant upon the commencement of the business, erecting and altering his buildings, machinery, &c. Mr. Ralston calculates that he has averaged a profit of 14 per cent. upon his disbursements. This, of itself, is not bad; but when it is considered that his expenditures will hereafter be less, and the quantity of work done much greater, still better profits may be reasonably anticipated. And we trust that such a handsome reward will attend his enterprise, as will embolden others to follow his example. New-Jersey abounds with excellent sites for such establishments, and we hope in a few years to see more of them occupied in such useful, honourable, and profitable undertakings.

"It is reduced to a certainty, that cotton goods can be made as good (it may safely be said better) and as handsome in this country as in England, and likewise cheaper. For as the cotton itself is taken from here there, and the goods brought from there here, at a great expense for freights, insurance, duties, &c. the saving in these respects by its being manufactured here, will exceed the saving there by the lower price of labour. So that nothing is wanting to put a stop to the importation of these goods from Europe, but the establishment of such a number of manufactories here as will satisfy the demand.

"Mr. Ralston at present manufactures cotton fustians, dimities, cassimers, checks, stripes, bedticking, counterpanes, yarn of all sizes, twisted and untwisted, &c. &c. and those goods are in such demand, that he can furnish but a very small part of what is wanted.

"The manufacture of coach lace, &c. is also carried on by Mr. Ralston to considerable extent, and with good encouragement. This article, for which a few years ago we were entirely dependent on foreign hands, is now made in this country so well, and in such quantities, as to meet the great and increasing demand.

The manufacture of woollen goods Mr. Ralston is just embarking in, and has no doubt of furnishing such as may be safely thrown into the same market with the best imported.

"The wonderful effect of ingenuity, in constructing labour-saving machinery, is perhaps no where more astonishing than in a cotton factory. In the one we speak of, the cotton is picked, broken, carded, formed into rolls, drawn into threads, spun, reeled, and twisted, all by machinery, which machinery is all moved by water! Three hundred spindles are employed at once in spinning, and the other parts of the machinery in proportion. In his weave-shops, Mr. Ralston has introduced the spring shuttle, the great superiority of which none can imagine but such as see it used."