294 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



by Thomas Wood in 1774 ; the crank for working the doffer comb, 

 invented by James Hargreaves in 1772 ; and a feeder, or cloth for 

 feeding the carding engine, invented by John Lees in 1772.* 

 That Arkwright covered other people's inventions in his patent 

 was officially determined ; but of his immense service to the 

 world in teaching it how to utilize the inventions of others, and 

 by their combination and improvement, there can be no doubt. 

 He sought and found capital, keen enough to see the possibilities 

 hidden in crude and isolated inventions. More than twelve thou- 

 sand pounds had been expended in his mills before any profits 

 were realized. But when profits once began they came fast, and 

 here was made the first of the colossal fortunes which the manip- 

 ulation of cotton and wool has brought to Great Britain. 



Samuel Crompton, the inventor of mule-spinning, had a differ- 

 ent experience from Arkwright, although he contributed quite as 

 much to the mechanical evolution of the textile industries. His 

 first mule, invented about 1779, carried forty-eight spindles on a 

 movable carriage, the spindles turning on their axes and centers, 

 while the movable carriage was receding from the rollers, which 

 measured out the roving to a certain length. Two pairs of rollers 

 were used, made of wood and covered with sheepskin, having an 

 axis of iron. One pair revolved at a greater speed than the other, 

 thus producing a draught or elongation of three or four inches to 

 one. The carriage with the spindles could, by the movement of 

 the hand and knee, recede just as the rollers delivered out the 

 elongated thread in a soft state, so that it would allow of a con- 

 siderable stretch before the thread had to encounter the stretch of 

 winding on the spindle. Crompton thus adopted the system of 

 spinning by rollers, wedded it to the useful jenny of poor Har- 

 greaves, and endowed that union with the spindle-carriage, which 

 was the crowning merit of his invention. Crompton's mule in- 

 creased the power of a spinner a hundred-fold. 



In this machine was first accomplished the automatic mechani- 

 cal action of the spinner's left arm and forefinger and thumb, 

 which held and elongated the sliver as the spindle was twisting 

 it into yarn. It produced a yarn of much greater fineness and 

 evenness than it had been possible to make by any process pre- 

 viously in use. This invention was the j>rototype of the mule, 

 thousands of which are at work throughout the world to-day. 

 It got this name from its combination of Paul's and Hargreaves's 

 inventions. 



The Crompton machine was correct in principle, but a rude 

 piece of workmanship, dependent in all its original movements 

 upon manual labor. Water was first applied to it as a motive 



* Bcnnet Woodcraft. 



