OF SAMUEL CROMPTON. 329 



which enabled hitn to draw it out by his knee 

 with greater steadiness, as at that time he had 

 no method of drawing out the carriage by 

 machinery. 



Having thus given a brief sketch of the " short 

 and simple annals" of Mr. Crompton's life, and 

 described the construction of his spinning ma- 

 chine, I tliink it proper to mention those persons, 

 whose exertions have been conducive to the 

 successive improvements of the mule, together 

 with the description of those parts of the machine 

 which are attributed to them. I shall narrate the 

 circumstances, partly from Mr. Crompton's verbal 

 communications, and partly from those of others 

 on whose testimony I could rely, including the 

 period from 1779 to 1786 or 7,. Although a 

 few, a very few machines were made as described 

 in the account of Cromp ton's spinning machine, 

 the first deviation according to Crompton's own 

 statement, was by an ingenious mechanic, Henry 

 Stones of Horwich, a few miles from Bolton, which 

 might be considered as the seat of the manufacto- 

 ries of the finer fabrick of cotton cloth, in Lanca- 

 shire, at that time. The improvement of Stones 

 was the introduction of metal rollers (he having 

 probably become acquainted with Arkwright's 

 method of rollers for spinning) and clockwork to 

 his rollers, with a chain conveying motion to 



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