OF fif^UEL CROMPTON. 331 



public aDcl were of the utmost importance to 

 Crompton*s machine, the door was opened wide 

 for the exertions of ingenuity in preparing the 

 cotton roving, as all could now avail themselves 

 of the advantage displayed by Arkwright's 

 metliod of preparing the cotton for spinning; 

 and the consequence was, that every one who 

 had the slightest talent for constructiveness or 

 appropriativeness feU to work to improve this 

 process.* 



Among the appropriations of this period, 1 786, 

 was the introduction of the machine called the 

 Billy ,f which was a modification of the mule, 

 and was invented to make the rovings for Har- 

 greaves's jenny, and combined the principle of 

 the jenny and the mule. This machine consisted 

 of Crompton's spindle carriage with a clasp, like 

 tlie jenny, but stationary, and a feeding cloth 



* This was done by arran<j^ing the card slivers and slivers 

 belongin;; to the drawing frame, so as to form the fibres of 

 the wool into parallel lines. The renowned Bishop Blaize, of 

 Germany, gave the idea of laying fibrous woolly substances, 

 in a parallel direction, by inventing the wool-comb. Tradition 

 gays, that he was torn to pieces by his own implement, a sacri- 

 fice to the prejudices of the vulgar. 



t By a person at Stockport who received a premium for 

 the ingenuity he thus displayed; it was voted to him by the 

 Jenny Spinners. 



2 T 2 



