1 84 HER OES OF IN VENTION AND DISCO VER Y. 



SAMUEL CROMPTON. 



The history of Samuel Crompton and his famous invention 

 of the mule spinning-machine is an extremely interesting one. 

 Crompton was born on the 3rd of December, 1753, at Firwood, 

 near Bolton. His father was a farmer, and the household, after 

 the custom of Lancashire in those days, employed their leisure 

 in carding, spinning, and weaving. Whilst Samuel was but a 

 child, the family removed to a picturesque, old, rambling house, 

 known as the Hole-in-the-Wood, about a mile from Bolton. 

 Shortly afterwards, the father died. 



Widow Crompton was a strong-minded woman, and carried 

 on her husband's business with energy and thrift. She was 

 noted for her excellent butter, honey, and elder-berry wine. 

 When her son was about sixteen years old, she set him to earn 

 his living by spinning at home, and exacted from him a certain 

 amount of work daily. His youth at Hall-in-the-Wood was 

 passed in comparative seclusion. All day he was alone at 

 work, his mother doing the bargaining and fighting with the 

 outer world. 



It was with one of Hargreaves' jennies that' Crompton span. 

 The yarn was soft, and was constantly breaking ; and if the full 

 quantity of allotted work was not done, Mrs. Crompton scolded, 

 and the time spent in mending broken threads kept him from 

 his books and music, for he was a great reader, and a 

 skilful player on the violin. Much annoyance of this kind 

 drove his ingenuity into the contrivance of some improve- 

 ments. 



Five years — from his twenty-first year in 1774 to his twenty 

 sixth in 1779 — were spent in the construction of the mule 

 " My mind," he relates, " was in a continual endeavour to 



