36 CROMPTON. 



attended the school of Mr. Lever in Church Street, Bolton, but was 

 very early removed to the school of William Barlow, a master well 

 known at that time for his success as a teacher of writing, arith- 

 metic, and the higher branches of mathematics. 



From the exigencies of her situation, Mrs. Crompton was com- 

 pelled to take advantage of her son's assistance, as soon as she 

 possibly could, and there is little doubt that Samuel's legs must 

 have been accustomed to the loom almost as soon as they were long 

 enough to touch the treddles. Little, however, is known of his 

 early life until the year 1769. He was then sixteen years old, and 

 continued to reside with his mother, occupied during the day at the 

 loom and spending his evenings at a school in Bolton, where he 

 advanced his knowledge of algebra, mathematics, and trigonometry. 

 For some years previous to this period there had been a greatly 

 increased demand for all kinds of cotton goods, particularly for 

 imitations of the fine muslins imported from India; and many 

 attempts were made by the manufacturers in Lancashire and Scot- 

 land to produce similar fabrics, but without success, for the handspun 

 yarn of this country could not compete with the delicate filaments 

 produced by Hindoo fingers. Still, the demand for fine cottons of 

 various kinds was so considerable, that the weavers, for the sake of 

 high wages, were stimulated to make great exertions. But they 

 were continually impeded by the scarcity of yarn for weft, which 

 often kept them idle half their time, or compelled them to collect it 

 in small quantities from the cottages round about. 



Another important cause of this scarcity had been the invention 

 of the fly-shuttle, by Kay of Bury, in 1738, which by doubling the 

 speed of the weaver's operations, had destroyed the arrangement 

 which, up to that time, existed between the quantity of yarn spun 

 and the weavers' demand for it. This natural balance, the fly- 

 shuttle suddenly disturbed, and, notwithstanding the great efforts 

 of others, it was not again adjusted until after Crompton's invention 

 was in full operation. Such was the weavers' state of starvation for 

 yarn, when, in 1767, Hargreaves invented the jenny, which enabled 

 a number of threads to be spun at the same time. 



It was on one of these machines with eight spindles, that Samuel 

 Crompton was in the habit of spinning the yarn which he afterwards 

 wove into quilting, and he continued thus occupied for the five 

 following years. During this period, being debarred from company 

 and accustomed to solitude, he began to show a taste for music ; to 

 gratify which he was led to the first trial of his mechanical skill in 

 making a violin, upon which he commenced learning to play. With 

 this musical friend Crompton would beguile many a long winter 

 night, or during the summer evenings wander contemplatively 

 among the green lanes, or by the margin of the pleasant brook that 

 swept round the romantic old residence of Hall-in-the-Wood. He 

 had, however, little leisure in general to spend with his favourite 



