LONDON WORKERS, SECULARISTS, ETC. 93 



his brother in London), for which he was to have half the 

 profits of the work. Owen accordingly left his employer after 

 due notice, and rented a suitable machine shop, in which about 

 forty men were soon employed making the newly invented 

 " mules " for spinning cotton. Jones superintended the work, 

 and Owen kept the accounts, paid the men, and saw that regu- 

 lar hours were worked, he being the first to enter and the last 

 to leave the workshop. The " mules " were sold as quickly as 

 made, and thus the small capital was made to serve ; but Owen 

 soon saw that Jones had no business capacity, whereas Owen 

 was, as he afterwards proved, one of the greatest organizers 

 who ever lived. He, therefore, watched the work closely, 

 learnt all he could about it, and when an offer was made by 

 another person with some capital to buy him out, he gladly ac- 

 cepted the offer which they made him, of six of the mule ma- 

 chines, a reel, and a making-up machine with which to pack 

 the skeins of yarn into bundles for sale. He, however, only 

 received three mules with the two other machines, and imme- 

 diately hired an empty building, set them up in one of the 

 rooms, bought the cotton rovings, ready for spinning, and 

 hired three men to work the machines. The finished yarn was 

 spun in hanks of one hundred and forty yards each, the hanks 

 made up into bundles of five pounds weight, and wrapped 

 neatly in paper, all which work was done by himself, and he 

 then sold it to the agent of some Glasgow manufacturers of 

 British muslins, then quite a new business. In this way he 

 found he could make a clear profit of £6 a week. 



A few months later he accidentally heard that a wealthy 

 manufacturer, Mr. Drinkwater, had advertised for a manager 

 for some new spinning-mills which he had just built and filled 

 with the best machinery under the management of Mr. Lee, 

 a civil engineer, who had unexpectedly left him, he himself 

 knowing nothing of the business. Owen applied for the post, 

 being then barely twenty years old, and looking younger. 

 He asked £300 a year salary; and after a few inquiries as to 

 character, seeing his little factory of three mules, and examin- 

 ing his books, Mr. Drinkwater engaged him, and about a week 

 afterwards he was called upon to take charge of a large fac- 



