VI] LONDON WORKERS, SECULARISTS, ETC. 93 



He brought a supply weekly, and it was Owen's duty to receive 

 them from him, and being an intelligent man, they had some 

 conversation together. Jones was full of the wonderful 

 improvements then being made in machinery for cotton- 

 spinning. He had seen some of these machines at work, and 

 was sure he could make them and work them if he had a 

 little capital. At last he persuaded Owen to lend him £100 

 (borrowed from 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 regular 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 accepted the offer which they 

 made him, of six of the mule machines, 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 immediately hired an empty build- 

 ing, 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 



