Crompton

Crompton, SAMUEL, whose invention of the spinning-mule entitles him to rank as one of mankind's greatest benefactors, was born, the son of a small farmer, at Firwood, near Bolton, Lancs. shire, December 3, 1753. Like his father, Crompton was brought up to the loom and the farm. His mother, a woman of great energy, perseverance, and stern independence, when left a widow struggled hard to give him and her two daughters the best education the district afforded. When he was old enough, he assisted her in the farm, and wove, and earned a little money by playing the violin at Bolton theatre. At the age of twenty-one, he was so much annoyed at the breaking ends of yarn and the difficulties in getting it to weave that he set to work to invent a spinning-machine which should produce better yarn than Hargreaves', one of which his mother possessed. For five years he laboured to realise his idea, sitting up late at night to overcome the successive difficulties, and resuming his labour for daily bread early in the morning. In 1779 he succeeded in framing a machine which produced yarn of such astonishing fineness that the house was beset by persons eager to know the secret. He was rendered miserable. All kinds of devices were tried to gain admission; even ladders were placed against the windows. His machine was such that if a mechanic saw it, he could carry away the leading features of it. He could not leave the house for fear of his discovery being stolen from him. He had spent every farthing he had in the world upon its completion; he had no funds wherewith to obtain a patent, and his shy and unbusiness-like temperament prevented him profiting as he should have done by his invention. A Bolton manufacturer persuaded him to disclose the invention to the trade, under the promise of a liberal subscription, but all that he got was £67, 6s. 6d. Soured by this treatment, in the course of time he saved money enough to begin manufacturing on a small scale at Oldhams, near Bolton, and latterly at Bolton, but not till his rivals had a hopeless start of him in the business. After the use of the mule had told distinctly on British manufacturing prosperity, a sum of between £400 and £500 was raised for him by subscription, through Mr John Kennedy, his earliest biographer. Efforts were made to procure for him a national reward. Five thousand pounds was all he obtained in 1812, and he returned to Bolton almost broken-hearted. He began the bleaching trade at Over Darwen, then became a partner in a cotton firm, but was unsuccessful in both. Some friends latterly purchased an annuity of £63 for him. He died June 26, 1827. Crompton's was soon by far the most used of all spinning-machines, and in 1811 the number of spindles on his principle was 4,600,000, while there were only 310,516 of Arkwright's, and 155,880 of Hargreaves'. A monument was placed over his grave, and in 1862 a bronze statue of him erected at Bolton. See Kennedy's Memoir in vol. v. of Memoirs of Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, and French's Life of Crompton (1860).