Crompton commenced the construction of this machine, which for many years was known by the name of the 'Hall-i'-th'-Wood Wheels,' in the year 1774. His first spinning-mule was constructed chiefly in wood, by the aid of a scanty supply of tools which had been left by his father, who, enthusiastically fond of music, had shortly before his death commenced making an organ. With the help of these tools, and the assistance which a small wayside smithy afforded him, Samuel Crompton completed that invention which, from the extended benefits it has conferred upon our commerce, entitles him to rank amongst the greatest inventors Britain has ever produced. The important part of his invention was the spindle carriage, and the principle of there being no strain upon the thread until it was completed. This was accomplished by causing the carriage with the spindles to recede by the movement of the hand and knee, just as the rollers delivered out the elongated thread in a soft state, so that it would allow of a considerable stretch, before the thread had to encounter the stress of winding upon the spindle. "This," as the late Mr. Kennedy of Manchester truly said, "was the corner stone of his invention." When Crompton was on the eve of completing his first mule, about the year 1779, the Blackburn spinners and weavers, who had previously driven Hargreaves from his home, again commenced their riotous proceedings, and began to destroy all the jennys round about, which had more than twenty spindles. Crompton, fearful lest his new machine should meet with a similar fate, took it to pieces and kept it hid in a loft above the ceiling of his room during several weeks. In the course of the same year, however, the Hall-i'-th'-Wood Wheel was completed, and the yarn spun on it proved fit for the manufacture of muslins of an extremely fine and delicate texture. Shortly before this, Crompton had married Mary Pimlott, the daughter of a gentleman residing at New Keys Hall, near Warrington. After his marriage he lived in a cottage attached to the old Hall, though he still continued to occupy part of the mansion, in one of whose large rooms he now operated upon the mule with the utmost secrecy and with perfect success, startling the manufacturing world by the production of yarn which both in fineness and firmness had hitherto been unattainable. This seems to have been the happiest portion of Crompton's life. He was then twenty-seven years of age, and the acknowledged inventor of a machine which, from the first hour of its operation, altered the entire system of cotton manufacture in this country. Its merit was universally acknowledged by all engaged in the trade who had an opportunity to examine the yarn spun on it, or the fabrics made from that yarn; but paradoxical as it may appear, the very _perfection of his principle of spinning_, was in a measure instrumental in depriving him of the harvest for which he had so laboriously worked.