To combine in a superior spinning-machine, the most important principles of those with which the names of James Hargreaves and Richard Arkwright are associated, is the task accomplished by Samuel Crompton. This machine was the “mule,” and whatever doubt there may be as to the real inventor of the jenny and the rollers, no serious doubt has ever been cast upon the title of Crompton as the inventor of the mule. In the letters printed in the following pages he informs us how, where, why, and when he invented the machine, and some indication is given of its effects upon the development of a new cotton manufacture. In addition, we have a vivid account of his efforts, and of the measures taken, to obtain adequate recompense for his ingenuity as inventor. The letters are so complete in themselves that, in many respects, little needs to be added to them. But after a lapse of one hundred and forty years from the date when Crompton began to invent his machine, it should be possible to place it more adequately in its relations than it was when the letters were written. To give a detailed account of Crompton’s life and labours is not required, as that task has been excellently performed by his fellow-townsman, Gilbert J. French, and also by his staunch friend, John Kennedy.[355] But, in association with these letters, to give some of the outstanding facts of his career will be considered excusable and even necessary. [Footnote 355: French, _The Life and Times of Samuel Crompton_, first edition, 1859. The references which follow are to this edition. Kennedy, _A Brief Memoir of Samuel Crompton_, Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, vol. v., second series, 1831.] When Crompton was born, on the 3rd of December 1753, his parents lived at Firwood Fold, a hamlet in the township of Tonge, in the parish of Bolton, but about a mile outside the town. Soon after his birth they removed to another cottage in the same township, and, when he was about five years old, they took up their residence in a portion of a large picturesque dwelling near by, which Lancashire folk call Hall-i’-th’-Wood.[356] It was here where, according to his own account, as early as 1772, he began his endeavours to discover a method of producing a better quality of yarn than that which he as a weaver had to use.[357] This was two years after Hargreaves had taken out his belated patent for the jenny, and three years after Arkwright had obtained his patent for the rollers. Two or three years before 1772, Crompton is stated to have spun upon a jenny,[358] and, if the statement is correct, it substantiates the view already expressed, that before Hargreaves took out his patent the jenny was in common use. [Footnote 356: French, _ibid._, pp. 2, 26-27.] [Footnote 357: _Infra_, p. 167.] [Footnote 358: Kennedy, _ibid._, p. 319.]