Yet, notwithstanding these difficulties, it is not easy to put aside as baseless all the evidence adduced by Guest in support of his case. That Highs was a man with an extraordinary aptitude for invention is undoubted, and it is not improbable, in the activity to discover improved methods of spinning in the sixties of the eighteenth century, that he did experiment with a machine at least similar to the jenny. At the same time, it is scarcely less probable that others did likewise.[307] As already pointed out, the jenny reproduced mechanically the hand operations necessary in spinning with the wheel, and a machine of the character of the jenny was the obvious line of advance. Although Highs was a man in whose mind the idea of the jenny was likely to originate, it is impossible, on the evidence, to say that it did so. What does seem clear is, that it was in association with Hargreaves that the jenny became a practicable machine, although when it left his hands it was not a perfect machine and quickly underwent improvements.[308] Nevertheless, it had made possible the spinning of weft with a facility before unknown, and it maintained its position in the cotton industry for a long period, when it was largely superseded by the “mule.” [Footnote 307: “Ce que Hargreaves trouva, beaucoup d’autres l’avaient cherché en même temps que lui.... C’est ainsi que Hargreaves put être accusé de n’être pas le premier ou le seul auteur de son invention” (Mantoux, _La Révolution au XVIII^e Siècle_, p. 210).] [Footnote 308: Guest, _British Cotton Manufacture_, p. 195.] Probably, as M. Mantoux suggests,[309] Hargreaves did not at first realise the importance of what had been achieved, which would explain his tardy application for a patent. Doubtless the application in 1770 was induced by the increasing use of the jenny, and by the fact that Arkwright had been sufficiently enterprising to obtain a patent for his machinery in the preceding year. That Hargreaves was unfortunate in his patent need not be questioned, but it is some satisfaction to know, on the authority of Baines and others,[310] that in his business at Nottingham, where he and his partner, Thomas James, are claimed to have established the first cotton-mill in the world,[311] he was at least moderately successful. [Footnote 309: _Ibid._, p. 211.] [Footnote 310: Baines, _ibid._, pp. 162-163. Abram, _History of Blackburn_, 205-206. Baines mentions that Hargreaves’ widow received £400 as her husband’s share in his business. Abram adds the information that Hargreaves left property of the estimated value of £4000, but states that about the middle of the nineteenth century two of his daughters were living in poverty in Manchester and that a subscription was raised with difficulty on their behalf.] [Footnote 311: Wylie and Briscoe, _History of Nottingham_, p. 101.]