He first saw the light of day on December 23rd, 1732, in Preston, Lancashire, twenty-one years before his great rival and contemporary, Samuel Crompton. His parents could not possibly afford to give him any schooling, he being the youngest of thirteen. Apprenticed to the trade of barber, he became in time a first-rate man in that business. In 1760, when twenty-eight years of age, he left Preston and settled down in Bolton in Lancashire, setting up the business of barber and peruke-maker. The youthful Samuel Crompton would no doubt pay him many visits when in Churchgate, and little did he dream that the head he so often would undoubtedly use his skill upon was the one which would evolve by and by a machine which would amaze the then commercial world; but it was so. Another part of Arkwright's business, that of travelling up and down the country buying and selling human hair for wig-making, would put him _au fait_ with almost every new invention and idea. Richard's business card proves that he believed in advertising himself even as a barber. Just about this time there was much excitement, especially in Lancashire, about the marvellous invention of Hargreaves, the particulars of which had now become known to the public. One of the first to appreciate the significance of this invention was Arkwright himself, so that it may reasonably be supposed that he would in good time know all there was to be known of the mechanism used by Hargreaves in his new method of spinning. Later on, Arkwright became acquainted with a man named Highs of Leigh, another experimenter in spinning. The circle of his acquaintanceship also included Kay, a clockmaker of Warrington, who had assisted Highs on several occasions in his investigations. At this time Arkwright's all-absorbing hobby was mechanics, and first one experiment and then another was made in rapid succession. Needless to say, his business of barbering suffered in the meanwhile. From the first he turned his attention to an improvement of spinning cotton by drawing rollers. His efforts were crowned with success, and he ultimately blossomed into a knight, and was elected High Sheriff of Derbyshire. It is rather singular that he should be about the only one of the cotton-machinery inventors of this age who amassed a fortune; most of the others being but slightly removed from want in their last days. There were many who claimed that they were the real and original inventors of this method of spinning by rollers, but there can be no doubt that to Arkwright alone belongs the credit for bringing these improvements to a higher state of perfection than they ever attained before. At the present time, roller drawing is the great basis of the operations of modern spinning, wherever performed. Not only is this the case in the final stages of production, but it is especially true of most of the preparatory processes, whether used for the production of coarse, medium or fine yarns.