The inventions of Arkwright, Paul and others had certainly done much toward supplying this demand, but in Crompton's youth and early manhood the need of suitable weft was greater than ever. Mrs. Crompton was not long in hearing about the Jenny of Hargreaves, and determined she would get one for her son to work upon. This she did, and Crompton very soon became familiar with it and produced upon it sufficient weft for their own use. This he continued to do for seven or eight years, although he constantly had the truth forced upon him, that the yarn he was producing was neither as suitable for warps as that from Arkwright's water frame, nor at all adapted for the fine muslins then very much in requisition for ladies' dresses. The manufacture of these muslins and of cotton quiltings was commenced in Bolton, Lancashire, by Joseph Shaw, when Crompton was about ten years of age; and from that time up to the present, no town in the world enjoys the same reputation for this class of goods as does Bolton. With so contemplative and reflective a mind as Crompton's, and the many years of constant and, to a great extent, solitary occupation on Hargreaves' Jenny, it is not to be wondered at that Crompton's ingenious brain led him to devise some mechanism for improving the jenny on which he worked. In 1774, therefore, he began those experiments which, after five years labour, resulted in the invention of the "New Wheel," or "Muslin Wheel," or "Hall ith Wood Wheel," as it was variously designated. The term "Mule" was of later application, owing to its comprising the essential features of both Arkwright's and Hargreaves' inventions. Because it was a cross or combination of the two it received the name of Mule, by which it is known to-day. At the very time Crompton perfected his machine sufficiently to give it a practical test, the Blackburn spinners and weavers were going riotously about, smashing to pieces every jenny with more than twenty spindles, that could be found for miles around the locality, so that Crompton took elaborate pains to conceal the various parts of his new machine in the ceiling of his work-room at the Hall ith Wood in order to prevent their destruction. Crompton's hopes and prospects were very bright at this time, as he had a watch costing five guineas expressly made for him, and just after the completion of his invention, he married one Mary Pimlott, at Bolton Parish Church, 16th February 1780. He was then but twenty-seven years of age, and his great invention, destined to revolutionise the cotton trade, was already an accomplished fact although practically a secret to the world at large.