As regards that part of the explanation connected with the character of the mule, it has to be borne in mind that its use involved the use of the rollers, for which Arkwright already held a patent. Only by some arrangement with him could the mule have been openly brought into use, and it is hard to believe that this fact was not recognised, and, seeing that such an arrangement would probably have been in Arkwright’s interest, that it did not influence Mr. Pilkington’s advice.
In 1807 a writer insisted upon the relation between the mule and the rollers and claimed that, at first, the mule was not used publicly without Arkwright’s permission.[370] Evidence that such permission was given in any case is difficult to discover, but apart from it, the statement of Ure that had not Arkwright’s patent been annulled, the mule, as embodying the system of rollers, must have remained in abeyance until the end of its term, seems justified.[371] Unless the view is taken that the verdict in the 1781 trial annulled the patent of 1769 (which was never claimed), this means that the mule could not be freely used until 1783, notwithstanding that verdict, and, as the 1775 patent contained the system of rollers, it would come under legal restriction again during the short period that intervened between the second and third trials in 1785.
But this suggests another point: is it not probable that the appearance of the mule does much to explain the infringements of Arkwright’s patent against which he instituted the actions in 1781? Similarly, does it not do much to explain the energy with which the actions were defended, particularly in view of the fact that Peel’s firm was included among those that subscribed £1, 1s. in order that Crompton would give publicity to his machine? Unless some arrangement had been made, Arkwright would have every inducement to prevent the mule coming into use; on the other side, an opportunity was presented of outwitting Arkwright, and of securing the free use of a machine even superior to that for which he held a patent. Here, it appears, we get the elements of the trouble which culminated in the trial of 1781.
Whatever justification there may have been for the opposition to Arkwright’s patent, the action of those engaged in the cotton industry in regard to Crompton in 1780 was despicable. An inhabitant of Bolton writing in 1799 stated that “the inventor received from the subscription of individuals 100l. for making his invention public; the sum of 200l. he says was promised him, which promise was never fulfilled.”[372] It may have been that Crompton did give his consent on the promise of such a sum: a similar sum was given to Highs in 1771 and suggested for the man Milne in 1782, and may have been regarded as customary.[373] Be this as it may, Crompton did not obtain it in 1780, and his treatment at that time must always remain as a reproach to those concerned.
By nature Crompton was probably a man of rather gloomy temperament. He would probably have been as happy as was possible to him, with a modest competence, living his life in a corner, but there can be little doubt that this incident accentuated what nature had endowed him with, and he brooded over the injustice to the end of his life. Moreover, it is probable that it checked the exercise of his inventive genius. Four or five years later he was experimenting with a carding-machine,[374] which, French tells us, he ultimately destroyed in the belief that it would be purloined.[375] In view of the date of the experiment one cannot help wondering whether it was carried on during the short period in 1785, when Arkwright’s patent rights were temporarily restored, and had as its object the displacement of his carding machinery.
By the time these patent rights were finally annulled considerable improvements had been effected in the mule, and from about that date there followed a great extension of its use. Up to 1783 Mr. Kennedy did not think that Crompton’s machine was in use to the extent of a thousand spindles,[376] and it must be recognised that it was in a crude state of construction when it left his hands. Crompton was not a practical mechanic and his work was performed with the simplest tools. He was acquainted with the jenny, but he informed Mr. Kennedy that, when he constructed his machine, he was unacquainted with Arkwright’s rollers.[377] This may have meant, not that he had not heard of them, but that he had not seen them at work, which is not improbable, seeing that, at that time, they were only in use by Arkwright himself, and by those who had purchased the right to use them. If Crompton had neither heard of them nor seen them, it appears that he would have to be regarded as another discoverer of the roller method. The evidence is too slight, however, to allow a confident assertion on this point. Mr. Kennedy’s statement that Crompton at first used a single pair of rollers, expecting to attenuate the roving by pressure, and on the failure of this method was led to adopt a second pair, one pair revolving at a higher speed than the other, certainly suggests that he had no previous close acquaintance with the roller method.[378] Indeed, one having heard of it, but not having seen it, might well have proceeded on these lines.
II
Like the jenny and unlike the water-frame, the mule in its early stages was entirely worked by hand, and was chiefly used in the cottages in country districts.[379] The method of spinning by it soon became well known “from the circumstance of the high wages that could be obtained by those working on it, above the ordinary wages of other artisans, such as shoemakers, joiners, hat-makers, &c. who on that account left their previous employment.... By their industry, skill, and economy, these men first becoming proprietors of perhaps a single mule, and persevering in habits so intimately connected with success, were afterwards the most extensive spinners in the trade.”[380]
It was also by such men that many minor improvements were effected in the mule: “For in the course of their working the machine if there was any little thing out of gear, each workman endeavoured to fill up the deficiency with some expedient suggested by his former trade; the smith suggested a piece of iron, the shoemaker a welt of leather, &c., all of which had a good effect in improving the machine. Each put what he thought best to the experiment, and that which was good was retained.... It would be vain to enumerate all the little additions to Crompton’s original machine; also as they arose so much out of one another, it is impossible to give to every claimant, what is exactly his due for improvements.”[381]
But there were more conspicuous improvements effected in the mule during the first six or seven years after it was made public, and among them were those of Henry Stones of Horwich, who, it is believed, was the first maker of mules after Crompton, either for his own use or for the use of others. His improvements consisted in the introduction of metal rollers, in place of wooden ones, and of a self-acting contrivance to stop them when they had given out the required length of roving, while various devices came into use for measuring the number of revolutions necessary for this purpose. One effect of the improvements of Stones was to allow the mule to be enlarged to 100 or 130 spindles.[382] Soon afterwards a man named Baker of Bury introduced other improvements which enabled the whole machine to be further enlarged, and another man, Hargreaves of Toddington (Tottington near Bury?), contrived a method for bringing out the carriage.[383]