Another memorial of Crompton which the town of Bolton now possesses is Hall-i’-th’-Wood, where the idea of the mule took rise in the inventor’s mind, and in 1779 assumed material form.[484] The Hall is outside the town and overlooks it, but at the present day, although the surrounding country has undergone such changes, it is not difficult to realise what it must have been one hundred and fifty years ago. The town was then known as Bolton-le-Moors, and in 1773 with Little Bolton and the Manor of Bolton contained 5339 inhabitants.[485] From the centre of a sparsely populated country district, it has been transformed into the centre of the fine cotton spinning industry of England, and of the world. The town is now the county borough of Bolton, with a population approaching 200,000, and with the district, according to a recent return, contains one hundred and twelve firms engaged in the cotton industry, working nearly seven and a half million spindles, and over twenty-four thousand looms.[486] In its commercial organisation the town stands as a witness to the world economy which has come into existence; in its industrial organisation, as a witness to the existence of the factory system. It is these facts, with all that they imply, which form the most striking memorial to Crompton, who, as one among other outstanding figures of his day, played no small part in the development of which they are the expression.
Sufficient has been said in the previous chapter to indicate the place which Crompton’s invention occupied in the development of the cotton industry during the latter years of the eighteenth and the early years of the nineteenth centuries. A striking thing was the rapid increase in the size of the machine, particularly after 1790. The first mule constructed by Crompton contained only 48 spindles; in 1795 the smallest mule made by M‘Connel & Kennedy appears to have had 144 spindles. In February of that year a correspondent was informed “in respect to what number of spindles may be most profitable, it is difficult to fix, as what was thought best only two years ago is now thought too small.... We are now making from 180 to 288 spindles.” Three months later, in reply to another correspondent, it was stated that most of the mules were then made to go by steam or water, and in the next year we find them supplying mules to work in pairs, the two containing 372 spindles. In 1799 they were making single mules with 300 spindles, and in the same year Dobson & Rothwell were making them with 408 spindles.[487] When Ure published his Cotton Manufacture in 1836 the largest mules then in use apparently contained somewhat over 500 spindles. At the present day they are made to three times the size, a pair of mules containing 2000 to 2500 spindles being common.
But in addition to enlargement the mule as invented by Crompton has, of course, undergone vast improvements. As we have seen, movements originally performed by hand soon came to be performed by mechanical means, the culmination of this kind of improvement being reached in the invention of the “self-actor” mule.[488] Yet, notwithstanding these and other improvements, it can still be said that the fundamental motions of the mule remain the same as in Crompton’s original machine.
For a time in the early part of the nineteenth century the mule came into use to such an extent that it appeared that it would entirely displace the water-frame. With the appearance of the “Throstle,” which was really an important improvement in the water-frame, the tendency was somewhat checked, and later in the century with other improvements the supremacy of the mule was again challenged. Consequently the great rival of the mule at the present day in the world’s cotton industry is the “Ring Spinning Frame,” which may be regarded as standing in much the same relation to the original water-frame, as does the self-actor mule to the original mule. The following figures show the position in recent years:—
COTTON-SPINNING SPINDLES. SPINNERS’ RETURNS,
31ST AUGUST IN EACH YEAR[489]
| Great Britain | All Countries including Great Britain | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mule Spindles in work as per Returns | Ring Spindles in work as per Returns | Mule Spindles in work as per Returns | Ring Spindles in work as per Returns | |
| 1910 | 40,101,083 | 7,987,430 | 65,051,239 | 54,421,786 |
| 1911 | 39,977,255 | 8,050,925 | 65,231,044 | 56,046,153 |
| 1912 | 39,848,727 | 8,885,218 | 65,311,070 | 61,426,062 |
| 1913 | 40,493,532 | 9,312,236 | 64,325,243 | 65,570,408 |
From these figures it will be seen that in Great Britain the mule still vastly predominates, and that in other countries the opposite is the case.[490] It is unnecessary to enumerate here the particular economic advantages of one machine compared with the other,[491] but in explanation of the international position it has to be borne in mind that, for spinning the higher qualities of yarn, the mule is superior to the ring-frame, also, that it is a much more complicated machine, and requires more highly skilled labour for its construction and operation.[492] As regards such labour, this country has been highly favoured compared with most of the other countries where the cotton industry is carried on. Even so, it appears that in British cotton mills ring-spindles are increasing at a greater rate than mule-spindles, and in the mills of other countries the fact is more pronounced. Whether the above figures represent a permanent tendency a longer period will be required to show, but, in any case, it is certain that the development of the cotton industry during the past century and a half, particularly in the United Kingdom, cannot be fully understood apart from the service which has been rendered by the invention of Samuel Crompton.
CHAPTER VII
LETTERS OF SAMUEL CROMPTON
In view of what has been said in the last two chapters, the following letters explain themselves. The first has reference to the 1803 subscription, and the others to the parliamentary grant in 1812. As will be seen, four of the letters were sent in the first place to Crompton’s family, and then, apparently, handed to Mr. Kennedy. The others, including the one from Mr. Lee, were addressed either to Mr. Kennedy or to the firm of M‘Connel & Kennedy. The letters form a consecutive narrative, but in order to present a full account of the matter to which they refer, the petition to the House of Commons, and the evidence before the Committee appointed in connection with it, have been introduced in their appropriate places.
As Crompton did not pay much attention to punctuation, and was prone to abbreviate, a few stops have been introduced, and some abbreviated words printed in full; also a few words [in brackets] have been added. Otherwise the letters are printed as Crompton wrote them.