Born in Middlesex, May 20, 1772. Died May 3, 1828.
Sir William Congreve was the son of the first baronet, an Artillery officer of the same name. He entered early into the branch of military service his father had pursued, and, in 1816, attained in it the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He was also at this time equerry to the Prince Regent, which office he retained on the occasion of his quitting the military service in 1820. Congreve very early distinguished himself by his inventions in the construction of missiles. He invented the rocket which bears his name in the year 1808, and succeeded in establishing this destructive engine of warfare as a permanent instrument in military and naval tactics, both at home and abroad. It was used by Lord Cochrane in his attack on the French squadron in the Basque roads, in the expedition against Walcheren, at Waterloo, and with most serviceable effect in the attack on Algiers. It was also used at the battle of Leipzig in 1813, and for its service on this occasion the Order of St. Anne was conferred on Sir William by the Emperor of Russia. Since that time the rocket has been much improved and modified, and has become an essential part of every armament, not in England alone, but universally.
Sir William Congreve was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in the year 1811. In 1812 he became a Member of Parliament for Gatton, and in 1820 and 1826 for Plymouth. He succeeded his father as baronet in 1814. Besides the above important invention, Sir William wrote and published in 1812 an 'Elementary Treatise on the Mounting of Naval Ordnance,' and in 1815 'A Description of the Hydro-Pneumatic Lock.' During the course of the same year he obtained a patent for a new mode of manufacturing gunpowder. This invention consisted, first, of a machine for producing as perfect a mixture as possible of the ingredients; and, secondly, of an improved mode of passing the mill-cake under the press, and a new granulating machine. In 1819 a patent was granted to him for an improved mode of inlaying or combining different metals, and another for certain improvements in the manufacture of bank-note paper for the prevention of forgery.
The last public service performed by Sir William was the drawing up and publishing, in 1823, a very interesting report on the gaslight establishments of the metropolis. In 1826, he became mixed up in the speculative mania which prevailed at that period, and was ultimately compelled to seek refuge on the continent at Toulouse, where he shortly afterwards died at the age of fifty-six.—Annual Register, 1828.
SAMUEL CROMPTON.
Born December 3, 1753. Died June 26, 1827.
Few men, perhaps, have ever conferred so great a benefit on their country and reaped so little profit for themselves as Samuel Crompton, inventor of the Spinning Mule. He was born at Firwood, in the township of Tonge near Bolton, where his parents occupied a farm, and spent their leisure hours according to the custom of the period—in the operations of carding, spinning, and weaving. Soon after the birth of Samuel, the Cromptons removed to a cottage near Lower Wood in the same township, and afterwards, when their child was five years old, to a portion of the neighbouring ancient mansion called Hall-in-the-Wood. Almost immediately after this last removal Samuel's father died, at the early age of thirty seven, and he was left to be brought up under the care of his mother, a prudent and virtuous woman, who took care that her son should have the benefit of all available means of education. Samuel first attended the school of Mr. Lever in Church Street, Bolton, but was very early removed to the school of William Barlow, a master well known at that time for his success as a teacher of writing, arithmetic, and the higher branches of mathematics.
From the exigencies of her situation, Mrs. Crompton was compelled to take advantage of her son's assistance, as soon as she possibly could, and there is little doubt that Samuel's legs must have been accustomed to the loom almost as soon as they were long enough to touch the treddles. Little, however, is known of his early life until the year 1769. He was then sixteen years old, and continued to reside with his mother, occupied during the day at the loom and spending his evenings at a school in Bolton, where he advanced his knowledge of algebra, mathematics, and trigonometry. For some years previous to this period there had been a greatly increased demand for all kinds of cotton goods, particularly for imitations of the fine muslins imported from India; and many attempts were made by the manufacturers in Lancashire and Scotland to produce similar fabrics, but without success, for the handspun yarn of this country could not compete with the delicate filaments produced by Hindoo fingers. Still, the demand for fine cottons of various kinds was so considerable, that the weavers, for the sake of high wages, were stimulated to make great exertions. But they were continually impeded by the scarcity of yarn for weft, which often kept them idle half their time, or compelled them to collect it in small quantities from the cottages round about.
Another important cause of this scarcity had been the invention of the fly-shuttle, by Kay of Bury, in 1738, which by doubling the speed of the weaver's operations, had destroyed the arrangement which, up to that time, existed between the quantity of yarn spun and the weavers' demand for it. This natural balance, the fly-shuttle suddenly disturbed, and, notwithstanding the great efforts of others, it was not again adjusted until after Crompton's invention was in full operation. Such was the weavers' state of starvation for yarn, when, in 1767, Hargreaves invented the jenny, which enabled a number of threads to be spun at the same time.