The Life and Times of Samuel Crompton: Inventor of the Spinning Machine Called the Mule. With an Appendix of Original Documents, Including a Paper on the Origin of Spinning by Rollers, Read by Robert Cole ... to the British Association for the Advancement of Science

Front Cover
T. Dinham & Company; [ect., 1860 - Spinning - 299 pages

From inside the book

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 6 - ... to travel this terrible country, to avoid it as they would the devil ; for a thousand to one but they break their necks or their limbs by overthrows or breakings down.
Page 219 - Neither doth their industry rest here, for they buy cotton wool in London, that comes first from Cyprus and Smyrna, and at home...
Page 255 - ... his executors, administrators, and assigns, shall and lawfully may have and enjoy the whole profit, benefit, commodity, and advantage, from time to time coming, growing, accruing, and arising by reason of the said invention, for and during the term of...
Page 255 - ... no others, from time to time, and at all times thereafter during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise and vend...
Page 68 - We, whose names are hereunto subscribed, have agreed to give, and do hereby promise to pay unto, Samuel Crompton, at the Hall-in-the-Wood, near Bolton, the several sums opposite to our names, as a reward for his improvement in spinning.
Page 6 - They will here meet with ruts, which I actually measured, four feet deep, and floating with mud only from a wet summer ; what, therefore, must it be after a winter ! The only mending it in places receives, is the tumbling in some loose stones, which serve no other purpose but jolting a carriage in the most intolerable manner. These are not merely opinions, but facts, for I actually passed three carts broken down in these eighteen miles of execrable memory.
Page 77 - I again trode it down. This process was continued until the mug became so full that I could no longer safely stand in it, when a chair was placed beside it, and I held on by the back. When the mug was quite full, the soap suds were poured off, and each separate dollop6'' of wool well squeezed to free it from moisture.
Page 19 - ... demand for it. This natural balance, the flyshuttle 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...
Page 109 - In 1800 some gentlemen of Manchester, sensible that Mr. Crompton had been ill-used and neglected, agreed without his previous knowledge to promote a subscription on such a scale as would result in a substantial reward for his labours, a provision for his family, and a sufficient security for his comfort during life. The principal promoters of this scheme were Mr. George Lee and Mr. Kennedy...
Page 6 - I know not, in the whole range of language, terms sufficiently expressive to describe this infernal road. To look over a map, and perceive that it is a principal one, not only to some towns, but even whole counties, one would naturally conclude it to be at least decent ; but let me most seriously caution all travellers who may accidentally purpose to travel this terrible county to avoid it as they would the devil, for a thousand to one but they break their necks or their limbs by overthrows or breakings-down.

Bibliographic information