The Spinning Mule
Samuel Crompton
As the inventor of the ??Spinning Mule??, Samuel Crompton played an important role in the development of Manchester??s textile industry in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Inventive Genius
Born in a quaint thatched cottage in Bolton, Greater Manchester on a cold December day in 1753, Crompton was a great inventor and his work made fortunes for those who used them.
The Spinning Mule was a key element in the explosion of the Manchester textile industry, as the Mule was the foundation of textile mass-production techniques. Crompton funded his invention by playing the fiddle at the Bolton Theatre for a few pence a show, and his invention cost him ??every shilling I had in the world??.
Unfortunately, despite Crompton??s inventive genius, he was too poor to patent his Spinning Mule, and sold it for just ??60. He was later to die in poverty. The Spinning Mule was a key element in the explosion of the Manchester textile industry, as the Mule was the foundation of textile mass-production techniques.
Models of Crompton??s Mule can be found at Hall I'Th?? Wood and the family cottage, Firwood Fold in Bolton where he created the Mule.
Monument
In 1827, Samuel Crompton died and was buried in the grounds of St Peter??s Church, Bolton and 35 years later in 1862 a monument was erected in his memory in Nelson??s square in Bolton. Quite fittingly the statue had been paid for by donations from textile engineering workers.
Submitted by: Iain Patterson, 11 March 2003
