Samuel Crompton

An early spinning mule: showing the gears

Samuel Crompton (3 December 1753 – 26 June 1827) was an English inventor. Building on the work of James Hargreaves, who invented the Spinning jenny, and Richard Arkwright who invented the spinning frame he invented the spinning mule, a machine that changed the industry worldwide. He was born in Bolton and worked on spinning jennies when he was a boy. He got money by playing the violin at the Bolton theatre and used it to pay for materials. The first mule was made in 1779. It was used to make muslin.

He did not have enough money to take out a patent so other people copied his invention without paying him.

Samuel Crompton Media

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  The only surviving example of a spinning mule built by the inventor Samuel Crompton, in Bolton Museum.

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  "This view of The Hall ith' Wood near Bolton. (where Samuel Crompton invented the first Spinning Mule) ...respectfully dedicated to the Cotton Spinners of Lancashire." Lithograph by F. Jones (Day & Son, Lithographers to the Queen), after Selim Rothwell.

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  Grave of Samuel Crompton, St Peter's churchyard, Bolton, UK