believe that he died in
moderate circumstances.

The register of St. Mary's Parish, Nottingham, contains the following
entry:--"1778, April 22, James Hargraves."

CHAPTER VIII.

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS--ARKWRIGHT AND CROMPTON.

Whatever may be said in favour of other spinning machinery inventors, it
is quite certain that when we put the whole of them together, two stand
out in greater prominence than any of the rest, viz., Arkwright and
Crompton.

Probably the former did more than any other Englishman to establish what
is known as the Modern Factory System. He was not what one might call a
brilliant man or great inventor, but he had the happy knack of
appreciating and seizing upon what he knew was a good thing, and set
about instantly to get all out of it that he could, and there are those
who strongly affirm that he often got much more than he was entitled to.

However that may be, it can not be denied that he possessed eminent
business qualifications, and these, coupled with other of his qualities,
helped to make him exceedingly successful.

He first saw the light of day on December 23rd, 1732, in Preston,
Lancashire, twenty-one years before his great rival and contemporary,
Samuel Crompton. His parents could not possibly afford to give him any
schooling, he being the youngest of thirteen. Apprenticed to the trade
of barber, he became in time a first-rate man in that business. In 1760,
when twenty-eight years of age, he left Preston and settled down in
Bolton in Lancashire, setting up the business of barber and
peruke-maker. The youthful Samuel Crompton would no doubt pay him many
visits when in Churchgate, and little did he dream that the head he so
often would undoubtedly use his skill upon was the one which would
evolve by and by a machine which would amaze the then commercial world;
but it was so. Another part of Arkwright's business, that of travelling
up and down the country buying and selling human hair for wig-making,
would put him _au fait_ with almost every new invention and idea.

Richard's business card proves that he believed in advertising himself
even as a barber.

Just about this time there was much excitement, especially in
Lancashire, about the marvellous invention of Hargreaves, the
particulars of which had now become known to the public. One of the
first to appreciate the significance of this invention was Arkwright
himself, so that it may reasonably be supposed that he would in goo