Who did come after Arkwright?" queried Mary.

"Crompton--Samuel Crompton," was the prompt reply. "He was a little boy
when Arkwright was tooting round the country trading hair and wigs. The
two men may even have happened to see one another somewhere. That
wouldn't be impossible, you know. Anyway, during the time that
Arkwright was fighting the right to his roller patent; going into
partnership with rich men who could finance his schemes; and building
his chain of mills at Nottingham, Cromford, and Matlock, Crompton was
growing up. As some of these mills were worked by horse power and some
by water power, the name of 'water frame' clung to Arkwright's
invention. Crompton, like everybody else who lived at the time, saw the
rivalry between Hargreaves's jenny and Arkwright's water frame. It was
of course silly that there should have been rivalry, for the two
machines did quite different sorts of work. Arkwright's water frame was
better for making the warp and long threads of cloth; and Hargreaves's
jenny turned out better weft, or the kind of thread that went from side
to side. It was only a matter of the sort of thread you needed,
understand."

"Then they certainly needn't have been jealous of one another,"
commented Mrs. McGregor.

"Fortunately in time they found that out and realized that each loom
had its advantages; to-day both are used--one for one purpose, one for
another. But no matter how many enemies Arkwright had everybody,
whether they liked him or not, was compelled to admit that he gave the
spinning industry a tremendous boost and did more toward starting our
present factory idea than did any one else. Not only was he a tireless
worker, but he was quick as a flash to see what was needed. Maybe he
wasn't any too scrupulous whose property he took; but at least he took
the things he seized more for the public good than his own, I really
believe. For instance, there was Lewis Paul's carding engine; he
introduced that into Lancashire and added to it a stripping comb, or
doffer, that made it about fifty per cent. better than it ever had been
before. That is what he did to everything he touched. He swooped down
on any machine he saw and then proceeded to improve it. It didn't
matter to him who it belonged to. Of course you can't do that, even if
you are an inventor," grinned Carl. "Naturally it got Arkwright in
wrong and he was given some pretty hard names. Still he did a lot of
good for all that. And, anyway, wha