The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-15 00:00:00

THE LATE THOS. B. CROMPTON, ESQ.

(From the Morning Post)

The memoir sof men who have successfully men
pied positions of extensive responsibility and influ-
ence—who Lave had great opportunities and been
equal to them, and who have possessed the rare art
of making the worthy discharge of their ordinary
duties the means of doing good in their day and
generation—are among the most valuable of the
lessons of life. To sketch the career of such
men is to extend the beneficial range of their ex-
ample, and prolong its salutary influence after the
visible exhibition of it has been withdrawn by death.
But besides this, departed worth has a claim on
the memory of society, which there is pleasure,
though a pensive one, in acknowledging. Goodness
is moral greatness, though it may not be heroism,
and has its triumphs, though they may not lead to
fame. Those who, by natural genius, or force of
character, or perseverance, or by gifts of Provi-
dence, acquire a position from which they are able
to influence and energise large circles of men, and
their innumerable interests, social, commercial, and
domestic, have a very important part to perform in
the progress of human improvement, and, where
they perform it well, are to be classed with the
benefactors of mankind. Amongst such, who, we
may ask, have a better title to public esteem than
those whose industrial talent feeds the active
strength of the country, and is continually, aug-
menting the sources of its material prosperity? It
would be a great mistake to underrate the im-
portance of the manufacturing interest as an ele-
ment in the greatness of Britain, or to assign it a
place antagonistic to the interests of land. Manu-
factures are the correlative of civilisation. The
progress of the one marches side by side with the
refinement of the other. They are a department
of the arts—they are the application of the sciences.
They combine the craft of the hand with the dis-
coveries of the brain. They take in its raw state
what the land produces, and they return it to the
producer and the public in a form fit for use and
enjoyment. In doing so they stimulate industry,
encourage talent, and offer scope to competition,
enterprise, and discovery. They develop the fertility
of human resources, both intellectual and physical ;
and in the industry they stimulate, in the rewards
they offer to capacity and integrity, and in the sta-
bility they give to the national independence, they
constitute a power which is experienced—we may
fearlessly say beneficially—through all grades of
English society, and through every phase of the
national life. In nothing is the influence of
the manufacturing element more felt than in the
wealth it creates, and the assistance thence de-
rived to the country in times of monetary pres-
sure. The impetus it gives to foreign trade, and
the large stake which, in consequence of it, the rest
of the world has in the maintenance of unrestricted
commerce England supply a strong motive in
ali to the cultivation and perpetuation of amicable
relations ; while, as regards ourselves, the ag-
gregate strength which it places at our command
enables us, when peace is impossible, to go to war
with a confidence that, in the power of turning to
effective account every possible resource, we stand
pre-eminent, and have means at our command which
no other nation can pretend to claim. Under these
circumstances, the master manufacturers of England
have become a class of persons whose social and even
political importance is universally admitted. Pos-
sessing, in many instances, almost boundless wealth,
employing hundreds of thousands of hands, they
sway the minds of many large cities and Parlia-
mentary boroughs, and exercise considerable weight
in Parliament and with the public. It will not
be disputed that the country should honour well
those who discharge with conscience and success
these great responsibilities. The deceased gentle-
man who is the subject of this memoir occupied for
many years a foremost place amongst these power-
ful men ; and it will illustrate the truth of these
considerations, and render a just tribute to the
memory of a good man, if we subjoin a brief sum-
mary of his life and work.
Thomas Bonsor Crompton was well known in
commercial circles by the great extent of his trans-
actions as a paper manufacturer and cotton spinner,
as Well as by his vast engagements in other depart-
ments of business, by the ability and success with
which he conducted his numerous and complicated
undertakings, and the large fortune he so acquired.
He was born May 20, 1792, at Farnworth, a place
which owes its rise from the obscurity of a rural
hamlet to its present populous and prosperous con-
dition in great part to the enterprise of Mr.
Crompton's family. His grandfather had a paper-
mill and bleach-works at Great Lever, about half-
a-mile distant from the existing Farnworth Mills.
Perceiving what an eligible site Farnworth pre-
sented for manufacturing purposes he obtained a
lease of the property from the late Duke of Bridge-
water, and built a paper-mill and bleach-works
upon it. His son John, the father of the subject of
the present memoir, succeeded to these works, and
built Rock Hall as a residence. He was not, how-
ever, permitted to occupy it, having died at the
very period of its completion, leaving three sons,
John, Robert, and Thomas Bonsor. The eldest and
youngest became partners in the Farnworth Mills.
John, the elder brother, died in 1834, leaving a
Widow, without issue. From that period to the
time of his own death, last week, Mr. T. B. Cromp-
ton was the sale proprietor of that extensive con-
cern. The Farnworth Mills are thus mentioned in
Lewis's " Topographical Dictionary":—

" FARNWORTIL—There are extensive coal mines,
belonging to the Earl of Ellesmere, and W. Hut-
ton, Esq. ; large spinning and power-loom mills ;
and one of the best paper-mills in the kingdom,
belonging to John and Thomas B. Crompton, whose
premises, called Farnworth Mills, are of great'
extent," &c.
The second brother, Robert, carried on extensive
paper-mills at Worthington, near Wigan. This
gentleman (who lived unmarried, and died in 1855)
retired from business in 1840, and Mr. T. B. Cromp-
ton became the sole proprietor of the Worthington
Mills also. Here he greatly enlarged the business,
and almost entirely rebuilt the extensive premises.
In the conduct of these two large establishments
he exhibited great inventive skill and knowledge
of business, and great fertility of mechanical appli-
cation. Owing to the superiority of his manufac-
ture of printing and packing papers, he supplied
the principal newspapers and merchants both in
London and the provinces. Soon after the " Four-
drinier machine," for making the paper web in
continuous length, was introduced, the quick per-
ception of Mr. Crompton foresaw that unless a
better mode of drying could be discovered, that
machine would be comparatively valueless. He
therefore invented the continuous-drying apparatus
now in general operation. For this invention he
took out a patent ; but such was the then
imperfect state of the law of patents, that, after
several days' trial at Lancaster, he was deprived
of the exclusive benefit of this valuable dis-
covery, upon a mere technical point in the
specification. Lord Brougham afterwards com-
and, in eon -
mented upon this state of the law,

sequence of this decision, introduced a clause giving
patentees power to amend a specification and to
disclaim. Perhaps on these subjects we shall best
do justice to Mr. Crompton by quoting here from
the report of the juries appointed by the Commis-
sioners of the Exhibition of 18M :

" At the end of the last century (1799) the first
trial was made at Essonnes, in France, in the paper
mill of M. Francois Didot, of a machine for making
continuous paper. It was the invention of M.
Robert, a workman in that establishment, who ob-
tained a patent for 15 years, and a sum of B,ooofr.
from the French Government. Some sheets of
paper in continuous lengths were then made ; but
the troubles in which France was involved at the
time caused delay in the necessary experiments,
which were both tedious and expensive. As soon
as the Peace of Amiens restored intercourse, M.
Didot, jun., convinced of the great utility of the in.
vention, came over with it to seek in England what
was then wanting in France—capital, engineers,
and enterprising paper manufacturers ; he was ac-
companied by Mr. John Gamble, his brother-in-
law, who had resided several years in Paris.
Having obtained patents in England—one in 1801
and the other in 1803—they were assigned to
Messrs. Henry and Sealy Fourdrinier, in 1804. . .
" In 1826 M. Canson, of Annonay, first applied
suction pumps to the Didot and Fourdrinier ma-
chines.
"In April, 1839, Mr. T. B. Crompton took out
letters patent for producing a partial and continual