THE teenage boy was working at his Spinning Jenny. But he soon grew frustrated at its limitations.

So secretly he set about working on his own spinning machine -- a machine that was to revolutionise the world of textiles.

The boy, fearing that his invention would be sabotaged by the infamous "machine wreckers" of the day, spent five years developing his invention.

To pay for it he played his home-made violin for a few pence at a time at Bolton Theatre.

That young man was Samuel Crompton -- one of Bolton's most famous sons who earned a place in the history books with his Mule -- one of the key 18th century inventions credited with making the world-changing Industrial Revolution possible.

Just as the mule is the offspring of a horse and a donkey, Crompton's invention, completed in 1779 when he was just 26 years old, was a combination of two earlier machines; the Spinning Jenny, created by James Hargreaves in 1765, and Richard Arkwright's Water Frame (1769).

For the first time, large amounts of continuous strong yarn could be produced at a rate previously thought impossible. The Mule gave the spinner greater control -- and it allowed the spinning of muslin for the first time in Britain. It soon became the mainstay of commercial spinning and remained so for more than 100 years.

Along with other textile inventions of the century, the Mule helped Britain become a world leader, overtaking India which had dominated the global market for cotton cloth.

Other industries grew around the expanding textile industry. Iron and steel production flourished to make large scale mechanisation possible. Steam power was needed to drive the machines and there was a boom in engineering to meet the burgeoning industry's demands.

Crompton's Mule also played a significant part in the dawning of the factory age. By the 1790s, larger versions were built, with as many as 400 spindles and a large number of factories purchased the Mule. Workers' lives were irrevocably changed as the factories grew and the cottage industry diminished.

There was a mass migration from rural farm land into factory dominated towns and cities. No longer were people's lives governed by the changing seasons, but by the ticking of the factory clock.

Sadly Crompton's life story did not mirror the success of his invention.

It did not bring him untold riches and he bore a bitter grudge against the manufacturers and speculators who did make their fortunes. Despite an appeal to parliament and numerous attempts at starting businesses, Crompton died in poverty.

Born in 1753, at 10 Firwood Fold to George and Betty Crompton, the young Samuel was educated at a school in Church Street.

He showed an early aptitude for the family occupation of spinning. He was only 15 when he started work on a Spinning Jenny -- a tricky machine to operate -- at Hall i'th' Wood.

The Jenny had been an important textile development because it had mechanised the spinning of thread and enabled the spinner to produce many threads at once by turning a handle. But it could only produce a soft flimsy yarn which frequently broke. Frustrated by the Jenny's defects Crompton decided to build his own machine. By 1779 his invention was finally complete. It was an immediate success. Crompton was soon spinning yarn for other weavers at an unprecedented rate. News leaked out and everyone wanted a part of the Mule -- cotton merchants and spies tried to discover how it worked. Some resorted to drilling holes through wall and putting ladders at the windows to catch a glimpse and Crompton was inundated by dealers wanting to buy his yarn. But he lacked cash to patent the machine. It was suggested manufacturers should contribute to a

subscription list, with Crompton in return making his invention free for all. He received just £60 for his trouble.

He married a Turton spinner called Mary in 1780 and they left Hall i'th Wood to combine farming with spinning. In 1791 he returned to live at 17 King Street, Bolton, and became a muslin weaver. He was helped by Manchester spinners John Kennedy and George Lee who raising about £500 which paid off his debts and allowed him to set up in a small spinning and weaving business.

But by 1798, his wife and two youngest children were dead.

In his late 50s Crompton tried through Parliament to get financial recompense for the prosperity he had brought the industry. He got just £5,000. His businesses failed and he spent his last years subsisting on an annuity of £63. He died at his King Street home in Bolton on June 26, 1827. Today the only surviving genuine production model of the Mule is in the Bolton Museum in Le Mans Crescent.

Crompton's gravestone, in the Parish church grounds, reads: Beneath this stone are interred the mortal remains of Samuel Crompton of Bolton, late of Hall i'th' Wood in the township of Tonge, inventor of the Spinning machine called the mule; who departed this life on the 26th day of June 1827, aged 72 years. Mors Ultimo Linea Rerum Est (Death is the last boundary of human affairs.) In 1861 local textile workers paid for a granite monument over his grave.

Near the end of his life, Crompton became an active member of the Swedenborgian New Jerusalem Church.

His first mule was a crude machine, built mainly of wood with metal pieces made by a blacksmith friend. It was a hybrid of the Jenny's moving carriage and the rollers of the Water Frame.

His father -- who died at the age of 37 -- became a caretaker at Hall i'th' Wood where Crompton spent his early days through until he married.