But after the model had been set up and was about to be shown in the Free Grammar School in Preston, there came a sudden memory of dark stories still fresh in men's minds of how other inventors had been treated in Preston--how they had been mobbed and furiously ill-used, while their inventions had been smashed to atoms by a people panic-stricken because of their dread of machinery, which they believed would throw them out of work and take the bread out of their and their children's mouths. Arkwright remembered all this, and he and Kay finally made up their minds to pack up their models and set off for Nottingham.
While Arkwright had been at Preston engrossed with thoughts of his model a political election took place, and he was called upon to vote. But so poor and so wretchedly clad was the man who was by-and-by to be a knight--the man who was to leave behind him half a million--that before he could present himself at the poll, several people had to club together to exchange the tattered garments for something that would at least be presentable!
Arrived at Nottingham, Arkwright tried to get someone to help him with money. This brave man had firm faith in his invention and firm faith in himself. It was simply impossible to discourage him. But the time of waiting was long and weary before he fell in with a Mr. Strutt, the inventor of the stocking-frame. An inventor himself, perhaps he was the man who could best understand and appreciate Arkwright's invention. The two entered into partnership, and it may have seemed to Arkwright that his time of trial and waiting had at last come to an end.
And now truly enough he had his foot firmly planted on the ladder of success. Behind him was a hard and toilsome boyhood. Before him were still long waiting, difficulties to face, men's opposition to overcome, dislike, distrust, envy, and jealousy to live down and conquer. But the first step had been taken, and never once along the difficult way do we find him flinch.
In 1769, the same year in which James Watt patented his Condensing Steam Engine, Arkwright at the age of thirty-seven took out the patent for his Spinning-Frame. His next step was to erect a cotton mill at Chorley, and following that, one at Cromford, in Derbyshire. No sooner were they finished than men flocked from Lancashire, and indeed from all parts of England, to see them at work. They were the gazing-stock of the country.