How did industry change in the eighteenth century?
New Inventions
A series of new inventions speeded up the process of making cotton goods. These were
the most important textile machines.
Date
1733
1786
Machine
Flying shuttle
The power loom
1764
1784
The Spinning
Jenny
The Mule
1769
The water Frame
Inventor
John Kay
Edmund
Cartwright
James
Hargreaves
Samuel
Crompton
Richard
Arkwright
Result
Made weaving into a much quicker process
Continued to be adapted until it slowly took over
weaving. Powered by water and steam
Could spin eight yarns at once
Made high-quality strong thread
Powered by water and could therefore only be used in
factories
1. Draw a timeline and label the inventions in chronological order.
2. Write a short paragraph stating what effects these inventions have had on the
development of the cotton industry.
Richard Arkwright (1732-1792)
Richard Arkwright has been called “the father of the factory system” yet
some people believe that his water frame was based on an earlier design for
a spinning machine, invented by Lewis Paul and John Wyatt, in 1738.
Instead of installing his water frame in a cotton mill in Preston, he kept
the idea secret and moved to the midlands. In 1771 he installed his spinning
machine at Cromford in Derbyshire. Each frame could spin four spindles at a
time. His water frame had one great advantage over the Spinning Jenny, it
could make tough, strong yarn. This could be used in the stocking and
knitting industries in Nottingham, Derby and Leicester.
The Cromford mill was an outstanding success. Arkwright became rich,
famous and was knighted. He built other cotton mills and after the
development of the Boulton-Watt steam engine adapted them for use with
steam power. His cotton mill at Wirksworth was the first to use steam power
in 1780.
Arkwright was a highly efficient and ruthless businessman. He organised
his factories efficiently, putting his workers on 12-hour shifts, in order to
operate the machinery 24 hours a day. By 1782 he was employing over 5000
cotton workers in his mills. He more than any other person in the textile
industry, made the factory age possible.
3. Why do you think Arkwright built his mill in Cromford in Derbyshire
and not in Preston?
4. Was it an advantage or a disadvantage, that the water frame could
only be used in a factory rather than in a spinner’s own cottage?
5. Why do you think that Richard Arkwright has been called “the father
of the factory system?”