Richard Arkwright Richard Arkwright References Richard Arkwright, the sixth of the seven children of Thomas Arkwright (1691–1753), a tailor, and his wife, Ellen Hodgkinson (1693–1778), was born in Preston on 23rd December, 1732. Richard's parents were very poor and could not afford to send him to school and instead arranged for him to be taught to read and write by his cousin Ellen. (1) Richard became a barber's apprentice at Kirkham before moving to Bolton . He worked for Edward Pollit and in 1754 he started his own business as a wig-maker. The following year he married Patience Holt, the daughter of a schoolmaster. Their only child, Richard Arkwright, was born on 19th December 1755. After the death of his first wife he married Margaret Biggins (1723–1811) on 24th March 1761. (2) Arkwright's work involved him travelling the country collecting people's discarded hair.

In September 1767 Arkwright met John Kay, a clockmaker, from Warrington , who had been busy for some time trying to produce a new spinning-machine with another man, Thomas Highs of Leigh. Kay and Highs had run out of money and had been forced to abandon the project. Arkwright was impressed by Kay and offered to employ him to make this new machine. Arkwright also recruited other local craftsman, including Peter Atherton, to help Kay in his experiments.

According to one source: "They rented a room in a secluded teacher's house behind some gooseberry bushes, but they were so secretive that the neighbours were suspicious and accused them of sorcery, and two old women complained that the humming noises they heard at night must be the devil tuning his bagpipes." (3) Richard Arkwright and the Spinning Frame As the economic historian, Thomas Southcliffe Ashton , has pointed out, Arkwright did not have any great inventive ability, but "had the force of character and robust sense that are traditionally associated with his native county - with little, it may be added, of the kindliness and humour that are, in fact, the dominant traits of Lancashire people." (4) In 1768 the team produced the Spinning-Frame and a patent for the new machine was granted in 1769. The machine involved three sets of paired rollers that turned at different speeds. While these rollers produced yarn of the correct thickness, a set of spindles twisted the fibres firmly together. The machine was able to produce a thread that was far stronger than that made by the Spinning-Jenny produced by James Hargreaves .

(5) Adam Hart-Davis has explained the way the new machine worked: "Several spinning machines were designed at about this time, but most of them tried to do the stretching and the spinning together. The problem is that the moment you start twisting the roving you lock the fibres together. Arkwright's idea was to stretch first and then twist. The roving passed from a bobbin between a pair of rollers, and then a couple of inches later between another pair that were rotating at twice the speed. The result was to stretch the roving to twice its original length. A third pair of rollers repeated the process... Two things are obvious the moment you see the wonderful beast in action. First, there are 32 bobbins along each side of each end of the water frame - 128 on the whole machine. Second, it is so automatic that even I could operate it." (6) On 29th September 1769 Arkwright rented premises in Nottingham . However, he had difficulty finding investors in his new company. David Thornley, a merchant, of Liverpool , and John Smalley, a publican from Preston , did provide some money but he still needed more to start production.

Arkwright approached a banker Ichabod Wright but he rejected the proposal because he judged that there was "little prospect of the discovery being brought into a practical state". (7) Wright introduced Arkwright to Jedediah Strutt and Samuel Need . Strutt was a manufacturer of stockings and the inventor of a machine for the machine-knitting of ribbed stockings. (8) Strutt and Need were impressed with Arkwright's new machine and agreed to form a partnership. On 19th January 1770, for £500, Need and Strutt joined the partners; Arkwright, Thornley and Smalley, were to manage the works, each having £25 a year. Financially secure, the partners commissioned Samuel Stretton to convert the premises into a horse-powered mill. (9) Arkwright's machine was too large to be operated by hand and so the men had to find another method of working the machine. After experimenting with horses, it was decided to employ the power of the water-wheel. In 1771 the three men set up a large factory next to the River Derwent in Cromford , Derbyshire.

Arkwright later that his lawyer that Cromford had been chosen because it offered "a remarkable fine stream of water… in an area very full of inhabitants". (10) Arkwright's machine now became known as the Water-Frame. It not only "spun cotton more rapidly but produced a yarn of finer quality". (11) Arkwright did not build the first factory in Britain. It is believed that he borrowed the idea from Matthew Boulton , who financed the Soho Manufactory in Birmingham in 1762. However, Arkwright's factory was much larger and was to inspire a generation of capitalist entrepreneurs. According to Adam Hart-Davis : "Arkwright's mill was essentially the first factory of this kind in the world. Never before had people been put to work in such a well-organized way. Never had people been told to come in at a fixed time in the morning, and work all day at a prescribed task. His factories became the model for factories all over the country and all over the world. This was the way to build a factory.

And he himself usually followed the same pattern - stone buildings 30 feet wide, 100 feet long, or longer if there was room, and five, six, or seven floors high." (12) Child Labour In Cromford there were not enough local people to supply Arkwright with the workers he needed. After building a large number of cottages close to the factory, he imported workers from all over Derbyshire. Within a few months he was employing 600 workers. Arkwright preferred weavers with large families. While the women and children worked in his spinning-factory, the weavers worked at home turning the yarn into cloth. (13) Cottages in Cromford built by Richard Arkwright for his weavers (1992) A local journalist wrote: "Arkwright's machines require so few hands, and those only children, with the assistance of an overlooker. A child can produce as much as would, and did upon an average, employ ten grown up persons. Jennies for spinning with one hundred or two hundred spindles, or more, going all at once, and requiring but one person to manage them.

Within the space of ten years, from being a poor man worth £5, Richard Arkwright has purchased an estate of £20,000; while thousands of women, when they can get work, must make a long day to card, spin, and reel 5040 yards of cotton, and for this they have four-pence or five-pence and no more." (14) Peter Kirby , the author of Child Labour in Britain, 1750-1870 (2003) has argued that it was poverty that forced children into factories: "Poor families living close to a subsistence wage were often forced to draw on more diverse sources of income and had little choice over whether their chidren worked." (15) Michael Anderson has pointed out, that parents "who otherwise showed considerable affection for their children... were yet forced by large families and low wages to send their children to work as soon as possible." (16) The youngest children in the textile factories were usually employed as scavengers and piecers. Piecers had to lean over the spinning-machine to repair the broken threads.

One observer wrote: "The work of the children, in many instances, is reaching over to piece the threads that break; they have so many that they have to mind and they have only so much time to piece these threads because they have to reach while the wheel is coming out." (17) Scavengers had to pick up the loose cotton from under the machinery. This was extremely dangerous as the children were expected to carry out the task while the machine was still working. David Rowland , worked as a scavenger in Manchester : "The scavenger has to take the brush and sweep under the wheels, and to be under the direction of the spinners and the piecers generally. I frequently had to be under the wheels, and in consequence of the perpetual motion of the machinery, I was liable to accidents constantly.

I was very frequently obliged to lie flat, to avoid being run over or caught." (18) Illustration of scavengers and piecers at work that appeared in Trollope's Michael Armstrong (1840) John Fielden , a factory owner, admitted that a great deal of harm was caused by the children spending the whole day on their feet: " At a meeting in Manchester a man claimed that a child in one mill walked twenty-four miles a day. I was surprised by this statement, therefore, when I went home, I went into my own factory, and with a clock before me, I watched a child at work, and having watched her for some time, I then calculated the distance she had to go in a day, and to my surprise, I found it nothing short of twenty miles." (19) Unguarded machinery was a major problem for children working in factories. One hospital reported that every year it treated nearly a thousand people for wounds and mutilations caused by machines in factories.

Michael Ward , a doctor working in Manchester told a parliamentary committee: "When I was a surgeon in the infirmary, accidents were very often admitted to the infirmary, through the children's hands and arms having being caught in the machinery; in many instances the muscles, and the skin is stripped down to the bone, and in some instances a finger or two might be lost. Last summer I visited Lever Street School. The number of children at that time in the school, who were employed in factories, was 106. The number of children who had received injuries from the machinery amounted to very nearly one half. There were forty-seven injured in this way." (20) William Blizard lectured on surgery and anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons.

He was especially concerned about the impact of this work on young females: "At an early period the bones are not permanently formed, and cannot resist pressure to the same degree as at a mature age, and that is the state of young females; they are liable, particularly from the pressure of the thigh bones upon the lateral parts, to have the pelvis pressed inwards, which creates what is called distortion; and although distortion does not prevent procreation, yet it most likely will produce deadly consequences, either to the mother or the child, when the period." (21) Illustration of scavengers and piecers at work that appeared in Edward Baines' book The History of the Cotton Manufacture (1835) Elizabeth Bentley , who came from Leeds , was another witness that appeared before the committee. She told of how working in the card-room had seriously damaged her health: "It was so dusty, the dust got up my lungs, and the work was so hard. I got so bad in health, that when I pulled the baskets down, I pulled my bones out of their places." Bentley explained that she was now "considerably deformed".

She went on to say: "I was about thirteen years old when it began coming, and it has got worse since." (22) Samuel Smith , a doctor based in Leeds explained why working in the textile factories was bad for children's health: "Up to twelve or thirteen years of age, the bones are so soft that they will bend in any direction. The foot is formed of an arch of bones of a wedge-like shape. These arches have to sustain the whole weight of the body. I am now frequently in the habit of seeing cases in which this arch has given way. Long continued standing has also a very injurious effect upon the ankles. But the principle effects which I have seen produced in this way have been upon the knees. By long continued standing the knees become so weak that they turn inwards, producing that deformity which is called 'knock-knees' and I have sometimes seen it so striking, that the individual has actually lost twelve inches of his height by it." (23) John Reed later recalled his life aa a child worker at Cromford Mill: "I continued to work in this factory for ten years, getting gradually advanced in wages, till I had 6s. 3d.

per week; which is the highest wages I ever had. I gradually became a cripple, till at the age of nineteen I was unable to stand at the machine, and I was obliged to give it up. The total amount of my earnings was about 130 shillings, and for this sum I have been made a miserable cripple, as you see, and cast off by those who reaped the benefit of my labour, without a single penny." (24) Business Methods Arkwright originally produced cotton yarn for stockings, but its possibilities as warp for the loom led, in 1773, to the manufacture of calicos. Jedediah Strutt took responsibility for lobbying Parliament and eventually persuaded its members to reduce excise duties on British-made cotton goods. (25) By February 1774 the partners could, according to Elizabeth Strutt, "sell them … as fast as we could make them." (26) As J. J. Mason has pointed out: "From the mid-1770s he sought to dominate the trade.

In 1775 he successfully applied for a patent for certain instruments and machines for preparing silk, cotton, flax, and wool, for spinning. Covering a range of preparatory and spinning machines, it was an attempt to extend the length and terms of his monopoly to the whole cotton industry". (27) When businessmen heard about Arkwright's success, they sent spies to find out what was going on in his factories. In exchange for money, some of Arkwright's employees were willing to explain how the factory was organised. Businessmen then used this information to build their own water-powered textile factories. This included spies sent from "many different countries, from Russia, Denmark, Sweden and Prussia, but the most eager of the spies were from Britain's greatest rival, France." (28) Ralph Mather reported that Arkwright feared that Luddites would destroy his factory: "There is some fear of the mob coming to destroy the works at Cromford, but they are well prepared to receive them should they come here. All the gentlemen in this neighbourhood being determined to defend the works, which have been of such utility to this country.

5,000 or 6,000 men can be at any time assembled in less than an hour by signals agreed upon, who are determined to defend to the very last extremity, the works, by which many hundreds of their wives and children get a decent and comfortable livelihood." (29) Eric Hobsbawm has argued that in his dealings with his partners he was an "unscrupulous operator". (30) Matthew Boulton described him as a "tyrant". (31) John Smalley suggested to Jedediah Strutt that they should force Arkwright out of the company. Strutt replied. "We cannot stop his mouth or prevent his doing wrong.... but it is not in our power to remove him… for he is in possession and as much right there as we." (32) Arkwright made further money by selling the rights to use his machines. With the 1769 patent due to expire in the summer of 1783, Arkwright faced losing his controlling hold on the cotton industry. He petitioned parliament that his patents be consolidated and the 1769 patent extended to 1789.

However, as Jenny Uglow points out: "Since 1781 Lancashire cotton-spinners had spent a fortune on buildings and machines, employing around thirty thousand people - men, women, and children. They could not afford to become his licensees at prohibitive rates." (33) In April, 1781, his competitors applied to have the decision annulled. The trial took place in June. Arkwright employed the finest lawyers and an array of witnesses. John Kay and Thomas Highs both gave evidence against Arkwright. He lost the case and a broadsheet in Manchester crowed that "the old Fox is at last caught by his over-grown beard in his own trap". (34) Arkwright was furious with this decision and he argued that the court's decision would halt the work of other inventors. James Watt , was one of those who gave his support to Arkwright's campaign to extend his patents. Rumours circulated that he was trying to buy up the world's cotton crop. This did not happen but he did set up a company to establish cotton plantations in Africa.

(35) Despite this set-back Arkwright he remained the country's largest cotton spinner; he made huge gains in the 1770s, and even in the early 1780s his profits from the industry seem to have been at 100 per cent per annum. Thomas Carlyle described Arkwright as "a plain, almost gross, bag-cheeked, pot-bellied man, with an air of painful reflection, yet almost copious free digestion". (36) When Samuel Need died on 14th April, 1781. Arkwright and Jedediah Strutt decided to dissolve their partnership. Strutt was disturbed by Arkwright's plans to build mills in Manchester, Winkworth, Matlock Bath and Bakewell. Strutt believed that Arkwright was expanding too fast and without the support of Need, his long-time partner, he was unwilling to take the risk of further investments. Arkwright's textile factories were very profitable. He now built factories in Lancashire, Staffordshire and Scotland. In these factories he used the new steam-engine that had recently been developed by James Watt and Matthew Boulton . Wealth and Honours Arkwright's biographer, J.

J. Mason , claimed that: "In 1782 he bought Willersley manor and in 1789 the manor of Cromford. These acquisitions established him more firmly with the local gentry, including the Gells and Nightingales, with whom he was already connected through business.... Society sneered at his extravagance and ridiculed his gauche behaviour... but enjoyed his lavish entertainments in... Rock House, perched high and overlooking the mills and his more stately home, Willersley Castle." (37) Arkwright was made Sheriff of Derbyshire and was knighted in 1787. King George III told Wilhelmina Murray, that he did not deal very well with the ceremony. "Tthe little great man had no idea of kneeling but crimpt himself up in a very odd posture which I suppose His Majesty took for an easy one so never took the trouble to bid him rise." (38) Sir Richard Arkwright by Mather Brown (1790) Richard Arkwright's employees worked from six in the morning to seven at night. Although some of the factory owners employed children as young as five, Arkwright's policy was to wait until they reached the age of six.

Two-thirds of Arkwright's 1,900 workers were children. Like most factory owners, Arkwright was unwilling to employ people over the age of forty. (39) William Dodd carried out a study into the long-term impact on the physical health of these child workers. This included an interview with John Reed: "Here is a young man, who was evidently intended by nature for a stout-made man, crippled in the prime of life, and all his earthly prospects blasted for ever! Such a cripple I have seldom met with. He cannot stand without a stick in one hand, and leaning on a chair with the other; his legs are twisted in all manner of forms. His body, from the forehead to the knees, forms a curve, similar to the letter C. He dares not go from home, if he could; people stare at him so." Dodd compared the life of John Reed with that of Richard Arkwright: "I have taken several walks in the neighbourhood of this beautiful and romantic place, and seen the splendid castle, and other buildings belonging to the Arkwrights, and could not avoid contrasting in my mind the present condition of this wealthy family, with the humble condition of its founder in 1768.

One might expect that those who have thus risen to such wealth and eminence, would have some compassion upon their poor cripples. If it is only that they need to have them pointed out, and that their attention has hitherto not been drawn to them, I would hope and trust this case of John Reed will yet come under their notice." (40) Arkwright had difficulty making friends and Josiah Wedgwood claimed that "he shuns all company as much as possible". Archibald Buchanan, who lived with him and found him "so intent on his schemes" they "often sat for weeks together, on opposite sides of the fire without exchanging a syllable". (41) Richard Arkwright died aged 59 on 3rd August 1792 at his home in Cromford, after a month's illness. On 10th August, over 2,000 by two people attended his funeral. (42) The Gentleman's Magazine claimed that on his death, Arkwright was worth over £500,000 (over £200 million in today's money).

(43) (17) James Turner, interviewed by Michael Sadler's Parliamentary Committee (17th April 1832) (18) David Rowland interviewed by Michael Sadler's Parliamentary Committee (10th July 1832) (19) John Fielden , speech in the House of Commons (9th May 1836) (20) Dr. Ward from Manchester was interviewed about the health of textile workers on 25th March, 1819. (21) Sir William Blizard was interviewed by Michael Sadler's House of Commons Committee on 21st May, 1832. (22) Elizabeth Bentley was interviewed by Michael Sadler and his House of Commons Committee on 4th June, 1832. (23) Samuel Smith , interviewed by Michael Sadler's House of Commons Committee on 16th July, 1832. (24) William Dodd interviewed John Reed from Arkwright's Cromford's factory in 1842. Sir Richard Arkwright facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about Sir Richard Arkwright COPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group Inc.

Sir Richard Arkwright The English inventor and industrialist Sir Richard Arkwright (1732-1792) developed several inventions which mechanized the making of yarn and thread for the textile industry. He also helped to create the factory system of manufacture. Richard Arkwright was born on Dec. 23, 1732, in Preston, Lancashire, England. Little is known of his early life except that he was from a large family of humble origin and obtained only the rudiments of an education. He was apprenticed to a barber in Preston, and when about 18 he set up on his own in Bolton, a textile town in Lancashire. Sometime in the 1760s Arkwright began working on a mechanical device for spinning cotton thread, the spinning frame, which he patented in 1769. Problems still remained: the raw cotton had to be prepared for the invention by a hand process, and the invention had to be made practical and commercially successful. For this he needed funds and a mill where he could install the frame.

Probably for this reason in 1771 he moved to Nottingham, where a highly specialized kind of weaving, that of stockings, had already been fairly well mechanized. There Arkwright, whose inventions had reduced him to poverty, found a partner who supported his work and backed the construction of a mill run by waterpower (hence the later name of water frame). Arkwright found that he could successfully use his thread for stockings and also as the warp, or longitudinal threads, in an ordinary loom onto which the weft, or cross threads, were woven. Heretofore, cotton thread had been used for the weft, but only linen threads had been strong enough for the warp. Now a textile made solely of cotton could be produced in England, and it eventually became one of the country's chief exports. The production of thread was further improved in 1775 by Arkwright's patenting a practically continuous method which prepared the raw cotton for spinning. Apart from a completely mechanical loom, Arkwright had thus eliminated all the major obstacles to producing cotton cloth by machine.

Because thread production was now completely mechanized, all the hitherto separate operations could be coordinated and carried out under one roof, in a mill, or, as it was increasingly called, a factory. Arkwright paid as careful attention to the mill's operation as he did to his inventions. It was typical of his aggressive entrepreneurship that he was one of the first to apply the steam engine to his mills. While such a concentration of machines, driven by a prime mover, was not a new invention, Arkwright's rationalization of the factory system was nevertheless to become one of the most characteristic features of the industrial revolution. Wealth and honors, including the bestowal of knighthood, came to him in the 1780s. He died in Nottingham on Aug. 3, 1792. Further Reading Two works have been written on Arkwright's relations with associates: George Unwin, Samuel Oldknow and the Arkwrights (1924), and R. S. Fitton and A. P. Wadsworth, The Strutts and the Arkwrights, 1758-1830 (1958).

Supplementary accounts of Arkwright's work may be found in T. S. Ashton, The Industrial Revolution: 1760-1830 (1948; rev. ed. 1964), and in Abbott Payson Usher's "The Textile Industry, 1750-1830," in Melvin Kranzberg and Carroll W. Pursell, Jr., eds., Technology in Western Civilization, vol. 1 (1967). Additional Sources Fitton, R. S., The Arkwrights: spinners of fortune, Manchester, UK; New York: Manchester University Press; New York, NY, USA: Distributed exclusively in the USA and Canada by St. Martin's Press, 1989. □ Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. MLA The Oxford Companion to British History © The Oxford Companion to British History 2002, originally published by Oxford University Press 2002. Arkwright, Sir Richard (1732–92). Born in Preston, one of thirteen children, Arkwright was apprenticed to a barber, and established a business in Bolton.

Travelling around northern textile districts to buy hair for wig-making, Arkwright met craftsmen attempting to improve cotton production and lured John Kay away from his employer in the 1760s; together they produced the water frame, a roller-spinning machine which Arkwright patented (1769). This, powered by water or a horse capstan, was the basis of Arkwright's fortune. His first horse-driven factory was established at Nottingham (1769) to supply Midland hosiers in partnership with Samuel Need and Jedediah Strutt of Derby. In 1771 he moved to Cromford (Derbys.) and was dominant in the early cotton industry. Lancashire cottonmasters successfully attacked his patent (1781 and 1785), but Arkwright deserves the title of ‘father of the factory system’ because of his organization of production. Knighted (1786), he became high sheriff of Derbyshire in 1787. John Butt The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright The Columbia University Press Sir Richard Arkwright, 1732–92, English inventor.

His construction of a machine for spinning, the water frame, patented in 1769, was an early step in the Industrial Revolution. His machines and his gift for organization enabled him and his partner, Jedediah Strutt, to establish huge cotton mills and thus helped to start the factory system. He became very wealthy and was knighted in 1786. See R. S. Fitton and A. P. Wadsworth, The Strutts and the Arkwrights, 1758–1830 (1958, repr. 1968); The Arkwright Society, Arkwright and the Mills at Cromford (1971). Cite this article Richard Arkwright, Cotton Entrepreneur, England, United Kingdom Weavers' Cottages in Cromford. Early Life Richard Arkwright was born 23 December 1732 at Preston in Lancashire, the youngest of 13 children of Thomas and his wife Ellen. Thomas was a small farmer and sometime tailor. Richard served his apprenticeship as a barber and wig maker in Preston with a man called Nicholson and it is believed that he was taught to read by his uncle.

Later in life, at the age of 50 he undertook additional study to improve his command of English and his handwriting. Arkwright moved to Bolton in about 1750 to work with Mr. Pollitt a barber and peruke maker. Mr. Pollitt died and Arkwright continued the business for his widow until 1755. During his time at Bolton, Richard Arkwright met Thomas Ridgeway, a dyer and bleacher, and his friend, Robert Holt, a school master. Arkwright married Robert Holt's daughter, Patience, on 31 March 1755. Richard and Patience's had a son, Richard, born 19 December 1755 at Bolton. Patience Arkwright died soon afterwards. Richard left his employment with Mrs. Pollitt and set up on his own as a barber-surgeon with the support of Robert Holt. He was involved not only in wig making but also in drawing teeth, and in blood taking, a common practice at the time in medicine. On the death of his wife, Richard Arkwright's relationship with Robert Holt broke down, possibly because Holt had never approved of the marriage and blamed Arkwright for her death.

Robert Holt erected a memorial for his daughter in Bolton churchyard, which does not mention her husband or son. On 24 March 1761 Richard married Margaret Biggins of Pennington at Leigh parish church. Their first daughter, Susannah was born on 20 December the same year. Margaret had £400 which the couple used to buy a buy a beer house known as the Black Boy in Bolton but later they sold up to focus on wig making. About this time Arkwright would travel the country, particularly to hiring fairs, to purchase hair from servant girls. He also had a means of dyeing hair. Developments in Cotton Spinning before Arkwright In the early 18th century English cotton usually had linen warps and cotton wefts as the thread could not be made strong enough for use as warp. There was usually a shortage of thread as the method of hand spinning produced only one thread at a time. John Wyatt (1700-1766), a carpenter, and Lewis Paul (died 1759), the son of a French emigre, working in Lichfield, invented an apparatus for spinning in 1733.

It was patented in 1738. The principle was to draw the fibres through sets of rollers turning at different speeds. It was successful for a time but was superseded by Richard Arkwright's water frame in the 1770s. Paul patented a later spinning machine in 1758 that did not involve rollers and also a carding engine in 1748. John Wyatt later worked at Matthew Boulton's Soho foundry. According to Baines' History of Lancashire, Laurence Earnshaw of Mottram in Cheshire invented a spinning machine which he demonstrated in 1753. However he destroyed the machine thinking it would deprive the poor of their living. In 1738, John Kay of Bury, living at that time in Colchester, invented the flying shuttle which doubled the speed of weaving. He returned to Bury and used the process initially for woollen weaving but from 1760 it was extensively used for cotton. Robert Kay, his son, invented the drop box to allow up to three coloured wefts to be used. The increased speed of weaving created a shortage of yarn, which stimulated the development of mechanical spinning.

Thomas Highs, a reed maker of Leigh was a member of the Swedenborgian sect. He worked in 1763/4 with another John Kay, a clock maker of Warrington, and developed a spinning machine using six spindles for converting roving, a loose cotton rope, into weft. Some improvements were made by James Hargreaves of Blackburn to produce the spinning jenny in 1767, which he patented in 1770. This was a hand operated machine with six spindles and by 1788 there were about 20,000 in use. Hargreaves fled Lancashire because of opposition from hand spinners and went to Nottingham. Highs employed Kay to make his double roller system out of metal; this involved two pairs of rollers the first turning slower than the second so that the thread was drawn out. The yarn produced was more suitable for warp; the product from the spinning jenny was used mainly for weft. Arkwright's Contribution to Cotton Spinning In 1767, Arkwright became acquainted with John Kay, the clock maker, who was then working in Warrington.

They experimented with ideas for spinning in secret because of the fear of competition. In 1768 Kay and Arkwright moved to Preston. They had financial backing from John Smalley (died 1782) a Preston publican and David Thornley, a merchant in Liverpool. They worked in Preston on their ideas for spinning cotton but in 1768, Arkwright, Kay and Smalley left for Nottingham because of local fears about the impact of such a development. Some of Arkwright's prototypes had been damaged at Chorley and James Hargreaves premises in Blackburn had been attacked. In Nottingham, Arkwright met Ichabod Wright, a timber and iron merchant who had established a bank in 1759. He gave some financial assistance but his role was taken over by two other entrepreneurs. Samuel Need of Nottingham (died 1781) was a mercer and later a banker and Jebediah Strutt (1726-1797) of Derby was a silk mill owner and inventor of the Derby Rib Stocking. A partnership was formed, lasting for fourteen years, and a patent filed in 1769.

The first mill was in Woolpack Lane near the Lace Market was horse powered. However, Arkwright would have been aware of the potential for water power from the mill on the river Derwent at Derby which had been used for spinning silk using the invention of Thomas Lombe. The Cromford mill in Derbyshire, eventually of six storeys, was built in 1771 and was water powered. This was not the Masson Mill, which was built later. Because the spinning frame was driven by water power it became known as the water frame. The new yarn was used initially in stocking making but not by the cotton manufacturing trade in Manchester. This yarn was suitable for warp as well as weft and in 1773 Arkwright produced the first cloth made entirely of cotton. For the making of stockings, fashion demanded fineness and the stocking machines required the thread to be strong. Arkwright's thread was was not quite as fine as the best quality linen thread. Such thread was finally achieved by Crompton's mule. A special act of Parliament was passed 1774 to exempt Arkwright's fabric from the double duty imposed on cottons by an act of 1736.

Such taxes were introduced to protect the English woollen trade from the East India Company's importation of cotton. The change in legislation was opposed by the Lancashire manufacturers who were using linen warps. By this stage, Arkwright and his backers had spent £12,000 on capital investment. Improved spinning put pressure on the earlier processes involved. Carding was initially done by hand using two bats covered in teasel spikes or metal pins. In 1772, John Lees invented the feeder process in which cotton was carded using rollers covered in short pins. In the same year James Hargreaves, of Spinning Jenny fame, invented a process for taking the cotton off a carding cylinder to create a fleece or cardings. The following year Thomas Highs and in 1774 Mr. Wood, came up with perpetual or endless carding. The cardings went to a roving frame of rollers similar to those on a water frame to draw out the threads and give them a slight twist. This created a thick thread with little twist and low strength ready for the final spinning process.

In 1775 Arkwright sought a second patent including many additions for improving the spinning process and preparing the cotton prior to spinning, including carding and roving. This led to a dispute as it was claimed that Arkwright, in including the same process in his second patent, was trying to extend the cover from his first patent. Arkwright built more mills and licensed his methods to other manufacturers. He built a new mill in Chorley which was destroyed by rioters. Arkwright developed the village of Cromford by building houses with a well-lit third storey, many of which survive today, for the use of stocking knitters. By 1782 there were 5,000 people involved in spinning employing a capital of £200,000. In the same year, Arkwright ended his partnership with Strutt and Need, retaining as his share the mill at Cromford. Arkwright was a relatively benevolent employer for the period. He did not use parish apprentices. Women and children worked in the spinning mill, often for long hours, while the stocking weavers, working in their own homes were men.

The houses were in effect tied cottages and tenure depended on remaining a good employee of the Arkwright enterprise. Other services provided included funds to enable the purchase of cows for milking; he gave 27 cows to his senior workmen. In addition he was the sponsor of sick clubs and provided some elementary welfare services. There were also holidays, two balls a year at the Greyhound Hotel, and a candle lighting festival with food and drink in September. Pay rates in 1797 are recorded as follows: children from 8 to 14, 1 to 5 shillings; adult women, 3 to 5 shillings; overseers, 12 shillings a week. Arkwright expanded his interests very considerably by buying the Willersley estate and manor. In 1788, he purchased the manor of Cromford and began to build a church and Willesley Castle as a residence. In 1790 he obtained a charter for a market at Cromford and he built the Greyhound Inn next to the market place. His second mill of seven storeys was built in 1776.

The Masson Mill, powered by the river Derwent, was built of brick after Arkwright acquired the site of a paper mill. The first mill was destroyed by fire in 1777 and completely rebuilt. The original partners finally split up. Samuel Need died in 1781 and Smalley in 1782. Arkwright and Strutt bought Smalley's share in the partnership from his son for £10,751 and Arkwright bought Strutt out of his share. The latter had a thriving business of his own in stockings with mills in Belper and Milford. Samuel Crompton invented the 'mule' in 1779. This was combination of Hargreaves' jenny and Arkwright's water-frame. The "mule" vastly increased productivity, making it possible for a single operator to work more than 1,000 spindles simultaneously; it was capable of spinning fine as well as coarse yarn. Demand for Crompton's yarn was heavy, but he could not afford a patent. He therefore revealed the machine's secret to a number of manufacturers on the promise that they would pay him. All he received was £60.

Years later (in 1812), when there were at least 360 mills using 4,600,000 mule spindles, Parliament granted him £5,000. He used it to enter business, unsuccessfully, first as a bleacher and then as a cotton merchant and spinner. However, Crompton's mule gradually overtook Arkwright's water frame as the preferred method of spinning because of the greater productivity and high quality of the product. The Legal Challenge to Arkwright's Patents Arkwright conceded that he was the improver rather than the inventor of the process for producing a coarse thread on spindles. He claimed that this was invented by Hargreaves of Blackburn with his Spinning Jenny. Arkwright's opponents claimed that Thomas Highs had made the inventions and Arkwright had obtained the secret from John Kay, the clock maker. It was also claimed that Arkwright credited Hargreaves with this invention so as to keep his case as remote as possible from Highs who, it was said, invented the water frame too.

In 1781 Arkwright brought an action against 9 cotton spinning firms to prevent them infringing his patent: the first was against Colonel Mordaunt. While Mordaunt accepted that he was using Arkwright's method of making yarn he claimed that the patent specification was insufficiently clear to allow anyone to follow it. It is a requirement of a patent that the method must be fully disclosed by the applicant in return for which he receives a monopoly for limited number of years. On this point, Arkwright's case failed and he dropped the other cases. Arkwright was eager to get his two patents recognised, the first expired in 1783 and the second would expire in 1789. In 1785 he took the case to the court of Common Pleas and won the argument that the invention could be worked from his specification. Witnesses examined included Mr. Harrison the son of the inventor of the marine chronometer, Mr. Cumming a watchmaker, Dr. Darwin and James Watt. This reinstated his monopoly to the alarm of the manufacturers who were infringing.

It was estimated that up to 30,000 people were employed in the industry and the owners, who had expanded their business while the patent was believed to be invalid, now faced the possibility of paying royalties. A number combined to challenge the ruling and the case was heard at the court of the King's Bench in June 1785. It would be reasonable to assume that Arkwright's opponents, given the amount of money at stake, left no stone unturned in prosecuting their case. The key issues were whether the invention was new, invented by Arkwright and adequately described in the specification. His opponents gathered evidence that several elements of his machinery were derived from earlier inventors. Kay the watchmaker and Thomas Highs were called as witnesses. Kay claimed that he had made the original models for the process invented by Highs. However, Kay admitted that he had passed details of Highs' invention to Arkwright. Highs claimed to have made rollers for spinning in 1767 but agreed that they would not have worked. It was not until 1769, when Arkwright had already moved to Nottingham, that Highs hit on the idea of covering the rollers with leather to obtain a superior grip on the yarn.

Highs claimed that he was too poor to proceed with his inventions. Under the judge's guidance the jury found against Arkwright and the patent was declared invalid. Final Years Despite the loss of his patent coverage in 1785, Arkwright had a leading position in the spinning industry. His headstart gave him an advantage over other manufacturers. In 1784 he visited Scotland to help plan the New Lanark Mills with David Dale. These mills are perhaps best known now for their association with Robert Owen. Arkwright prospered from his own business, from licences for his patents, and from taking shares in other enterprises. By 1788 there were some 143 factories using his technology and he was a shareholder in 110. Of these 22 were in Derbyshire, 17 in Nottinghamshire, 41 in Lancashire, 17 in Wales and 13 in Scotland. Arkwright built new mills in Lancashire and Derbyshire and in 1790 had a Boulton and Watt steam engine to power his mill in Nottingham.

His mill in Manchester was powered from the late 1780s but in differnt sources the date is given as 1786 and 1789. Lewis's Manchester Directory for 1788 shows that Sir Richard Arkwright had a cotton twist warehouse at Cromford Court but the directory does not mention a spinning mill. Arkwright owned land in Manchester and had built the first cotton mill in the town. He had as a neighbour and tenant the firm Quincey and Drake, importers and wholesalers of Irish linen. Quincey settled in Manchester in 1780, but died of tuberculosis aged 38 in 1743, at the house he had built and named Greenway. His son was the author Thomas de Quincy. (Manchester Streets and Manchester Men, seconds series, by T. Swindells, Manchester, 1907.) Arkwright was knighted in 1786 and became High Sheriff of Derbyshire in 1787. His portrait was painted by Joseph Wright of Derby. He died on 3 August 1792 and was buried intially at St. Giles in Matlock and later at his own chapel, St.

Mary's. Arkwright's wife, Margaret, had left him in the 1780 to live in Wirksworth with her daughter, who was Mrs. Charles Hurt. Margaret had had two other daughters, who died in infancy. Margaret lived until 25 December 1811 when she was 79. Sir Richard's son, Richard, was brought up in the business and given a mill at Bakewell. On his father's death he succeeded to the business empire. He sold some of the mills, became a banker and is said to have doubled his fortune in his lifetime. He was the richest untitled man in England. He died at Willesley on 23 April 1843. Concluding Remarks Whenever a great invention is made there is a dispute as to who should take the credit. Frequently an advance comes from putting together a number of smaller steps made by a number of individuals. Often the inventor is not the best person to develop the invention as this needs capital, a knowledge of managing a great project and some business sense.

Arkwright's real contribution to the invention of mechanical spinning is not clear as there are competing claims and several authors have been partisan in making their claims for and against Arkwright. What cannot be doubted is that Arkwright put together the various processes needed to turn raw cotton into strong yarn by mechanised processes. Where others had made contributions but failed to patent them or find financial backers, Arkwright had the business sense to see his processes commercialised and built a cotton spinning empire. Other manufacturers wanted to use his processes and Arkwright would frequently grant permission under his patents on the condition that he had a stake in the company. In this way his wealth and influence grew. The extensive article in the Dictionary of National Biography quotes several sources of information, but does not include two books from the early 19th century which I have consulted. The article claims that Arkwright showed a high level of inventive genius in devising the new way of pulling out thread using two pairs of rollers. It is claimed to be a new principle. The article makes only the briefest mention of the prior work of Wyatt and Paul, who first used rollers for spinning in the 1730s. Wyatt and Paul's work is covered in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Moreover, in Biographia Borealis, Lives of Distinguished Northerners, by Hartley Coleridge, it is stated in relation to the work of Wyatt and Paul that "no model or description of the machines now remains". This is not true; abstracts of the original patent are published and still available for view in the Patent Section of Manchester Central Library! To a Lancastrian, one of the more surprising features of the development of cotton spinning is that although the main steps were made by Lancashire men, Hargreaves, Highs, Kay, Arkwright, and Crompton they were not initially backed by Lancashire merchants and manufacturers and the first water powered spinning mill was at Cromford in Derbyshire; the second was at Belper in the same county. Arkwright's first steam powered mill was in Nottingham in 1790. Drinkwater's mill in Manchester has a claim to be the first to have a steam engine, in 1789. These were followed rapidly by McConnel Kennedy and the Chorlton Mills in the 1790s.

Although Boulton and Watt had patents on their steam engines they had competitors in Sherrat and Bateman in Manchester who pirated some of their inventions and, being based locally, were able to exploit the growing demand from cotton manufacturers. Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Cromford, - A History, by Peter J. Naylor, in The Derbyshire Heritage Series, 1999, ISBN 184173-007-6. Chapter 4: The Age of Arkwright. Biographia Borealis, Lives of Distinguished Northerners, by Hartley Coleridge, published by Whitaker & Treacher, London, Leeds and Bingley, 1833. A Compendious History of the Cotton Manufacture with a disavowal of the claim of Sir Richard Arkwright, by R. Guest, published by Joseph Pratt, 1823. Hutchinson Encyclopaedia on CD ROM Encyclopaedia Britannica on CD ROM History of the Textile Industry in Manchester, a course of lectures by Chris Makepeace at Wilmslow Guild in 2000.

Four Centuries of Lancashire Cotton, by Geoffrey Timmins, published by Lancashire County Books, 1996, paperback, 92 pages, ISBN 1-871236-41-X. In addition to giving a short but authoritative account of the cotton industry with numerous references to original sources, this book has many illustrations of machinery and mills. A Cotton Enterprise, 1795-1840, a history of McConnel & Kennedy, fine cotton spinners, by C. H. Lee, published by Manchester University Press, 1972, ISBN 0 7190 0486 1. Samuel Oldknow and the Arkwrights, the industrial revolution in Marple and Stockport, by George Unwin, first edition 1923, second edition published by Augustus Kelly, New York, 1968. Richard arkwright | Define Richard arkwright at Dictionary.com noun 1. Sir Richard.

1732–92, English cotton manufacturer: inventor of the spinning frame (1769) which produced cotton thread strong enough to be used as a warp Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012 Richard Arkwright - History Learning Site Richard Arkwright Citation: C N Trueman "Richard Arkwright" historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, 31 Mar 2015. 16 Aug 2016. Richard Arkwright was born in 1732. Arkwright is considered to be the father of Britain’s factory system. He died in 1792 – a very rich man.

Originally a wig maker, Arkwright is considered by some historians to be an inventor but others consider him to be a man who used other peoples inventions for his own purposes and that he should be considered more a brilliant business man rather than a pure inventor. He lived in a time when patents were rarely used by inventors – so if someone was not careful with a good invention of theirs, that invention or one extremely similar to it, could be used by someone else. Arkwight ‘invented’ the spinning frame and it was first put into use in Preston in 1768. The machine worked all hours – if it did not break down – and it needed few people to keep it running. A factory needed an engineer and anybody else on the work floor was essentially unskilled and did basic and badly paid work. Children were especially useful in textile factories as they could crawl underneath machinery to do repairs even as the machine still worked. Arkwright was not popular in Preston as those who were skilled hand-spinners were frightened that they might lose their jobs to the new machine invented by Arkwright.

As a result of the threat posed by these people, Arkwright moved to Nottingham where he teamed up with a man called Jedediah Strutt who invented the stocking frame. In 1769, Arkwright took out a patent on his spinning machine. By law, no-one could copy it. By 1771, he had established a large water powered mill at Cromford – and it is this building that can claim to be the first factory in the world. As the population of the cities and towns grew, so those people needed clothes. It was this market that Arkwright targeted and he became a very wealthy man. He had got into this market first though his tendency to ‘borrow’ other peoples ideas caught up with him in 1785 when his patent for his spinning frame was withdrawn by the courts. Despite this set-back, he was already established in the cotton market and his importance was recognised by George III who knighted him. By the time of his death in 1792, Arkwright was a very wealthy man. The whole idea of factories was to massively change many cities and for many poor people, they became places of hardship and despair – though also places of desperately needed employment.

Biography of Richard Arkwright, the Founder of Cromford Mill Resources Biography of Richard Arkwright, the Founder of Cromford Mill Sir Richard Arkwright, the inventor of the so-called water frame or water-driven spinning frame and one of the leading entrepreneurs during the Industrial Revolution was born on 23 December 1732 in Preston, Lancashire, England as the youngest of 13 children to Sarah and Thomas Arkwright. He was taught to read and write by his cousin Ellen and apprenticed as a barber. He started his career as a barber and wig maker. In 1750s, he opened his own shop in Bolton where he invented the first waterproof wig dye which brought him a substantial profit and allowed him to finance his interest in cotton spinning and carding technology. In 1767, he started working with clockmaker John Kay who helped him build the famous water frame which he patented in 1769. After he connected with Jedediah Strutt and Samuel Need, Arkwright built the first water-powered mill at Cromford in 1771 which began operating one year latter.

By 1775, he made improvements in the carding machine that was invented by Lewis Paul in 1748 and patented the improved carding machine which effectively converted raw cotton into yard. This machine was installed into the second Cromford Mill which was built between 1776 and 1777 by a lead merchant Peter Nightingale who bought the Cromford Estate and built Arkwright’s residence the Willersley Castle overlooking the Cromford Mills. The success of the Cromford Mill made Arkwright and his partners wealthy men and encouraged Arkwright to set up mills elsewhere. In 1777, he leased the Haarlem Mill in Derbyshire where he put into operation the first steam engine in cotton industry and turned Chorley into the most industrialized town at the time after he leased the Birkacre Mill. However, the success of the Cromford Mill also encouraged other entrepreneurs to follow his example which caused him difficulties with the 1775 patent rights for the improved carding machine. His monopolistic patent was finally rejected by the Lancashire court in 1785 because he allegedly borrowed ideas for the machine from reed manufacturer Thomas Highs.

He was later also denied the right to a number of other patents, however, a large part of his fortune cam from his intellectual rights. And despite the court’s decisions, he was knighted in 1786 and become High Sheriff of Derbyshire one year later. Richard Arkwright was married twice. He married his first wife Patience Holt in 1755. She gave birth to a son, Richard Arkwright Junior in the same year but she died for unknown reason one year later. In 1761, he remarried with Margaret Bigging who bore him three children, however, only their daughter Susanna survived to adulthood. Richard Arkwright died at his residence on 3 August 1792 at the age of 59 years. He was buried at St. Giles Church in Matlock but his remains were later transferred to St. Mary’s Church in Cromford. After his death, his son Richard Arkwright Junior sold most of his father’s mill interests outside Cromford and Marlock Bath. Copyright © 2011 - 2012 cromfordmill.co.uk | Contact : info @ cromfordmill.co.uk

Question: What did Sir Richard Arkwright invent in 1769?
Answer: The Spinning Frame