The Spinning Water Frame

Richard Arkwright could be considered the one person who started the entire industrial revolution due to his major innovation – the water frame, patented in 1769. However, although Arkwright has long been credited with the innovation of the Spinning Water Frame, the true inventor now is said to be Thomas Highs.

 

Arkwright started out his career as a wigmaker, however, later on met both John Kay and Thomas Highs. Being impressed by these men and their struggling innovative spirit, he hired Kay and local craftsmen to aid them in making a new machine. Not much later, together, they produced the water (or spinning) frame. This machine replaced the spinning jenny, with the ability to turn raw cotton into strong, durable cotton-thread quickly. It consisted of a bare wooden frame into which bobbins, spindles, and rollers were all mounted. This machine was powered by water, hence the name water frame. It however, attempted to imitate the hand movements of an actual spinner (it was also called the spinning frame!). The machine had reached new heights, increasing the number of threads that could be produced steeply. The machine included at the most 96 bobbins that would produce material that would taken people hundreds of hours in a single hour. Although this machine greatly accelerated the process of spinning, it did so with a drastic effect. It took away the jobs of hundreds of thousands of people who were extremely dexterous, however, not fast enough to keep up with this machine. Arkwright, having patented this innovation sold several licenses to use these machines (which could have spindles in the thousands). In June of 1785, a trial brought forth by Arkwright's competitors took place during which Thomas Highs claimed that in 1767 he had invented, or regenerated Hyatt's design, the spinning machine which Arkwright took credit for. Arkwright was a shrewd businessman, though, and utilized his machine to the fullest of its abilities in several ways which are fundamental to the origin of factories:  

1. He patented the machine which mechanical spun thread (and was almost identical to the one invented by Wyatt)  

2. He signed a contract with Need and Strut, rich hosier merchant manufacturers who already employed workers in their homes.  

3. He opened a workshop with a few of his machines  

4. In 1771 he moved to Cromford on the Derwent river, and opens a mill for spinning. The location was essential since the mill was water-powered  

5. In 1779 his endeavor grew – the mill contained several thousands spindles and 300 workmen.  

6. His success is also attributed to the speed and quality of production (because of the strength of the woven thread, they were able to make purely cotton goods, rather than a good made of a combination of cotton and linen)  

7. Arkwright petitioned before the British Parliament persisting that the law which was designed to block foreign goods from coming into the kingdom and harming the economy should not be applied to the nation's own workmanship. Arkwright stated, ‘the said manufacture, if not crushed by so heavy a duty, will rapidly increase and find new and effectual employment for many thousand British poor, and increase the revenue of this Kingdom. …Cotton goods so made wholly of cotton will be greatly superior in quality to the present species of cotton goods, made with linen yarn warps, and will bleach print, wash and wear better.'  

The parliament concurred with his request to permit the ‘free vending, wearing and using by all persons, in apparel, house-hold stuff, furniture or otherwise, any sort of the said cotton stuffs…' (these quotes come from Journals of the House of Commons, XXXIV, 497 (1774))  

8. In 1775 Arwright patented the carding machine, the crank and comb, the roving frame and the feeder.

(It turns out that he didn't invent any of these either. According to the many witnesses in his 1785 trial, the feeder had been invented by the Quaker John Lees of Manchester , the crank and comb had been invented by Hargraeve, and the carding machine had been invented by Daniel Bourne who had patented it in 1748.)  

The feeder was a revolving band of material that carried the raw cotton into the carding machine.  

The carding machine, together with the crank and comb, enabled continuous relatively smooth sheets of cotton to be made, without tearing. The roving frame “turned the ribbon of carded cotton into a cylindrical strand slightly twisted on itself, and ready for conversion into thread.”  

Ergo, most of the vital innovations for the cotton industry were created by 1775.  

Arkwright ended his partnership with Need and Strutt in 1781. He found several other partners and was careful to limit their rights. He took part in and managed at all levels of his business, and was always present.  

After the trial, although he had been stripped of his patent, Arkwright was still the richest cotton-spinner and had the most and best run factories in England . He continued to improve and enlarge his factories, and build many more, including, in 1784, with David Dale, the New Lanark spinning mills, and others at Wirksworth and Bakewell near Cromford. Arkwright was knighted and called upon to fill the office of Sheriff of the County of Derby , in his later years. He died in 1792.  

“Arkwright's real claim to fame lies in the fact that he was successful. He was the first who knew how to make something out of other men's inventions, and who built them up into an industrial system…he must have displayed remarkable business ability, together with a curious mixture of cleverness, perseverance and daring.”  

Arkwright founded the modern factory system. He was an extremely hard worker with great hopes. By the end of the eighteenth century, all the factories in Lancashire and Derbyshire were built in the same way his factories were.  

Sources:

Industrial Revolution . 11 Mar. 2006 . 21 Mar. 2006

     < http://www.cottontimes.co.uk/ >.   

The National Archives Learning Curve Center . 2006. Learning Curve. 21 Mar. 2006 < http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/index/default1750.htm >.    

Deane, Phyllis. The First Industrial Revolution . New York : Cambridge University Press, 1965.