Richard Arkwright
1732 – 1792 British inventor, industrialist
Inventor of the water frame and builder of the factory system, whose Cromford mill is often called the first modern factory.
Richard Arkwright, a barber and wigmaker by trade, patented the water frame in 1769, a spinning machine that produced strong cotton thread but needed a power source and a large workforce. His mill at Cromford, opened in 1771, gathered machines and workers under one roof on set shifts, a model widely copied and often called the first modern factory. He grew very wealthy and was knighted. The system he built also fixed the harsh pattern of factory life, including long hours and the heavy use of child labour, that would define early industrial work.
Connections
- rival of James Hargreaves — Rival cotton-spinning pioneer whose spinning jenny competed with Arkwright's water frame.
- rival of James Hargreaves — Rival cotton-spinning pioneer whose water frame competed with the jenny.
- associate of Samuel Slater — Learned and reproduced Arkwright's spinning technology, carrying it to America.
In the timeline
- 1769 Arkwright patents the water frame the inventor
- 1771 Arkwright's factory system the builder of the system
- 1771 Arkwright opens Cromford Mill the mill owner