Sir Richard ArkwrightBorn 23 Dec 1732; died 3 Aug 1792 at age 59. English industrialist and inventor whose introduction of power-driven mechanization of textile factory production methods were enormously successful. The Spinning-Frame machine he invented (1769, British patent No. 931) to spin cotton yarn used multiple sets of paired rollers that turned at different speeds able to draw out yarn of the correct thickness, and a set of spindles to twist the fibres firmly together. It produced a far stronger thread that that made by the Spinning-Jenny of James Hargreaves. Arkwright's machine was too large to be manually driven, so he powered it with a water-wheel (1771) when it became known as the Water Frame. Arkwright's textile business expanded, he built more factories, and later adopted steam power.« |
