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Richard Arkwright employed John Kay to produce a new spinning machine that Kay had worked on with (or possibly stolen from) another inventor named Thomas Highs. [2] With the help of other local craftsmen, including Peter Atherton, the team developed the spinning frame, which produced a stronger thread than the spinning jenny invented by James Hargreaves. [3]
Sir Richard Arkwright (23 December 1732 – 3 August 1792) was an English inventor and a leading entrepreneur during the early Industrial Revolution.He is credited as the driving force behind the development of the spinning frame, known as the water frame after it was adapted to use water power; and he patented a rotary carding engine to convert raw cotton to 'cotton lap' prior to spinning.
However, unlike the spinning jenny, the water frame could spin only one thread at a time until 1779, when Samuel Crompton combined the two inventions into his spinning mule, which was more effective. The water frame was originally powered by horses at a factory built by Arkwright and partners in Nottingham.
The spinning machine constructed in Nottingham by Kay and Arkwright was powered by horses, and apparently was not commercially viable. [17] But it did prove the feasibility of the new machine, known as a "spinning frame". Arkwright was thereby able to finance a more elaborate mill using water power, built in 1771 on the River Derwent at Cromford.
Arkwright's success led to his patents being challenged in court and his second patent was overturned as having no originality. Nonetheless, by the time of his death in 1792 he was the wealthiest untitled person in Britain. [22] Cromford Mill has commissioned a replica water frame which was installed in April 2013.
Arkwright's spinning frame The Water frame was developed and patented by Arkwright in the 1770s. The roving was attenuated (stretched) by drafting rollers and twisted by winding it onto a spindle.
The spinning jenny was confined to producing cotton weft threads and was unable to produce yarn of sufficient quality for the warp. A high-quality warp was later supplied by Arkwright's spinning frame. Hargreaves built a jenny for himself and sold several of them to his neighbours. [4]
The water frame was developed from the spinning frame that Arkwright had developed with (a different) John Kay, from Warrington. The original design was again claimed by Thomas Highs: which he purposed he had patented in 1769. [14] Arkwright used waterwheels to power the textile machinery. His initial attempts at driving the frame had used ...