Richard Arkwright (nonfiction)

Sir Richard Arkwright.

Sir Richard Arkwright (22 December 1732 – 3 August 1792) was an English inventor and a leading entrepreneur during the early Industrial Revolution.

Although his patents were eventually overturned, he is credited with inventing the spinning frame, which following the transition to water power was renamed the water frame. He also patented a rotary carding engine that transformed raw cotton into cotton lap.

Arkwright's achievement was to combine power, machinery, semi-skilled labour and the new raw material of cotton to create mass-produced yarn. His skills of organization made him, more than anyone else, the creator of the modern factory system, especially in his mill at Cromford, Derbyshire, now preserved as part of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site.

Later in his life Arkwright was known as the "father of the modern industrial factory system."

Nonfiction cross-reference

External links:

• Richard Arkwright @ Wikipedia