# Arkwright, Richard (1732-1792) (DNB00)

The spinning-frame of Arkwright (see the drawing of the orginal one in Baines's History of the Cotton Manufacture, p. 153, and Ure's History of the Cotton Manufacture, i. 255; and of the water-frame in Ure, p.276, and Guest's Compendious History, plate 9) was the result of inventive power of a higher and rarer order than that necessary to originate the spinning-jenny. It was much more than a mere development of the old hand-wheel. It implied the application of a new principle, that of spinning by rollers; and in the delicate adjustment of its various parts, and the nice regulation of the different mechanical forces called into operation, so as to make them properly subordinate to the accomplishment of one purpose, we have the first adequate example of those beautiful and intricate mechanical contrivances which have transformed the whole character of the manufacturing industries. The spinning-frame consisted of four pairs of rollers, acting by tooth and pinion. The top roller was covered with leather to enable it to take hold of the cotton, the lower one fluted longitudinally to let the cotton pass through it. By one pair of rollers revolving quicker than another rove was drawn to the requisite fineness for twisting, which was accomplished by spindles or flyers placed in front of each set of rollers. The original invention of Arkwright has neither been superseded nor substantially modified, although it has of course undergone various minor improvements.

The first spinning-mill of Arkwright was driven by horses, but finding this method too expensive, as well as incapable of application on a sufficiently large scale, he resolved to call in the aid of water-power, which had already been successfully applied for a similar purpose, notably in the silk mill erected by Thomas Lombe on the Derwent at Derby in 1717. In 1771 Arkwright therefore went into partnership with Mr. Need of Nottingham and Mr. Strutt of Derby, the possessors of patents for the manufacture of ribbed stockings, and erected his spinning-frame at Cromford in Derbyshire, in a deep, picturesque valley near the Derwent, where he could obtain an easy command of water-power from a never-failing spring of warm water, which even during the severest frost scarcely ever froze. From the fact that the spinning-frame was driven by water, it came to be known as the water-frame; since the application of steam it has been known as the throstle. As the yarn it produced was of a much harder and firmer texture than that spun by the jenny, it was specially suited for warp, but the Lancashire manufacturers declined to make use of it. Arkwright and his partners, therefore, wove it at first into stockings, which, on account of the smoothness and equality of the yarn, were greatly superior to those woven from the hand-spun cotton. In 1773 he began to use the thread as warp for the manufacture of calicoes, instead of the linen warp formerly used together with the cotton weft, and thus a cloth solely of cotton was for the first time produced in England. It met at once with a great demand, but, on account of an act passed in 1736 for the protection of the woollen manufactures of England against the calicoes of India, it was liable to a double duty, which, at the instance of the Lancashire manufacturers, was speedily enforced. Notwithstanding their strenuous opposition, Arkwright, however, in 1774 obtained an act specially exempting from extra duty the ‘new manufacture of stuffs wholly made of raw cotton wool.’ Up to this time more than 12,000l. had been expended by Arkwright and his partners on machinery with little or no return, but after the new act the cotton manufacture created by his energy and genius developed with amazing rapidity, until it became the leading industry of the north of England.

While struggling against the mingled inertness and active opposition of the manufacturers, Arkwright had all the while been busily engaged in augmenting the capability and efficiency of his machinery, and in 1775 he brought out a patent for a series of adaptations and inventions by means of which the whole process of yarn manufacture—including carding, drawing, roving, and spinning—was performed by a beautifully arranged succession of operations on one machine. With the grant of this patent every obstacle in the way of a sufficient supply of yarn was overcome, and, whatever might happen to Arkwright, the prosperity of the cotton manufacture was guaranteed. Afterwards the invention was adapted for the woollen and worsted trade with equal success.

The machine of Arkwright was adapted for roving by means of a revolving can which a witness asserted he had used in 1774, although, as it happened, the can had been made for him by two men in Arkwright's employment. For the process of carding additions and improvements of great ingenuity were affixed to the carding cylinder patented by Paul in 1748, transforming it into an entirely new machine. The most important of these were the crank and comb, said to have been used by Hargreaves, but which, according to the somewhat disputable opinion of Baines, Hargreaves stole from Arkwright (see Baines, Cotton Manufacture, p. 178); the perpetual revolving cloth called the feeder, said to have been used by John Lees, a quaker of Manchester, in 1772, but which Arkwright had undoubtedly used previously at Cromford; and filleted cards on the second cylinder which also must have been used by Arkwright in 1772, although a manufacturer named Wood claimed to have first used them in 1774 (see Ure, Cotton Manufacture, ii. 24). Indeed the whole of the complicated self-acting machinery which without the intervention of hand labour performed the different processes necessary to change raw cotton into thread suitable for warp, was substantially the invention of Arkwright; and while each separate machine was in itself a remarkable triumph of inventive skill, the construction of the whole series, and the adaptation of each to its individual function in the continuous succession of operations, must be regarded as an almost unique achievement in the history of invention.

It is from the construction of the mills of Arkwright that we may properly date the origin of the factory system, with its minute division of labour and the regular uninterrupted co-operation of numerous individuals in the different processes of machinery. In overcoming the prejudices of workers, in accustoming them to unremitting diligence during the stated hours of labour, in training them for their particular tasks and inducing them to conform to the regular celerity of the machinery, Arkwright displayed an energy and perseverance perhaps of a higher kind, if less rare, than that which enabled him to originate his inventions. His whole arrangements were framed with the utmost forethought and care, and from the beginning he enforced scrupulous cleanliness and the most systematic order. So admirable were his plans of management that they cannot be said to have yet been in any degree superseded, and their general adoption doubtless rendered the introduction of the factory system much smoother and easier than it would otherwise have been.

The prosperity of Arkwright suffered no serious check from the cancelling of his patents. His experience and extraordinary business capacity, and the start he had obtained, enabled him to retain an advantage over other manufacturers. ‘For several years he fixed the price of cotton twist, all other spinners conforming to his prices’ (Baines, Cotton Manufacture, p. 193). About 1784 Arkwright had visited Scotland, and assisted David Dale in planning the erection of the New Lanark mills, afterwards associated with the socialistic experiments of Robert Owen; but if he entered into partnership with Dale this was dissolved after the adverse decision in reference to the patent. Several additional mills were, however, erected by him both in Derbyshire and Lancashire, and, notwithstanding a distressing asthmatic affection, he continued to the last actively interested in their management and the introduction of improvements. In 1790 he erected Boulton and Watt's steam engine in his mill at Nottingham. In 1786 Arkwright received the honour of knighthood from George III on the occasion of presenting him with a congratulatory address from the wapentake of Wirksworth on his escape from assassination by Margaret Nicholson. In the following year Arkwright was chosen high sheriff of Derbshire. He purchased the manor of Cromford in 1789, and shortly afterwards obtained the grant of a market for the town. He had begun the erection of a church, and also of Willersley Castle for his own residence, when a complication of disorders resulted in his death 3 Aug. 1792.

Carlyle, forming his opinion from the well-known portrait of Arkwright, describes him as ‘a plain, almost gross, bag-cheeked, pot-bellied Lancashire man, with an air of painful reflection, yet also of copious free digestion.’ Arkwright possessed an energy which would scarcely allow him a moment's rest. He generally laboured ‘in his multifarious concerns from five o'clock in the morning till nine at night,’ and utilised all his time to the best possible advantage. Bad or careless work roused his stern wrath. For the success of his schemes he was ready to endure any personal inconvenience and suffer the severest sacrifices. From the beginning he was so sanguine of the vast results that would follow his inventions ‘that he would make light of discussions on taxation and would say that he would pay the national debt’ (Baines, Cotton Manufacture, p. 196).

[Case of Richard Arkwright and Company in 1782; Reports of Trials, 17 Feb. 1785 and 25 June 1785; Guest's Compendious History of the Cotton Manufacture (1823), and British Cotton Manufacture (1828); Baines's History of Lancashire, and History of Cotton Manufacture; Ure's Cotton Manufacture of Great Britain, and Philosophy of Cotton Manufacture; Edinburgh Review, vol. xlvi.; Quarterly Review, vol. cvii.; Aikin's General Biography, i. 389–92; Beauties of England and Wales, iii. 512–24, and ix. 278–82; Kennedy's Rise and Progress of the Cotton Trade, in Memoirs of Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, 1819; Histories of Preston, by Whittle, vol. ii. (1837), and by Hardwick (1857); Smiles's Self-Help; Espinasse's Lancashire Worthies, vol. i. (1874).]

T. F. H.

Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.8
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line

 Page Col. Line 83 i ii 17 8f.e. ${\displaystyle \scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}}$ Arkwright, Sir Richard: for Reed read Need 85 i 20-26 ﻿for That Arkwright was not over scrupulous . . . . the character of a barber read It has been argued in error that Arkwright misdescribed his occupation in his first patent, but as a matter of fact he merely described himself there as ‘of the town of Nottingham in the county of Nottingham,’ nor was any trade mentioned in his second patent 28 ﻿omit moreover 36 ﻿for inventions of Paul . . . . patents read invention of Lewis Paul [q. v.], who had obtained a patent 37 ﻿omit and 1758 42-46 ﻿for Not only did Paul . . . . adopted read Another of Paul's machines patented in 1758 did not include spinning by rollers 61 ﻿for it is now known that read according to the somewhat disputable evidence of Baines