| 18th Century History |
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Richard Arkwright Was Not An Innovator, But A Very Clever Entrepreneur by: Hamaad Shah The Industrial Revolution started off in the 18th Century. There were many Entrepreneurs, who came up with Machine ideas for Spinning Cotton Wool to turn it into thread. The 18th Century was a Golden Age of invention. One Entrepreneur stands out more than any of the others, & his name was RICHARD ARKWRIGHT. He was the 1st Industrial Tycoon. However, the question to ask is, WAS HE REALLY AN INNOVATOR? Richard Arkwright lived from 1732-92. He was born in Preston, Lancashire, England. At first, Arkwright earned his living as a traveling barber & Peruke Maker (Wig Maker). He would here things about the shortage of Cotton Wool because the Spinning Jenny was producing too much thread & needed a skilful operator & the thread was not strong enough. So Arkwright realized he could make a huge sum of money if he designed the right machine, so he got down to work. Arkwright used ideas from here & there to produce a machine. The machine was at first powered by Horse, but then later on powered by Water. This machine was called, THE WATERFRAME. People claimed he had copied a machine, which had been in use 30 years before. A man called, THOMAS HIGHS claimed that Arkwright had stolen his ideas. In 1769, Arkwright obtained a Patent for the WATERFRAME. Arkwright went to Nottingham, the capital of Stock & Knitting manufacturing. In August 1771, Arkwright bought some land in Cromford, Derbyshire, close to some fast flowing streams. He never wasted anytime & with the backing of Samuel Need (Nottingham) & Jedediah Strutt (Derby) built his first mill in December 1771. Richard Arkwright would build Dams & Ponds to store Water for the summer, when the streams dried out. Before Arkwright moved to Cromford it was an Isolated Hamlet. Arkwright advertised jobs for large families & anybody at the age of 7 years or over. He provided houses for families working for him. He built a hotel in Cromford called, THE GREYHOUND & provided Entertainment, a School providing education & a Chapel for religious purposes. After 6 years, he had 5,000 employees. He stated that, ANYBODY CAUGHT WITH THE WINDOW OPEN, DIRTY HANDS & WHISTLING WOULD BE FINED 1 SHILLING! Arkwright made tremendous profit. The Women & Children would leave the house at approximately 05-30 to go to the factory & there would be 2 - 12 hour shifts 6 days of the week. The father would sit upstairs & do the weaving. There would be a bell ringing to get the employees working. Sunday was left for School & going to the Chapel. In 1786, Arkwright was Knighted by the King & decided the house he was living in was not good enough for the title SIR so he had a mansion built called, WILLERSLY CASTLE & died on the 5th August before moving in to the new mansion. He was given the title because he provided people with an occupation. I believe that Richard Arkwright was actually an inventor even though he mixed his own ideas with other ideas. He was the first person known to have used Water as the source of Power. This is the reason for me believing that Richard Arkwright was an inventor. Source: · Encarta 2005 ·Industry in the 1700s |
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