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Richard Arkwright
Sign in to saveAlso known as Sir Richard Arkwright, Sir Arkwright
textile entrepreneur; developer of the spinning frame (known as the water frame)
Key facts
- Born
- ( 1732-12-23 ) 23 December 1732, Preston, Lancashire , England
- Died
- 3 August 1792 (1792-08-03) (aged 59), Cromford , Derbyshire , England
- Title
- Sir Richard Arkwright
- Spouses
- Patience Holt, Margaret Biggins
- Children
- Richard Arkwright junior , Susannah Arkwright
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Richard
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- Kingdom of Great Britain
- Place of birth
- Preston
- Place of death
- Cromford
- Occupation
- inventor
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Image
- Arkwright Richard 1790.jpg
Show 5 more facts
- Commons category
- Richard Arkwright
- date of birth
- 1732-01-01
- date of death
- 1792-08-03
- Commons gallery
- Richard Arkwright
- name in native language
- Richard Arkwright
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~12 min read
Encyclopedic overview
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. He was the first to develop factories housing both mechanised carding and spinning operations.
Arkwright's achievement was to combine power, machinery, semi-skilled labour and the new raw material of cotton to create mass-produced yarn. His organisational skills earned him the accolade "father of the modern industrial factory system," notably through the methods developed in his mill at Cromford, Derbyshire (now preserved as part of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site).
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Richard Arkwright” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.