Industrial Revelations

In episode 2 of Series 1, Mark Williams looks at the transformations that took place in the textile industry. Moving from one man cottage operations to factories crammed full of workers.

Spinning Jenny

In 1764 James Hargreaves from Lancaster invented the Spinning Jenny. Which took raw cotton and spun it into thread for weaving. Before the invention, 6 spinners would produce the cotton required by one weaver. Now with the Spinning Jenny, one man operating a 120-spindle machine could supply enough cotton for 8 weavers. This breath-taking change in the economics of cotton production meant that cottage production was no longer viable.

Spinning Frames

Enter Richard Arkwright. From his experience as a wig maker, and trial and error, Arkwright perfected a water-powered machine which used gears to stretch the cotton and spit it onto spindles. It could process 100lbs of cotton in 300 hours instead of the 50,000 hours it would take Indian hand spinners. He was paranoid that his invention would be copied before he could make his fortune.

Arkwright built a factory in Cromford, miles away from his competitors. His machines did not need man-power to operate, just unskilled workers to maintain them. He invented the factory worker. When he exhausted the local supply of workers, he built cottages so he could move people into the area and work long shifts in his factory.

To connect the Cromford Mill to the rest of the canal network, Arkwright petitioned to get the Cromford Canal built. This allow cotton shipments from London and Liverpool to reach his mill.

When Richard Arkwright died, he was one of the weathiest men in the country.

Cromford and High Peak Railway

The Cromford and High Peak Railway, completed in 1831, was built to connect the mills at Cromford with canal network at Whaley Bridge, Manchester and the weaving mills of Lancashire who needed lots of cheap cotton.

This railway used horse drawn carriages over long flat sections of track and seven stationary engines to pull carriages up steep inclines. One such engine, a beam engine built by The Butterley Company of Derbyshire in 1829 was cited in an engine house at Middleton Top. The Butterley Engine used a closed cylinder where steam pressure acts on both sides of the piston. This engine uses Watt’s parallel linkage and a rotary arm to drive fly wheel at 40 revolutions per minute.

More Information

• Steam Over The Northern Summits (DVD)
• Cromford and High Peak Railway
• The Arkwrights: Spinners of Fortune