Richard Arkwright’s Water Frame and the First Textile Factories

The Water Frame was used to spin cotton thread. It could spin 128 threads at a time, which greatly increased efficiency and productivity (“Richard Arkwright”). The spindles on the machine twisted the fibers together while the rollers produced yarn of the right thickness. This method produced the strongest thread available at the time (“Innovations of the Industrial Revolution”). It was too big to be powered by human hands and after trying other sources of energy; Arkwright discovered that waterpower was the best way to power the machine (“Innovations of the Industrial Revolution”).  It was originally called a Spinning Frame but when it was first put to use in 1768 it was clear that Water Frame would be a more appropriate name (“Water Frame”).

 

Due to the fact that the Water Frame had to be powered by a waterwheel and that it was too large to be used in cottages like previous machines, it had to be put into separate buildings. Arkwright set up factories near supplies of flowing water where he hired people to work on his machines (Burchill et al.). When the domestic system was still in place and the whole family made cloth together, men were usually the weavers and women were the spinners. When Arkwright set up his factories, families were divided in the process of making cloth for the first time as women would go and spin thread in the factories and men would stay in the cottages and weave (Burchill et al.). These factories were the first to be built to house machines specifically and the machines meant that the labour was split evenly and fairly as all the thread was manufactured by one (“Water Frame”) (“Sir Richard Arkwright (1732 – 1792)”).