Sir Richard Arkwright (b. the last of 13 children December 23, 1732, d. August 3, 1792) was an Englishman credited with the Spinning Frame — later renamed the Water Frame following the transition to water power. The spinning frame – loosely based on the Spinning Jenny of James Hargreaves – was developed in 1769, and the world's first water-powered cotton mill was built in 1771 at Cromford, Derbyshire, (now one of the Derwent Valley Mills) creating one of the catalysts for the Industrial Revolution. He was knighted in 1786.
Born in Preston in the county of Lancashire, England, he worked as a barber until he was twenty-eight years old, when he became a dealer in hair, and made money developing hair dye.
In 1768, he worked together with a clockmaker called John Kay (who was not the John Kay who invented the Flying Shuttle) to make a cotton spinning frame, by which, for the first time, cotton thread could be made by machinery fine and strong enough for the warp, or long threads of cloth. The next year he set up a mill worked by horsepower but before long was able to use water power.
Many workmen and manufacturers tried to ruin him, because they saw the mill as a threat to their livelihoods, but he died one of the richest men in the country.
Later in life, he taught himself the simple branches of education.
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