Inventions
The Arkwright Inventions
The development of the Arkwright water frame made available the first continuous spinning process which could be operated by machine minders rather than skilled operatives.
Arkwright’s first patent, which he obtained in July 1769, was for a machine which spun yarn by means of rollers, flyers and bobbins. The cotton was “drawn” by pairs of rollers, each successive pair moving faster than the preceding one, with twist added by bobbins and flyers. The front pair of rollers was weighted by lead weights hooked over the top roller. This prevented the twist running back up the roving and forcing the rollers apart. The top roller was covered with leather and the bottom one fluted so that the cotton was held firmly as it passed between the two.
The production models used the basic drafting head shown in the patent drawing mounted side by side on a wooden frame and driven from a water wheel by gearing, wooden line shafting and belts.
Joseph
Wright’s portrait of Sir Richard shows his subject and, by his
side, the invention on which his fame and fortune were based. In selecting
the drafting head (the roller device), as the icon of his subject’s
achievement, and in painting it so accurately, Joseph Wright demonstrated
a genuine understanding of the Arkwright spinning process.
The
production models of the water frame varied in size from four spindles
to the ninety-six spindle machine, an example of which, from Cromford
Mill, is preserved at the Helmshore Higher Mill Museum in Lancashire.
The factory masters found it an advantage to have frames of more than
one size so that they could produce yarns in varying degrees of thickness,
known in the
trade as counts, in appropriate quantities according to the demands of the
market.
Some of the elements of Arkwright’s Second Patent 1775
Once Arkwright had successfully adapted his spinning machine to factory
production, he turned his attention to the preparatory processes which
precede spinning in the production of yarn. The need had become acute.
Until carding and roving could be mechanised to keep pace with spinning,
continuous production, the essence of the factory system, could not be
achieved. Arkwright’s solutions to these problems were set out
in his second patent which he obtained in 1775. This comprised a series
of devices with which he addressed the technical problems of opening
and cleaning the cotton; carding, a process by which all the fibres are
laid parallel; and the creation of slivers and rovings, the loose, slightly
twisted ropes of fibre which formed the raw material for the spinning
frames.
By no means all Arkwright’s solutions were effective. His attempts to mechanise opening and cleaning failed and these, the first stages in making ready the raw cotton, continued to be performed by hand until the 1790s when the first successful batting machines became available.
Overall
his achievement was remarkable, both in its immediate affect and in its
longevity. Some of Arkwright’s inventions such as the crank and
comb continued in use on carding machinery until the
middle of the twentieth century.
The Arkwright system, or “package” of
processes has been, and remains, of the greatest significance to the
world’s textile industries. The improvements that Arkwright made
to carding were ultimately applied to all textile fibres other than monofilaments
and the modern machine is a recognisable descendent of Arkwright’s
first factory models. Roller drawing, too, had a wider application and
was adapted to deal with other fibres. It remained a key component of
the mule, of the throstle and of the ring
frame, the most important devices by far in the spinning of cotton, wool,
flax, jute and waste silk, as well as of chopped synthetic fibres.
The
international implications of Arkwright’s inventions were wide-spread
and extended beyond the immediate economic effects of technological transfer
as the Arkwright system became established in countries outside Great
Britain. The factory production of cotton yarn also led to cotton becoming
the most important textile fibre in the world for a period of more than
a century and the impact of large scale cultivation on countries such
as the United States, Egypt and India was profound.
The
Arkwright system made possible the production of cheap clothing and household
textiles for a wide cross-section of the population, improving comfort
and personal hygiene.