ARKWRIGHT, SIR RICHARD (1732-92) , English in ventor, was born at Preston, in Lancashire, on Dec. 23 1 73 2, of parents in humble circumstances. He was the youngest of 13 children, and established himself as a barber at Bolton about This business he gave up about 1767 to devote himself to the construction of the spinning frame. The spinning jenny, which was not patented by James Hargreaves (d. 1778), a carpenter of Blackburn, Lancashire, until 177o, though he had invented it some years earlier, gave the means of spinning 20 or 3o threads with no more labour than had previously been required to spin a single thread. The thread spun by the jenny could not, how ever, be used except as weft, as it lacked the firmness or hardness required in the longitudinal threads or warp. Arkwright supplied this deficiency by the invention of the spinning-frame, which spins a vast number of threads of any degree of fineness and hardness.
The precise date of this invention is not known ; but in 1767 Arkwright employed John Kay, a watchmaker at Warrington, to assist him in the preparation of the parts of his machine, and he took out a patent for it in 1769. The first model was set up in the parlour of the house belonging to the free grammar school at Preston. This invention having been brought to a fairly ad vanced stage, Arkwright removed to Nottingham in 1768, accom panied by Kay and John Smalley, of Preston, and there erected his first spinning mill, which was worked by horses.
But his operations were at first greatly fettered by want of capital, until Jedediah Strutt (q.v.), having satisfied himself of the value of the machines, entered with his partner, Samuel Need, into partnership with Arkwright and enabled him in 1771 to build a second factory, on a much larger scale, at Cromford in Derby shire, the machinery of which was turned by a water-wheel. A fresh patent, taken out in 1775, covered several additional im provements in the processes of carding, roving and spinning. As the value of his processes became known, Arkwright began to be troubled with infringements of his patents, and in 1 781 he took action in the courts to vindicate his rights. His patent was a source of prolonged litigation, but he was able to consolidate his position as a manufacturer in spite of all difficulties. He died at Cromford on Aug. 3, 1792.