ARK'WRIGHT, Sir RICHARD ( 1732-92). Celebrated for his invention of cotton-spinning machinery, was born at Preston, in Lancashire. Of humble origin, the youngest of thirteen chil dren, and bred to the trade of a barber, his early opportunities of cultivation were exceed ingly limited. In 1761 he gave up his business as a barber in Bolton.to become a traveling dealer in hair, and the profits of his trade were increased considerably by a secret process for dyeing hair which he had acquired. His residence in the midst of a cotton-spinning population naturally led hinr to take an interest in the processes used in that manufacture, and his mind was soon turned toward improved methods. Having no practical skill in mechanics, he secured the ser vices of a watchmaker, named Kay, to assist him in the construction of his apparatus. About 1767 he seems to have given himself wholly up to inventions in cotton-spinning machinery. In the following year be removed to Preston, where he set up his first machine, the celebrated spinning frame, consisting chiefly of two pairs of rollers, the first pair, which were in contact, revolving with a slow motion, and passing the cotton to the other pair, which revolved with such in creased velocity as to draw out the thread to the required degree of fineness. A subsequent opera tion was to spin the yarn from these threads. No previously invented machinery had been able to produce cotton thread of sufficient tenuity and strength to be used as warp. An invention, in deed, by Charles Wyatt of Birmingham, which was patented in 1738, but never succeeded, deprives Arkwright of the honor of having been the first to use rollers in spinning; but there is no reason to believe that he owed anything to this previous attempt. The first suggestion of the idea, he said, was derived from seeing a red hot iron bar elongated by being made to pass between rollers. At this time Arkwright was so poor that he needed to be furnished with a suit of clothes before he could appear to vote at an election as a burgess of Preston. Soon after, he removed to Nottingham, to escape the popular rage, which had already driven 'Hargreaves, the inventor of the spinning-jenny, out of Lancashire. Here he fortunately fell in with Jedediah Strutt of Derby, the celebrated improver of the stocking frame, who entered into partnership with him, in conjunction with his partner, Mr. Reed. In 1769 Arkwright set up his first mill, driven by horses, and took out a patent for his invention. In 1771 lie set up a larger factory, with water-power, at Cromford, in Derbyshire. Not only was his labor saving machinery well arranged and ingeniously devised, but he effected such a division of labor and organization of his employ6s that the great est efficiency of production was secured. From
these mills of Arkwright the modern factory system takes its origin. He was one of the first to introduce the steam-engine into his factories, and the mill at Nottingham was supplied with a Boulton and Watts steam-engine of 1790. The remarkahle capabilities of his mind were strik ingly evinced in the management of the great business. In 1775 he took out a fresh patent for various additional improvements in machinery. The success attending these undertakings stimu lated rivals to invade his patent; and to such an extent did other eotton-spinners use his designs, that he was obliged, in 1781, to prosecute at once nine different manufacturers. The first action, against Colonel Mordaunt, backed by a strong combination of Lancashire manufacturers, was lost, solely on the ground that the description in his specification was not sufficiently clear and distinct. The other actions were abandoned: and, in the following year, Arkwright published a pamphlet containing a statement of his ease. In a new' trial, in 1785, he obtained a favorable verdict. The whole question, however, was brought filially before the Court of King's Bench, a few months after, when Arkwright's claim to the inventions patented was for the first time called in question. On the doubtful evidence of a person named Highs, or Hayes, combined with that of Arkwright's old assistant, Kay. the jury decided against him, and his patent was annulled. This was but the formal outcome of an opposition which had from the beginning marked out Arkwright as an object of hostility. The manufacturers at first combined to discountenance the use of his yarn. When the yarn was made into calicoes, and Parliament was petitioned to lessen the duty on that cloth, they strenuously opposed the measure, but in vain. Popular animosity was also excited against the man who apparently displaced labor, but in real ity increased its sphere; and on one occasion, a large factory belonging to Arkwright was de stroyed in the presence of a powerful military and police force, without a word of interference from the magistrates. The energy and good sense of Arkwright triumphed over all opposi tion, and at the time of his death, in 1792, the value of his property amounted to about $500, 000. In 1786 he was appointed high-sheriff of Derbyshire and was also knighted by George 111. See Baine's History of Cotton Manufacture and Lire's Cotton Manufacture of Great Britain.