AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 



the first, it is obvious that the rove of cotton will be 

 stretched and pulled to any desired degree of tenuity 

 according to the relative speed of the two sets of rollers. 

 This was the principle upon which Arkwright's spin- 

 ning-frame worked, and as the necessary twist was 

 given the threads by an adaptation of the spindle and 

 fly of the common flax-wheel, perfect threads could 

 be manufactured very rapidly. 



Here was a complete departure in principle from any 

 method of spinning attempted heretofore, unless the 

 doubtful claim of Lewis Paul be recognized, and its 

 simplicity and practicality at once appealed to persons 

 interested in cotton manufacture. The idea of uti- 

 lizing rollers for spinning was said by Arkwright him- 

 self to have been suggested to him by seeing red- 

 hot iron bars elongated by being passed between 

 rollers. 



Profiting by Hargreaves' experience with the lawless 

 mobs of Lancashire, Arkwright took his invention 

 to Nottingham, where he attempted to interest some 

 capitalists in establishing a factory. For some little 

 time he was unsuccessful, but finally a Mr. Strutt, 

 of Derby, becoming convinced of the possibilities of 

 the spinning-frame, assisted the inventor in construct- 

 ing his first mill at Nottingham, horse-power being used. 

 While this experiment showed that the spinning-frame 

 was capable of performing an extraordinary amount 

 of work, the power for running the factory proved so 

 expensive that in 1771 Arkwright constructed a new 

 mill at Cromford, this mill being run by water-power, 

 and for this reason his invention came to be known as 



[27] 



