AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 



lowing the decision from the King's Bench, Arkwright 

 was honored by the order of knighthood a recogni- 

 tion that could not be denied him by the courts. 



"The most marked traits in the character of Ark- 

 wright/' says a biographer, "were his wonderful ardor, 

 energy, and perseverance. He commonly labored in 

 his multifarious concerns from five o'clock in the morn- 

 ing till nine at night; and when considerably more 

 than fifty years of age, feeling that the defects of his 

 education placed him under great difficulty and incon- 

 venience in conducting his correspondence, and in the 

 general management of his business, he encroached 

 upon his sleep, in order to gain an hour each day to 

 learn English grammar, and another hour to improve 

 his writing and orthography! He was impatient of 

 whatever interfered with his favorite pursuits; and the 

 fact is too strikingly characteristic not to be mentioned, 

 that he separated from his wife not many years after 

 his marriage, because she, convinced that he would 

 starve his family by scheming when he should have 

 been shaving, broke some of his experimental models 

 of machinery. 



"Arkwright was a severe economist of time; and, 

 that he might not waste a moment, he generally traveled 

 with four horses, and at a very rapid speed. His con- 

 cerns in Derbyshire, Lancashire, and Scotland, were 

 so extensive and numerous as to show at once his as- 

 tonishing power of transacting business, and his all- 

 grasping spirit. In many of these he had partners, 

 but he generally managed in such a way, that whoever 

 lost, he himself was a gainer. So unbounded was his 



