The Textile Industry in Britain 1733 to 1860

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The Textile Industry in Britain 1733 to 1860 At the beginning of the 18th century the manufacture of textiles was based on the processing of wool by individual spinners and weavers in a cottage industry based system. Flax and cotton were also used for fine materials, but the processing was difficult because of the pre-processes required. The use of the spinning wheels and hand looms restricted the production capacity of the industry in this system of textile production. In the first half of the 18th century Lewis Paul patented the Roller Spinning machine and the flyer-and-bobbin system for drawing wool to a more even thickness. Paul and his business partner John Wyatt opened a mill in Birmingham which used their new rolling machine powered by a donkey. In 1743, a factory was opened in Northampton with fifty spindles on each of five of Paul and Wyatt's machines. Both Lewis Paul and another inventor Daniel Bourn patented carding machines in 1748. Using two sets of rollers that travelled at different speeds, it was later used in the first cotton spinning mill. Paul's invention was later developed and improved by Richard Arkwright in his water frame and Samuel Crompton in his spinning mule. Richard Arkwright went on to create the cotton mill, bringing the production processes together in a factory, and he developed the use of horse and then water power, making cotton manufacture into a mechanized industry. Before long steam power was applied to drive textile machinery. These inventions and developments allowed the output of an individual worker to be increase dramatically, and some saw the new machines as a threat to employment. However, this revolution of textile manufacturing saw the growth of a middle class of industrialists and businessmen who became more powerful than the titled land owners and gentry. Ordinary working people found opportunities for
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