The water frame is a

spinning frame The spinning frame is an Industrial Revolution invention for spinning thread or yarn from fibres such as wool or cotton in a mechanized way. It was developed in 18th-century Britain by Richard Arkwright and John Kay. Historical context In 1 ...

that is powered by a

water-wheel A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with a number of blades or bucket ...

. Water frames in general have existed since Ancient Egypt times.

Richard Arkwright Sir Richard Arkwright (23 December 1732 – 3 August 1792) was an English inventor and a leading entrepreneur during the early Industrial Revolution. He is credited as the driving force behind the development of the spinning frame, known as t ...

, who patented the

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...

in 1769, designed a model for the production of cotton thread; this was first used in 1765. The Arkwright water frame was able to spin 96 threads at a time, which was an easier and faster method than ever before. The design was partly based on a spinning machine built for

Thomas Highs Thomas Highs (1718–1803), of Leigh, Lancashire, was a reed-maker and manufacturer of cotton carding and spinning engines in the 1780s, during the Industrial Revolution. He is known for claiming patents on a spinning jenny (invented by Jame ...

by clockmaker John Kay, who was hired by Arkwright. Being run on water power, it produced stronger and harder yarn than the then-famous "

spinning jenny The spinning jenny is a multi-spindle spinning frame, and was one of the key developments in the industrialization of textile manufacturing during the early Industrial Revolution. It was invented in 1764 or 1765 by James Hargreaves in Stanhill ...

", and propelled the adoption of the modern factory system. Another water-powered frame for the production of textiles was developed in 1760, in the early industrialized town of

Elberfeld Elberfeld is a municipal subdivision of the German city of Wuppertal; it was an independent town until 1929. History The first official mentioning of the geographic area on the banks of today's Wupper River as "''elverfelde''" was in a docu ...

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

(now in

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; "''Wupper Dale''") is, with a population of approximately 355,000, the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the 17th-largest city of Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of the cities and to ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

), by German bleach plant owner Johann Heinrich Bockmühl. The name ''water frame'' is derived from the use of a water wheel to drive a number of spinning frames. The water wheel provided more power to the spinning frame than human operators, reducing the amount of human labor needed and increasing the spindle count dramatically. However, unlike the spinning jenny, the water frame could spin only one thread at a time until 1779, when Samuel Compton combined the two inventions into his

spinning mule The spinning mule is a machine used to spin cotton and other fibres. They were used extensively from the late 18th to the early 20th century in the mills of Lancashire and elsewhere. Mules were worked in pairs by a minder, with the help of tw ...

, which was more effective. The water frame was originally powered by horses at a factory built by Arkwright and partners in Nottingham. In 1770 Arkwright and his partners built a water-powered mill in

Cromford Cromford is a village and civil parish in Derbyshire, England, in the valley of the River Derwent between Wirksworth and Matlock. It is north of Derby, south of Matlock and south of Matlock Bath. It is first mentioned in the 11th-century Do ...

, Derbyshire.

Cromford

In 1771, Arkwright installed the water frame in his cotton mill at

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

, on the River Derwent, creating one of the first factories that was specifically built to house machinery rather than just bringing workers together. It was one of the first instances of the working day being determined by the clock instead of the daylight hours, of people being employed rather than just contracted. In its final form, combined with his carding machine, it was the first factory to use a

continuous process Continuous production is a flow production method used to manufacture, produce, or process materials without interruption. Continuous production is called a continuous process or a continuous flow process because the materials, either dry bulk ...

from raw material to finished product in a series of operations. Arkwright played a significant part in the development of the factory system as he combined water power, the water frame, and continuous production with modern employment practices.

International success

The water frame played a significant role in the development of the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

– first in England, but soon also in continental Europe after German entrepreneur

Johann Gottfried Brügelmann Johann Gottfried Brügelmann (baptized 6 July 1750 in Elberfeld, now a district of Wuppertal - 27 December 1802, Ratingen) was a German industrialist, most notable as founder of the first factory on mainland Europe, one of the forerunners of the ...

managed to find out details of the technology, which had been kept very secret – disclosure of details was punishable by death penalty. Brügelmann managed to build working waterframes and used them to open the first spinning factory on the continent, built 1783 in

Ratingen Ratingen ( li, Rotinge) is a town in the district of Mettmann in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It lies in the northwestern part of Berg about 12 km northeast of Düsseldorf. Administration With a communal reform of 1975 the independent mu ...

and also named "Cromford", from where the technology spread over the world. The factory building today hosts a museum, which is the world's only place to see a functioning waterframe.

Samuel Slater Samuel Slater (June 9, 1768 – April 21, 1835) was an early English-American industrialist known as the "Father of the American Industrial Revolution" (a phrase coined by Andrew Jackson) and the "Father of the American Factory System". In the ...

brought the water frame to America, circumventing the 1774 English ban on textile workers leaving and memorizing details of its construction; he left for

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

in 1789.

Moses Brown Moses Brown (September 23, 1738 – September 6, 1836) was an American abolitionist and industrialist from New England, who funded the design and construction of some of the first factory houses for spinning machines during the American industr ...

and Slater partnered to create the

Slater Mill The Slater Mill is a historic water-powered textile mill complex on the banks of the Blackstone River in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, modeled after cotton spinning mills first established in England. It is the first water-powered cotton spinning mil ...

in Pawtucket in 1793, the first water-powered machine to make thread in America.

References

External links

Demonstration of water frame

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*Cromford Mills World Heritage Site, https://www.cromfordmills.org.uk/ {{Lancashire Cotton Textile machinery Spinning English inventions History of the textile industry Industrial Revolution in England