In 1771 Richard Arkwright, a former barber and wig-maker, opened a mill at Cromford in Derbyshire, England, powered by the River Derwent with a water wheel, which ran his water frame, a spinning machine invented in 1769 that made strong cotton thread. Hundreds of workers, many of them children and women, worked in shifts day and night under strict discipline, and he built housing for them. It was the first successful water-powered cotton-spinning factory, and the pattern for the factory system that spread throughout Britain and the world and transformed society. The Derwent Valley Mills became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001.
Before and after
- 27 August 1770Birth of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
- 16 December 1770Birth of Ludwig van Beethoven
- 1771Construction of Vatican Museums
- 1771Discovery of oxygen
- 1771Arkwright opens Cromford Mill, the first modern factory
- 15 August 1771Birth of Walter Scott
- 1772Discovery of barium
- 1772Construction of place de la Concorde
- 1772Discovery of nitrogen
More in Science & technology
- 1766Discovery of hydrogen
- 1789Discovery of carbon
- 1825Discovery of aluminium
- 18 August 1868Discovery of helium
- 1875Discovery of gallium
- 1898Discovery of krypton
The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 18th century.