2: Power Loom

Edmund Cartwright was inspired to invent a machine which sped up the process of weaving cotton after visiting the factory of Richard Arkwright.  Arkwright had earlier invented the water frame, a machine which spun cotton into thread at speeds never before seen such that Cartwright believed that there would not be enough weavers to weave such enormous amount of thread into cloth!  Seeing the challenge at hand, Cartwright set out to create a machine to improve upon the speed and quality of weaving.  He patented the power loom in 1785, but the first versions of the machine were not very efficient. He improved upon his design by 1787 and opened his own mill.  He eventually used steam engines created by James Watt and Matthew Boulton to drive his looms. 

In Cartwright's mill machines did all the operations of weaving; hand weavers were scarcely needed in his factories except to fix broken threads. This brought much protest and hostility from those that made their living as hand weavers. It is even suspected that a group of hand weavers burnt down a factory that had purchased many of Cartwright's machines. Because the power loom and other modern textile inventions were so bulky, they could not be used in laborer's homes thus larger factories were opened to house these machines.  Instead of working from their homes, textiles workers would have to travel to factories to work—a new concept in the 18th Century.

Cartwright, however, was a poor businessman, who later went bankrupt and was forced to close his own factory.  Fortunately, his invention would be improved upon by other inventors and became an essential and revolutionary tool in the cotton and textiles industries.  By 1818 there were over 200 looms in 14 mills in Britain.  By 1821 there were 32 mills and over 5,700 looms. Within three years, there were an estimated 10,000 looms in use. In 1850, when the Industrial Revolution was in full swing in parts of Europe and the United States, over 250,000 were in use worldwide.  (see graph below)