Inventions in textiles and steam power

1Why this matters

The first industry to be transformed was cotton textiles: turning raw cotton into thread (spinning) and thread into cloth (weaving). Each invention solved one bottleneck and created another, so inventors kept leap-frogging each other. Then steam power freed factories from rivers. Examiners often ask you to match inventors with inventions, so this lesson gives you a clear table, but they also ask why each invention mattered, which is where the marks are.

2The textile chain reaction

Before 1733, one weaver needed the thread of several spinners. Watch what happened next:

3Steam power

Early mills needed a fast river to turn a water wheel. Steam engines changed that.

• Thomas Newcomen built the first successful piston steam engine by 1712. It pumped water out of coal mines so they could go deeper, but it wasted a great deal of fuel.
• James Watt, a Scottish instrument maker, added a separate condenser (patented 1769), so the cylinder stayed hot and far less coal was burned. With his partner Matthew Boulton he sold engines from the 1770s, and by the early 1780s had adapted them to produce rotary motion, which could turn factory machinery.
• Once engines could turn wheels, a factory could be built anywhere there was coal, such as in towns. Steam power grew rapidly after 1800.

Worked example: explaining a chain of cause and effect

Question: Explain how Kay's flying shuttle led to further inventions in spinning.

The flying shuttle (1733) made weaving much faster, so weavers used thread faster than hand spinners could produce it. Thread became scarce and expensive. This shortage created a strong reward for anyone who could spin faster, which encouraged Hargreaves's spinning jenny (1764), Arkwright's water frame (1769) and Crompton's mule (1779). When spinning then overtook weaving, Cartwright answered with the power loom (1785). Each invention created the demand for the next.

Practice

Solution. The water frame was large and needed water power, so it could not be used in a cottage. Arkwright built a mill at Cromford (1771) where workers came to tend many machines driven by one water wheel. That is the factory system.

Solution. In Newcomen's engine the cylinder was cooled every stroke and then reheated, which wasted fuel. Watt condensed the steam in a separate chamber, so the cylinder stayed hot and the engine used far less coal.

Solution. By making cotton cleaning fast and cheap, the gin made cotton plantations very profitable. Planters expanded cotton growing, and slavery grew with it. A labour-saving machine increased forced labour.

Solution. Water-powered mills had to be built beside fast rivers, often in the countryside. A rotary steam engine only needed coal, so a factory could be built in a town close to workers, markets and transport.