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Extract from Arkwright's trial about his patent, with a description of John Kay's first meeting with Richard Arkwright
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Patents were a source of great wealth.
They lasted for 14 years, longer if Parliament granted an extension.
In June 1785 a trial took place in Westminster Hall "to repeal a patent granted on the sixteenth of December 1775 to Richard Arkwright, for an invention of certain instruments and machines for preparing silk, cotton, flax, and wool for spinning".
Arkwright's 1775 patent was repealed and his 1769 patent was not extended.
Other manufacturers were able to use Arkwright's inventions and this led to a great expansion in the textile industry. |
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Because of Arkwright's inventions and the introduction of a factory system, the cotton industry began to expand.
As he stated in his letter (shown on the right) to his partner, Strutt, with the developments he made, fewer hands were needed than anticipated, and production increased dramatically.
In 1775 less than 57,000 yards of British calico were produced.
By 1783 the figure was 3.5million yards. |
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Letter written by Arkwright to Jedediah Strutt in 1772
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After his patents lapsed, other manufacturers were able to take advantage of his work, resulting in even greater expansion. In towns like Preston mills were built, workers migrated from the countryside and the population exploded. In the eighteenth century the population of Preston was steady at around 6,000.
By 1801 it stood at 11,887 and by 1901 at 101,295.
In a survey of 1882/3 81 mills employed 36,977 hands, over a third of the population. |
