Question

Who invented the water frame?
a. Abraham Darby
b. Richard Arkwright
c. James Hargreaves
d. John Kay

Answer 1

Hint:
In the textile industry, Water Frame was a spinning machine which was used to produce strong yarn of cotton of correct thickness and wrap the fibers together. Invention of the water frame was considered very crucial during the Industrial Revolution.

Complete step by step solution:
James Hargreaves’s spinning jenny was known to produce very weak quality of yarn which could be suitable for weft only and as a result of which, Richard Arkwright had put his efforts into inventing an efficient spinning machine which could produce yarn of suitable thickness and quality without consuming much time and labor work and hence, he successfully invented Water frame around 1775. This machine was so heavy to be driven simply by hand and was the first automatic and continuous sinning machine to be driven by water at that time.
Richard Arkwright’s machine consisted of three sets of paired rolls which ran at different speeds producing threads of correct thickness and a set of spindles to wrap the produced thread together. This invention of Water Frame is considered to have formed the basis of the entire Industrial Revolution which also made Richard Arkwright a wealthy man, who earlier used to work as a wig maker. Later on, Richard Arkwright was known by the name “The Father of the Industrial Revolution”, such that, it is believed that without his Water Frame spinning machine, later inventions of the Industrial Revolution might not have occurred. Richard filed for a patent in 1769 to protect his intellectual property.
Water Frame is known to have replaced most of all the spinning machines in the factories of England because of its capability to spin tens of threads simultaneously to produce inexpensive cotton of high grade which was the item of daily use in clothes and other things. This also eased the requirement of highly skilled labor and provided jobs to unskilled men and women who were often put to operate the machines. His Water frame made hundreds of workers to work hard to keep the pace with the continuous machine which eventually formed the basis of factories.

Note: The Industrial Revolution was one of the significant events that have happened in the world. It formed the basis of the modern world industrial system which was initiated from Britain in the 1700s and soon expanded in Europe and North America.