From Horse Power at Nottingham to Water Power at Cromford
- When
- 1771
- Where
- Cromford mill; Nottingham factory
Arkwright and Smalley set up a horse-driven Nottingham factory; in 1771 the partners built the first water-powered mill at Cromford.
Arkwright and John Smalley of Preston set up a small horse-driven factory at Nottingham. Arkwright had experimented with horses but decided to employ the power of the water wheel. In 1771 the partners built the world's first water-powered mill at Cromford, which covered both carding and spinning operations and employed 200 people. This followed the 1769 patent and demonstrated the frame's adaptation to water power.
Sources
- Richard Arkwright Wikipedia, revision of 2026-05-30
- Spinning frame Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-03
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.