WHO HAD THE BIGGEST IMPACT ON THE INDUSTRIAL REVULOTION?

RICHARD ARKWRIGHT OR

ABRAHAM DARBY 1?

The father of the Industrial Revulotion in the world is James Watt, he is born in Greenock, Scotland
in 1736.James Watt was an instrument maker who worked at Glasgow University, further improved the
design and efficiency of steam engines. In the late 18th century, Watt experimented and developed the
Watt atmospheric engine, which incorporated a separate condenser and the condensation process from
the cylinder, he minimized heat loss and maximized power output. He also introduced the double-acting
engine, which allowed for power to be generated in both the upward and downward strokes of the
piston. Watt patented his steam engine in 1769.

Richard Arkwright was an English inventor and a leading entrepreneur during the early Industrial
Revulotion , he is born in Preston, Untied Kingdom in 1732. Arkwright was a businessman who saw an
opportunity to make money in the textile industry. He provided money for an inventor who developed a
machine for spinning cotton. The machine was so big , it required power to drive it and a large space to
put in like a factory then, Arkwright decided to use water power, and the machine became known as the
‘water frame’ . In 1771, Arkwright had borrowed enough money to open his very first cotton factory at
Cromford, by the river Derwent. He thought about how to attract workers because if he doesn’t have
workers who is going to work for him, so he built cottages near to the factory , and people came from
around Derbyshire. The women and children (from age six) worked in his spinning factory and the men
worked at home weaving the thread into cloth. In the end, the mill was successful and Arkwright built
more in Lancashire , Staffordshire and Scotland. That’s why sometimes he was called the ‘father of the
factory system’ .

Abraham Darby 1 was a Quaker businessman who saw an opportunity in the iron-making industry
and he is born in Woodsetton , Untied Kingdom in 1678. He was making brass pots in Bristol but as
these were too expensive , he changed to iron pots instead but one of his workers solved the technical
problems of casting iron by using dry sand for the mould. In 1708, Darby moved his business and his
workers to Coalbrookdale in Shropshire. This was close to the coalfields and there was already a blast
furnace that he could lease and adapt. He developed a method of producing high quality iron iin a blast
furnace and he used coke made from local coal rather than charcoal as fuel. Darby’s iron went into
steam engines, bridges and machines, the inventions that made Britain so successful in the nineteenth
century.