History during the industrial revolution

History during the industrial revolution
Main article: Textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution

The key British industry at the beginning of the 18th century was the production of textiles made with wool from the large sheep-farming areas in the Midlands and across the country (created as a result of land-clearance and enclosure). Handlooms and spinning wheels were the tools of the trade of the weavers in their cottages, and this was a labour-intensive activity providing employment throughout Britain, with major centers being the West Country; Norwich and environs; and the West Riding of Yorkshire. The export trade in woolen goods accounted for more than a quarter of British exports during most of the 18th century, doubling between 1701 and 1770 [1]. Exports of the cotton industry – centered in Lancashire – had grown tenfold during this time, but still accounted for only a tenth of the value of the woolen trade.

The textile industry grew out of the industrial revolution in the 18th Century as mass production of clothing became a mainstream industry. Starting with the flying shuttle in 1733 inventions were made to speed up the textile manufacturing process. In 1738 Lewis Paul and John Wyatt patented the Roller Spinning machine and the flyer-and-bobbin system. Lewis Paul invented a carding machine in 1748, and by 1764 the spinning jenny had also been invented. In 1771, Richard Arkwright used waterwheels to power looms for the production of cotton cloth, his invention becoming known as the water frame. In 1784, Edmund Cartwright invented the power loom. With the spinning and weaving process now mechanized, cotton mills cropped up all over the North West of England, most notably in Manchester and its surrounding towns of Ashton-Under-Lyne, Stalybridge and Dukinfield.

Textile mills originally got their power from water wheels, and thus had to be situated along a river. With the invention of the steam engine, in the 1760