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- Title
Cost and Use of Water Power during Industrialization in New England and Great Britain: A Geological Interpretation.
- Authors
Gordon, Robert B.
- Abstract
The article examines the cost and use of water power in New England and Great Britain during industrialization in the 18th century. The first of the major factory-based industries, large-scale manufacture of cotton cloth, began when Richard Arkwright built the prototype water-powered spinning mill at Cromford, England, in 1771. Arkwright recognized the economies that would result from the operation of many self-acting machines with a centralized power source. Fall of water was a convenient source of power for this purpose because the rotation of water wheels was steady enough for spinning fine cotton thread, and sites with the requisite power were available in areas to which factory labour could be recruited. The mill at Cromford utilized water from a small brook and a sough constructed to drain lead mines, but Arkwright's subsequent mills at Cressbrook, Bakewell, and Masson in the Derwent drainage basin incorporated sophisticated hydraulic works to develop the water-power potential of their sites.
- Subjects
UNITED Kingdom; NEW England; WATER power; INDUSTRIALIZATION; ARKWRIGHT, Richard, Sir, 1732-1792; TEXTILE industry
- Publication
Economic History Review, 1983, Vol 36, Issue 2, p240
- ISSN
0013-0117
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/2595922