1769Reputable sourceWell documented
Arkwright's Water Frame and the Factory System
On the timeline · around 1769 ·
What happened
Richard Arkwright patented his water frame in 1769, a spinning machine whose rollers produced yarn far stronger than the jenny's. Powered by a water wheel at his Cromford mill, it ran continuously under one roof — a model of powered, rationalized, full-time production soon copied across the north of England. Samuel Crompton's spinning mule (1779) and Edmund Cartwright's power loom (1785) extended the mechanization further.
Why it matters
Arkwright's Cromford works is often called the first modern factory, and the factory system it pioneered reshaped how — and where — people worked for the next two centuries.