When the industrial revolution swept across the United Kingdom, the cotton industry also earned boost. It was Sir Richard Arkwright who took the responsibility to build the very first cotton factory that served as a framework for many others afterward. This was also the time that the British Empire was setting itself and therefore cotton industries turned out to be one of the leading features of the Pennines. Since it was in the north of Pennines that cotton factories were mainly set, the river served the need for energy to run power plants. The growing population of North became an ideal workforce that was ready to take up opportunities to work in factories. (Efm.bris.ac.uk, 2017)
Before this, Britain and American communities were dependants on imported cotton and slave plantations respectively. The two states exchanged their goods as well but since British has colonial supremacy in India they did not suffer from lack of cotton as the USA did during the Revolutionary and Civil War. However, as British colonization came to its end, it started to find suitable areas to produce cotton on its own and that is when Lancashire’s humid climate was deemed fit for production of fine yarn. Glasgow was another area that was taken under the wings by the industrial revolution in terms of the cotton industry due to damp climatic stability. (Anon, 2017)
In the early years of cotton production, the process was much slower but in 1970s James Hargreaves finally changed things by inventing Spinning Jenny. With water frame provided by Richard Arkwright and modification of steam engine by James Watt further, improvement started to show in the production of cotton. Later on, steam engines were developed stronger so they could be more useful in factories with help by Matthew Boulton. And gradually, production of cotton was just as good as it had been during its British Raj in India. (Anon, 2017)
Efm.bris.ac.uk. (2017). Cite a Website – Cite This For Me. [online] Available at: http://www.efm.bris.ac.uk/het/copeland/CottonManufacturingUS.pdf [Accessed 1 Oct. 2017].
Anon, (2017). [online] Available at: https://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/uploads/Resources/Other_Reports/UK_textiles.pdf [Accessed 9 Nov. 2017]
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