Power Learning Journey

The most important element of the Cotton Industry's development from the 18th century onwards was the mechanisation of processes formerly carried out by hand. With the development of the Water Frame, Mule and Power Loom, the power required to drive ever larger and more complex textile machines became greater than human muscle could easily apply. In the steps that follow, we outline the principal forms of power employed in the cotton industry during the various phases of its development.

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Power Learning Journey Step 2: Animal Power The new inventions, particularly willowing, carding, roving and spinning machines, all required power greater than human muscle alone could provide. Lewis Paul and John Wyatt's spinning frame of 1741 employed two asses walking round an axis to power the machine. Bulls were also used. Horse power was readily available and early cotton mills powered in this way did not need to be sited on a stream or river steep enough to drive a waterwheel. A horse wheel would have been cheaper than either a waterwheel or a Boulton and Watt steam engine, as it did not require the expensive engineering earthworks or damming of a river or stream required to drive a waterwheel. Horse power was also flexible, as it was easy to harness additional horses to the machinery depending on the requirements of particular textile machines. In Lancashire, horses were used to turn the carding and preparatory machinery, while yarn was spun by hand on jennies and mules. To take an example, in the late 1770s, Oldham had six small cotton mills, three worked by water and three by horses. The only other available source of natural power was water, as we shall see in the next step.

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