A flurry of new studies identifies causes of the Industrial Revolution

Re:A flurry of new studies identifies causes of the Industri... by julianeon on Tuesday January 17, 2023 @10:22PM (#34423070)

No, that's true. But to add detail, this is how things kicked off in America particularly, in the late 1700s or early 1800's. The first American mills that could mass produce stuff were located along streams that used the turning of the waterwheels to do their work.

I didn't find the book I was thinking of, but I think I've identified one of the main characters I was thinking of, Richard Arkwright. You can see that his biography broadly tracks what I'm describing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Arkwright

And I think I found the line which you could call the 'origin story' of the Industrial Revolution - the invention of the Spinning Frame (a water powered automation machine, if you will).

> Arkwright and John Smalley of Preston set up a small horse-driven factory at Nottingham. To obtain capital for expansion, Arkwright formed a partnership with Jedediah Strutt and Samuel Need, wealthy nonconformist hosiery manufacturers. In 1771, the partners built the world's first water-powered mill at Cromford, which covered both carding and spinning operations and employed 200 people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Arkwright

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Re:A flurry of new studies identifies causes of the Industri... by specialist on Wednesday January 18, 2023 @10:08AM (#34427505)

> To obtain capital for expansion, Arkwright formed a partnership with Jedediah Strutt and Samuel Need, wealthy nonconformist hosiery manufacturers.

This goes to u/qikInNdOutReply's point (cross-thread) about citizens with venture capital.

Knowing nothing about this, my hunch is there were many prerequisites.

Another interesting aspect (to me) is how some innovations (efforts) manage to avoid being snuff in their cribs. Everett's whole Diffusion of Innovation about the sociology of it all.

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