ABSTRACT
Richard Arkwright was born at Preston on December 23rd, 1732, the youngest of a large and poor family.5 While still quite young he was
apprenticed to a barber and wig-maker, and just found time in which to learn to read and write. At fifty, he was taking lessons in grammar and spelling. In 1750 he set up at Bolton, a few miles from his small native town, where for a long time he plied his trade of barber, first of all in a basement and then in a very humble shop. He was married twice. His second wife came from ~ e i ~ h , between warrington and Boltonl - a detail of some interest. She brought him some money, which enabled him to leave his shop and to go in for a more paying occupation, that of a dealer in hair. He attended markets. and visited farms in order to buy the hair of country girls. I-Ie then treated it with a dye of his own making and resold it to thc wig-makers who, in that century of wigs, were ready buyers2
This story of Arkwright's early life is not only interesting in itself but gives us an insight into his character and thus helps us to judge of the part he actually played. We must first note that there was nothing about him which suggested an inventor's career. He had no technical experience, for he was not a weaver like John Kay and Hargreaves, or a carpenter and mechanic like Wyatt. He must have learnt everything he knew of the textile industry, of its needs and of the crisis it was undergoing, through conversatidns in his barber's shop or during his rounds in Lancashire villages. On the other hand he displayed very early those qualities which explain his success. He was anxious to better himself, he had fertile brains for devising means of rising in the world, and he knew how to drive a good bargain, the sort of diplomacy in which he had been trained being akin to that of the pedlar or the horse-dealer.
