Richard Arkwright
Sir Richard Arkwright (23 December 1732 – 3 August 1792), was an Englishman who, although the patents were eventually overturned, is often credited with inventing the spinning frame, later renamed the water frame following the transition to water power. He also patented a carding engine that could convert raw cotton into yarn. A self-made man, he was a leading entrepreneur of the Industrial Revolution. Arkwright's achievement was to combine power, machinery, semi-skilled labour and a new raw material (cotton) to create, more than a century before Ford, mass produced yarn. His skills of organization made him, more than anyone else, the creator of the modern factory system, especially in his mill at Cromford.
Read more about Richard Arkwright: Life and Work, Water Frame, Carding Engine, Recognition, Inventions, Patent Problems, Memorials
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“I have seen in this revolution a circular motion of the sovereign power through two usurpers, father and son, to the late King to this his son. For ... it moved from King Charles I to the Long Parliament; from thence to the Rump; from the Rump to Oliver Cromwell; and then back again from Richard Cromwell to the Rump; then to the Long Parliament; and thence to King Charles, where long may it remain.”
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)