Enterprise and Innovation 1750 - 1810

Securing a reliable supply of quality cotton yarn was crucial to the development and success of the cotton knitting industry in the East Midlands.

In 1712 Thomas Newcomen invented a steam-powered engine. He realised that steam produced by heating water could be trapped in a cylinder and that sufficient pressure could be built up to raise a piston.

While Arkwright had successfully experimented with the spinning of cotton yarn, the worsted spinning sector had watched developments with interest.

In the earliest days of the knitting industry, knitted clothes were expensive and worn mainly by royalty and the aristocracy. Gradually this changed as worsted and cotton yarns brought more affordable knitted clothing to the wider population.

In the second half of the eighteenth century there were a number of advances in the development and use of knitting-frame technology.