Improved spinning machine (water frame), by Sir Richard Arkwright, England, 1775.

These spinning machines were driven by water power at Arkwright's Cromford mill, hence the name of Water Frame. Compared to Arkwright's original prototype, the machine is capable of spinning eight threads at a time, rather than four. Subsequent machines were vastly enlarged, although the wooden (rather than iron) framing remained in use into the 1790s. Prepared cotton is passed through three pairs of drafting rollers at the top of the machine - these rotate progressively faster, straightening the cotton fibres out. The flyer below winds the thread on to the rotating bobbins, twisting the cotton fibres together as it does so. This is just one of a suite of machines, each covering part of the cotton spinning process, which revolutionised manufacturing processes in the cotton industry, which was seen as the leading mechanised industry during the early Industrial Revolution.