text: 1748: Lewis Paul invented the hand driven carding machine.  A coat of wire slips were placed around a card which was then wrapped around a cylinder. Lewis's invention was later developed and improved by Richard Arkwright and Samuel Crompton, although this came about under great suspicion after a fire at Daniel Bourn's factory in Leominster which specifically used Paul and Wyatt's spindles.  Bourn produced a similar patent in the same year.
  1758: Paul and Wyatt based in Birmingham improved their roller spinning machine and took out a second patent.  Richard Arkwright later used this as the model for his water frame.
  Start of the Revolution
  The Duke of Bridgewater's canal connected Manchester to the coal fields of Worsley. It was opened in July 1761. Matthew Boulton opened the Soho Foundry engineering works in Handsworth, Birmingham in 1762.  These were both events that enabled cotton mill construction and the move away from home-based production.
  In 1764, Thorp Mill the first water-powered cotton mill in the world was constructed at Royton, Lancashire, England. It was used for carding cotton.
  The multiple spindle spinning jenny was invented in 1764. James Hargreaves is credited as the inventor. This machine increased the thread production capacity of a single worker — initially eightfold and subsequently much further.  Others credit the original invention to Thomas Highs. Industrial unrest forced Hargreaves to leave Blackburn, but more importantly for him, his unpatented idea was exploited by others. He finally patented it in 1770.  As a result, there were over 20,000 spinning jennies in use (mainly unlicensed) by the time of his death.