Who Was Richard Arkwright?

Richard Arkwright (1732-1792) was an English inventor who was pivotal in the Industrial Revolution taking place.  In 1768 he devised a machine for spinning cotton.  He called this a spinning frame, although it is usually referred to as Arkwright's Spinning Jenny.  
The arrival of the Spinning Jenny meant that cotton could be spun in bulk, since it no longer had to be done by hand.  This meant that the process became cheap and mass production could begin, hence the importance of the Spinning Jenny.
Three years after he had perfected the Jenny, he set up a spinning factory in which the machine was driven by water.  He then further revolutionised the whole process by installing a steam engine in his Nottinghamshire factory.  The steam engine was to signify the absolute end of hand processing and herald in the age of mass labour in factories and mass production throughout.