1. Threads of Connection
A workshop on the history of cotton, India and the Peak
District National Park
13-04-2013
Dr. Chamu Kuppuswamy, Lecturer in Law, Univ. of Sheffield

2. Arkwright & Arunachalam
Inspired by Cotton

3. Richard Arkwright (1732 - 1792)
An Entrepreneur of the Industrial era

4. Spinning Frame
Rollers produced yarn of correct thickness+
spindles twisted them = strong thread
Employee invention (John Kay, a clockmaker)
(possible collaborator – Thomas Highs – or
sponsor?
Licenses – Mills in Derbyshire,
Staffordshire, Lancashire, Scotland and
elsewhere (high royalties)
Patent Infringements – wide spread
copying
Revocation – between 1781 and 1785, lack of
novelty

5. Carding Machine
Converted raw cotton buds
to cotton fibres for
spinning into yarn
Incremental improvement
over the Paul Lewis invention
(1748) or novel?
Revocation 1781
1775 Much of Arkwright’s £500,000
from exploitation of his patents

6. Muruganantham Arunachalam
A social Entrepreneur in the 21st century
“Why make money and then come to philanthropy?
Adopt philanthropy from the start”

7. Mini Sanitary Napkin making machine
Sealing
Fluffing
Pressing down
President’s award for innovation

8. http://youtu.be/d6QxcmVqaLY
Low cost machine Low cost napkin 3 hours training
(branded min 25 time
Rupees) Rupees 17 Self-repair
Increases local Primarily rural Non exclusive
employment female employment royalty free licenses
Growth market Profit margin -31% Life of dignity and
literacy

9. Changing times……..then
"Arkwright's machines require so few hands, and those
only children, with the assistance of an overlooker. A child
can produce as much as would, and did upon an average,
employ ten grown up persons. Jennies for spinning with
one hundred or two hundred spindles, or more, going all
at once, and requiring but one person to manage them.
Within the space of ten years, from being a poor man
worth £5, Richard Arkwright has purchased an estate of
£20,000; while thousands of women, when they can get
work, must make a long day to card, spin, and reel 5040
yards of cotton, and for this they have four-pence or five-
pence and no more."
Ralph Mather (1780) , An Impartial Representation of the Case of the
Poor Cotton Spinners in Lancashire

10. And of course…..
• Impacted on domestic cotton market in India.
• Political dimensions of cotton trade – cotton
yarn spinning implement – Charka is the
symbol of the Indian Independence
Movement

11. Also consider…
• The Derby Mercury (22nd October 1779) reported that
Arkwright feared that people made unemployed by his
new methods might destroy his factory: "There is some
fear of the mob coming to destroy the works at
Cromford, but they are well prepared to receive them
should they come here. All the gentlemen in this
neighbourhood being determined to defend the works,
which have been of such utility to this country. 5,000 or
6,000 men can be at any time assembled in less than
an hour by signals agreed upon, who are determined
to defend to the very last extremity, the works, by
which many hundreds of their wives and children get a
decent and comfortable livelihood."

12. Changing times…..Now
• Inequalities – gap widening
• Muruganantham’s model addresses the issue
of rampant unemployment amongst the poor
in rural, urban and semi-urban areas of all
developing nations.
• Overall, Muruganantham’s model offers
livelihood, hygiene, dignity and empowerment
to women all over the world. And it does so
using a sustainable business framework.