<P> These advances were capitalised on by entrepreneurs, of whom the best known is Richard Arkwright . He is credited with a list of inventions, but these were actually developed by such people as Thomas Highs and John Kay; Arkwright nurtured the inventors, patented the ideas, financed the initiatives, and protected the machines . He created the cotton mill which brought the production processes together in a factory, and he developed the use of power--first horse power and then water power--which made cotton manufacture a mechanised industry . Other inventors increased the efficiency of the individual steps of spinning (carding, twisting and spinning, and rolling) so that the supply of yarn increased greatly . Before long steam power was applied to drive textile machinery . Manchester acquired the nickname Cottonopolis during the early 19th century owing to its sprawl of textile factories . </P> <P> Although mechanization dramatically decreased the cost of cotton cloth, by the mid-19th century machine - woven cloth still could not equal the quality of hand - woven Indian cloth, in part due to the fineness of thread made possible by the type of cotton used in India, which allowed high thread counts . However, the high productivity of British textile manufacturing allowed coarser grades of British cloth to undersell hand - spun and woven fabric in low - wage India, eventually destroying the industry . </P> <P> The earliest European attempts at mechanized spinning were with wool; however, wool spinning proved more difficult to mechanize than cotton . Productivity improvement in wool spinning during the Industrial Revolution was significant, but was far less than that of cotton . </P> <P> Arguably the first highly mechanised factory was John Lombe's water - powered silk mill at Derby, operational by 1721 . Lombe learned silk thread manufacturing by taking a job in Italy and acting as an industrial spy; however, because the Italian silk industry guarded its secrets closely, the state of the industry at that time is unknown . Although Lombe's factory was technically successful, the supply of raw silk from Italy was cut off to eliminate competition . In order to promote manufacturing the Crown paid for models of Lombe's machinery which were exhibited in the Tower of London . </P>

What were 3 effects of the industrial revolution