Short answers, pulled from the story.
Richard Arkwright was an English inventor and entrepreneur born on the 23rd of December 1732 in Preston, Lancashire. He is credited as the driving force behind the development of the water frame and the first mechanised carding engine, and is called the father of the modern industrial factory system for integrating power, machinery, semi-skilled labour, and cotton under one roof.
Arkwright patented the spinning frame in 1769, a machine that produced twisted cotton threads using wooden and metal cylinders. In 1775 he patented a rotary carding engine that converted raw cotton into a continuous skein ready for spinning. He was also the first to combine mechanised carding and spinning operations in a single factory.
Cromford Mill was built in Cromford, Derbyshire, in 1771, and is regarded as the world's first water-powered cotton mill. The site is now part of the Derwent Valley Mills UNESCO World Heritage Site, which Historic England has called one of the country's 100 irreplaceable sites.
Arkwright's authorship of the spinning frame was disputed in court. In 1785 a legal case was decided against him on the grounds that his patent specifications were deficient. The court heard claims that the invention may have originated with John Kay, a clockmaker who worked with Arkwright, or with Thomas Highs, who had employed Kay previously.
Arkwright died on the 3rd of August 1792, aged fifty-nine, leaving a fortune of five hundred thousand pounds. He was knighted in 1786 and had served as High Sheriff of Derbyshire.
The Arkwright Scholarships Trust was set up in the United Kingdom in 1991 in Richard Arkwright's memory to support aspiring engineers and technical designers. By 2014 it was awarding approximately four hundred scholarships annually, and had awarded over five thousand scholarships in total by mid 2020.