This Is Your Life - Richard Arkwright

This Is Your Life:

Richard Arkwright

Michael: Now, moving on we come to the year of 1781. In this year we come to one

the biggest disputes of the time. Richard’s patents. He was one of the first people to take out patents on an Invention in England but that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that his invention wasn’t really new. There had been some machines of that type before it. But none of those were patented. Our friend Richard here had just improved the machines and found a way to power them. But people were now frustrated because now if they made one in their home or in a workshop they would be sued. This made him unpopular with common folk though. Here to get a better perspective is one of his lawyers, Samuel Poppy.

Samuel: Hello. Nice to see you again, Richard. Yes. These were troubling times for us. We struggled to keep Richard’s beautiful creation under control. Because if others could make it, then all of his profit would go. So we had a difficult task. In 1781 alone there were 9 lawsuits that we brought out. They cost a lot of money but, we figured that that was better than everyone making his machine. We sued a lot of people over the years. Richard’s factory kept on bringing in money so he could live the lavish lifestyle that he deserved. He had definitely set up Britain in the textile market for years to come. I think that he should go down in history for ever. Thank You.

Michael: Thank you Samuel. Now we move on to one of Richards more memorable dates. His knighting in 1786 with King George III. We wondered who to call up for this one and finally decided to go the whole way and bring the King himself. Would every one put there hands together for the real King George III (applause).

George: Hello. When I heard that the show was about Richard I just had to come. By the way it’s great to see you again. It’s been what, 200 years since our last encounter. Too long, too long. ...

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George: Hello. When I heard that the show was about Richard I just had to come. By the way it’s great to see you again. It’s been what, 200 years since our last encounter. Too long, too long. Sorry to move away for a second but Michael your show is fantastic, there should be more of you on TV.

Michael: Oh, Thank You.

George: Back to the point Arkwright was a great man. He did a huge favour to his country. Without him I don’t know what would have happened. With his invention we could mass produce the clothes that my people needed. Also it created a huge amount of jobs in his factory; and in the mine, where all the coal that was needed to power his machine was from. In all he employed 1,900 workers. That might seem quite a small figure now but it was huge then. The workers were treated very well and even had balls. His new cloth was good quality and could chose a thickness of his choice. It also was now relatively cheap to buy seeing as it was mass produced. I felt I owed it to the man to knight him. I agree with Samuel he should go down in history as a great man. I think we should put our hands together for Richard. Thank You Michael.

Michael: Thank you very much for that interesting account of Richard King George III. But now I need to move on to, unfortunately the last, section to our show. This is now the year of 1792. This is the year of the death of Richard and I would like to call chief servant Reddrik Gremil.

Reddrik: Hello master. Nice to see you. It was very unfortunate when he died. He treated all of his servants and maids well. Good pay, nice bed and delicious food. We began to see changes in Sir Richard a few months before his death. He became wheezy and could not talk that well. He had always been a man for horse riding but he just could not manage it anymore. Then as it drew to the last week of his life he became very sick. Even with the best doctors at his side it seemed to be his time. He was worth a great amount of money then £500,000. Now a days it is not as big a sum it used to be though. Well I’d just like to finish off by saying that he was a great man and I will always be at his side. Thank You.

Michael: Great. Would you like to finish off Richard?

Richard: Ok then. I would never have dreamt that I would mean so much to England even such a length of time further on. None of you will never know what this means to me. I guess there’s nothing else to say except good night.

BY DANIEL BARNES