It was not just his own family that wanted to know what Samuel Crompton was doing by night in his quaint Bolton workshop.

Mill owner William Grant was deeply hurt by a scurrilous pamphlet circulated by a fellow businessman, and vowed the miscreant would live to regret it.

James Hargreaves’s historic invention was not without its critics when it first appeared.

Josiah Wedgwood’s promotional gift made Abolitionism fashionable.

Arkwright invented the factory, without which modern life would be impossible.

His alpaca-wool mills near Bradford proved the social benefits of private enterprise in the right hands.