Textilfabrik Cromford

The Textilfabrik Cromford in Ratingen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany was built in 1783 by Johann Gottfried Brügelmann.

He heard of the Waterframes, an invention of Richard Arkwright in the Derbyshire village of Cromford, England, in the early 1770s – during a long stay in Basel.

Furthermore, the British Government saw this as a state secret that must not be allowed to leave the country..[2] Brügelmann obtained a model of the Waterframe in 1783.

It is unclear whether he got a model of this too, family papers suggest that he smuggled a spinner from Cromford over to Germany, with a collection of the parts needed to reconstruct the carding engine.

In a letter to Prince-Elector Karl Theodor of the Palatinate and Bavaria he wrote he had a friend in England who had sent him the parts needed.

Recruiting a work-force in poverty stricken Ratingens was relatively simple: few said no to work and there was none of the rioting by weavers seen earlier in the decade in Elberfeld and Barmen.

[2] He built two spinning halls, alongside the River Angerbach, hired further English-trained cotton workers to construct and operate water frames.

The business became prominent in the area: an imposing five storey factory building was erected, and then a luxurious villa for the owner costing 20.000 Reichstaler, (Herrenhaus in German).