Problem
Having thus traced the spinning machinery up to the present time, let us pause, to cast a retrospective glance on the different stages by which the process of spinning has advanced, from the time when the one-thread wheel was in general use. Little more than sixty years since, every thread used in the manufacture of cotton, wool, worsted, and flax, throughout the world, was spun singly by the fingers of the spinner, with the aid of that classical instrument, the domestic spinning wheel.
In 1767, an eight-handed spinster sprung from the genius of Hargreaves; and the jenny, with still increasing powers, made its way into common use, in spite of all opposition.
Two years afterwards, the more wonderful invention of Wyatt, which claims a much earlier origin, but which had disappeared, like a river that sinks into a subterranean channel, and now rose again under the fortunate star of Arkwright, claimed yet higher admiration, as founded on principles of more extensive application. Five years later, the happy thought of combining the principles of these two inventions, to produce a third much more efficient than either, struck the mind of Crompton, who, by a perfectly original contrivance effected the union.
From twenty spindles, this machine was brought by more finished mechanism, to admit of a hundred spindles, and thus to exercise a Briarean power. Kelly relinquished the toilsome method of turning the machine by hand, and yoked it to the strength of the rapid Clyde. Watt, with the subtler and more potent agency of steam, moved an iron arm that never slackens or tires, which whirls round two thousand spindles in a single machine. Finally, to consummate the wonder, Roberts dismisses the spinner, and leaves the machine to its own infallible guidance.
According to this excerpt, what role did water and steam technology play in the Industrial Revolution?