Greg Stevens, you have identifies a link that I was hunting for:

'Cromford was a working musician before he made his spinning technolgy innovations, but the man who most beautifully personifies these links is the of course the very very famous James Watt, developer of the team engine which powered the whole revolution. And what was he up to before inventing the steam engine? Working in Glasgow as a maker/repairer of flutes and bagpipes, in the mid 1700's!'

I can't tell you how enlightened I feel. I haven't felt so elated since I first read The Ascent of Man by the Great Jacob.