Former power of industry, were wealth to be redistributed (5,5)
I believe the answer is:
water wheel
'former power of industry' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't see how they can define each other.
'were wealth to be redistributed' is the wordplay.
'to be redistributed' indicates anagramming the letters (letters distributed to new positions).
'were'+'wealth'='werewealth'
'werewealth' with letters rearranged gives 'WATER-WHEEL'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for water wheel that I've seen is " turbine".)