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James Hargreaves that is credited with moving the textile industry from homes to factories. The move from a domestic cottage based industry to factories allowed the expansion of the Industrial Revolution from England throughout much of the world.

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James Hargreaves, , was an English inventor who created the spinning jenny, the first machine to use multiple spinning in practice. He was born in Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, on January 8, 1721, and passed away in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, on April 22, 1778.

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The Industrial Revolution spread from England to the majority of the world's population thanks to the switch from household cottage industries to factories.

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https://www.faribaultmill.com/pages/spinning-jenny#:~:text=But%20it%20was%20the%20invention,throughout%20much%20of%20the%20world.

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The Industrial Revolution (1760-1850) began in England and spread throughout Europe and the Americas over the course of the next several decades. The Industrial Revolution did not reach America until the 1820s and began with the textile industries in the northeast. Expanding technology and the invention of new machines forever changed the way manufacturing and industry took place. The textile industry was greatly impacted by a number of new inventions such as the flying shuttle, the spinning frame and the cotton gin. But it was the invention of the Spinning Jenny by James Hargreaves that is credited with moving the textile industry from homes to factories. The move from a domestic cottage based industry to factories allowed the expansion of the Industrial Revolution from England throughout much of the world.

James Hargreaves was a weaver in Blackburn, Lancaster. Although this area was known as a major textile center, prior to the Industrial Revolution the production of cloth from raw goods took place within cottage industries. All work was done by individuals within the home and entire families were involved. Men were often the weavers while children assisted in cleaning raw materials and women spun the materials into threads or yarns. The process was time consuming and merchants wanting to meet the demand for textile goods were often frustrated by the huge gap between supply and demand. The expense involved in transporting raw materials to numerous locations, waiting for finished textiles to be made by hand and then the finished goods to be picked up and transported back to the merchant was also an incentive to search for alternatives. While the invention of the flying shuttle and later the power loom made it possible to weave materials faster, spinning of raw materials into threads and yarns was still done by hand one thread at a time. Spinners were unable to keep up with the increased demand for threads.

James Hargreaves may have designed the spinning jenny as an improvement over an earlier machine invented by Thomas High in 1763 or 1764. While never patented, High's machine used six spinning wheels that were bolted together and powered by a single large wheel. James Hargreaves' spinning jenny was said to have been designed after he saw his wife's spinning wheel knocked over and saw the spindle continue to spin. The spinning jenny used eight different spindles that were powered by a single wheel. This allowed one spinster to produce eight threads in the same amount of time it previously took to produce one.

Later versions of the spinning jenny added even more lines which made the machine too large for home use. This led the way to factories where these larger machines could be run by fewer workers. With machines and workers concentrated in one place, the transportation costs of raw materials and finished goods were greatly reduced. Factory owners also had greater control over workers and began a division of labor that had individuals responsible for different stages of the manufacturing process. This led to increased production and often a demand for workers to keep up with quotas set by the factory owners. The invention of the spinning jenny and other inventions that improved the efficiency and production of textiles was the beginning of the Industrial Revolution that shifted England, Europe, and the United States from an agrarian society to an Industrial economy.

As with all change, there were advantages and disadvantages to the use of the spinning jenny and other inventions at the time. The spinning jenny allowed more threads and yarns to be produced by fewer spinners. The early spinning jenny also produced a weaker thread than could be produced by hand so there was a decrease in quality until improvements were made to the machines and a dependable power source became available. With the use of water to power later versions of spinning and weaving machinery, quality and strength of the cloth produced was greatly improved. While many factors in England including the availability of workers along with the increased demand for textiles produced ideal conditions for the economic growth of the textile industry, without the invention of the spinning jenny, progress would have continued at a much slower pace.

A traditional story maintains that the Spinning Jenny was named after one of Hargreaves' daughters or his wife. Yet he had no daughter named Jenny and his wife was named Elizabeth. The word jenny is an old world word used as a reference to an engine. There is some indication that James Hargreaves worked with Thomas High to improve on an earlier invention of a mechanical spinning wheel and improved the design which was then named a spinning Jenny after Thomas High's daughter. Regardless of how the invention came to be named, it changed forever the way textile manufacturing was accomplished and led the way to the Industrial Revolution.

Check out the following resources for more information concerning the Spinning Jenny and the impact it had on the Industrial Revolution.

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The Industrial Revolution (1760-1850) began in England and spread throughout Europe and the Americas over the course of the next several decades. The Industrial Revolution did not reach America until the 1820s and began with the textile industries in the northeast. Expanding technology and the invention of new machines forever changed the way manufacturing and industry took place.

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https://www.historycrunch.com/spinning-jenny-invention-in-the-industrial-revolution.html#/

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HISTORY CRUNCH - HISTORY ARTICLES, SUMMARIES, BIOGRAPHIES, RESOURCES AND MORE

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The Industrial Revolution is one of the most significant events in all of world history and had a profound impact on the modern world. It began first in Britain in the 1700s but soon expanded to the rest of Europe and North America. Before the innovations of the Industrial Revolution, most production depended on water, wind or human energy. The businesses that existed at this time were called cottage industries. Cottage industries were an early stage of economic development in society in which workers produce a limited amount of goods in home-based businesses. However, by the mid-1700's, new methods of production were being developed across Europe, especially in Great Britain. This transition led to the factory system, which was the creation of factories in centralized locations such as industrial towns and cities. This period of innovation continued throughout the 19th century and led to many new inventions by now famous inventors. In fact, one of the key features of the Industrial Revolution is the development of new inventions that led to more automation by machines. Significant inventions or innovations of the Industrial Revolution included: flying shuttle, spinning jenny, power loom, water frame, cotton gin, steam engine, telephone, light bulb, automobile, assembly line production and interchangeable parts.

A significant invention of the Industrial Revolution was the spinning jenny, which was invented by James Hargreaves in 1764. James Hargreaves was an English inventor and is remembered today for inventing the spinning jenny, which was important to the textile industry in England. One of the main industries that benefitted from the Industrial Revolution was the textile industry. The textile industry was based on the development of cloth and clothing.

James Hargreaves Infographic (Click to Enlarge)

Little is known of the early life of James Hargreaves, but he worked as a weaver, using a handloom. In fact, he seems to have worked as a weaver for most of his life. As stated above, James Hargreaves is famous for the invention of the spinning jenny in 1764. Simply put, the spinning jenny was a machine that used a large wheel to spin many spindles of thread at once. The invention increased the production ability of textile manufactures and was particularly important for cotton. While Hargreaves sold his invention to several mills in the area, he made very little money from his work. Regardless, his invention had a profound impact on the Industrial Revolution as it inspired other inventions who built off his ideas.

​For example, Richard Arkwright invented the water frame in 1759. Arkwright's invention was capable of producing strong yarn. The machine replaced the need for manual labour and enabled the production of inexpensive spun cotton by using the moving force of a creek or river that spun a shaft. This was important because the increased amount of energy meant that Arkwright's water frame could produce at a higher level than Hargreaves spinning jenny. Next, historians identify the invention of the spinning mule in 1779 by Samuel Compton, as an extension of the ideas of Hargreaves. The spinning mule essentially allowed the fast production of yarn using a spinning machine.

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spinning jenny invention in the industrial revolution

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spinning jenny invention in the industrial revolution

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spinning jenny invention in the industrial revolution

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spinning jenny invention in the industrial revolution

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Spinning Jenny Invention in the Industrial Revolution

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The Industrial Revolution is one of the most significant events in all of world history and had a profound impact on the modern world. It began first in Britain in the 1700s but soon expanded to the rest of Europe and North America.

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https://intriguing-history.com/spinning-jenny-industrial-revolution/

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The Spinning Jenny Industrial Revolution, just what was it?

Let's explain what the 'Spinning Jenny' is before looking at why it was such an important invention of the Industrial Revolution.

The 'Spinning Jenny' is a spinning machine with multiple spinning frames. This allowed the workers to work with eight or more spools of thread at once. As the technology improved more and more spools were added greatly increasing the amount of cloth produced for the same amount of effort. There were limitations though as the yarn it produced was not strong enough.

The history behind the 'Spinning Jenny'.

The textile industry was one of the sectors most associated with the Industrial Revolution. The emergence of cotton textiles was played out in the politics and laws of Britain.

Much of what emerged was pivoted around the Calico Act of 1721. The British cotton textile manufacturers were protected form Indian cottons in the domestic and colonial market and it was this factor that spurred the innovation in machinary in the C18th.

Cotton was a global commodity and the new machines, developed in the heart of woollen and later cotton industry, of which the 'Spinning Jenny' was just one, were simply responding to this global trade.

Problems abounded with mechanizing the process of producing cotton fabric. It was still necessary to use a linen yarn to make the warp for the material. Could cotton yarn be made to be used instead? Such questions drove technological innovation.

Dove - tailing other textile machine inventions.

In 1733, John Kay invented his 'Flying Shuttle', this device enabled one weaver to make a width of cloth it had previously taken two to make. It would take 27 years before the use of the flying shuttle became widespread but once it did, the looms now wove the cloth so fast that the spinners could not keep up with the demand for thread.

The mechanisation of the 'twist' to make yarn by the invention of Lewis Paul took twenty years to come to fruition but when at last in 1758, Paul patented a machine that could do the job then this, along with Kay's Flying Shuttle set the environment for further mechanisation.

James Hargreaves is well known for his invention of the 'Spinning Jenny' but in fact it was a chap called Thomas Highs (Hayes) from Leigh in Lancashire who saw the potential to take the machine of Lewis Paul and turn it into a fully operational unit that spun yarn. He needed skills he did not have and so went into partnership with John Kay. It was not a successful venture and the two parted company but Highs continued with his idea and in 1764, eventually created a machine called the 'Spinning Jenny'. Just what it was that he had invented remains disputed. His ideas were shared with many of the main players in British textiles at the time. It is alleged that he knew the limitations of his spinning machine but that he continued to develop his ideas at the same time as Hargreaves was also considering the problem.

Enter James Hargreaves and Richard Arkwright.

As Thomas Highs continued to experiment and modify his designs, James Hargreaves, a carpenter and weaver from Standhill, Lancashire was also working on the spinning machine, although he was illiterate he knew there was a problem producing sufficient thread for the weavers. He began to consider the design for a machine that would increase the output of thread by increasing the number of spindles able to be operated by a single wheel. This was also the way that Thomas Highs thoughts were going.

So how did the machine operate?

A spinning wheel produced thread on a single spindle, Hargreaves invention would have eight spindles and eventually up to 120 spindles.

A metal frame had eight wooden spindles at one end. Eight rovings were attached to a beam on the frame, when extended they passed through two horizontal bars and the worker would move these bars along the top of the frame and the thread would be extended. At the same time the spinner would turn a wheel, the spindles turned and the thread was spun and wound onto a spindle. More and more spindles were added.

Spinning Jenny Impact

Cloth workers were alert to any new labour saving machine proposed that would threaten their jobs. When it was discovered that James Hargreaves was building just such a machine, his house was broken into and the machine destroyed. These 'machine breakers' would go to extraordinary lengths to protect their jobs. It is difficult to imagine just how hard it was for these families in rural England to survive. The Agricultural Revolution was slowly unwinding, land that was previously used to raise crops for families was now enclosed, changes to agricultural machines and systems meant fewer agricultural labourers were needed and in the cold Winter months when it was not possible to work the land, entire families fell back on the textile trade to earn money from their cottages. Without this work they could starve to death or face the workhouse.

The impact of both Kay's Flying Shuttle and Hargreaves Spinning Jenny could potentially be devastating to a family, it is little wonder that they took to desperate measures.

But Hargreaves was not deterred, if he didn't pursue his invention, someone else would. The Spinning Jenny was a small machine and cheap to construct, both these factors were important if it was going to be used in the domestic system, i.e the cottage industry. Hargreaves had not at this point considered his machine being built on a manufacturing factory scale.

So small, cheap to construct, it was also light enough to be used by a single female if need be. It did not require a large physical force and so women and children could operate it.

The Spinning Jenny's limitation was that the thread it produced was coarse and lacked a certain degree of strength, making it suitable only for the weft, the threads woven across the warp.

In 1770 Hargreaves patented his Spinning Jenny. You can view the Patent for the Spinning Jenny , it is in the British Library Collection.

You need to know more.

These well known names of the mechanical inventors feature prominently in all the text books of the Industrial Revolution. The effects of these machines can be immediately seen and grasped but they are only part of the picture. The changes in chemical processes were equally important but are much more subtle to see. The mechanical inventions would have created jams in the processes unless the chemistry kept up. By chemistry we refer to the processes of bleaching, dyeing and calico-printing. These allowed the manufacture of finer textiles which were scooped up into their related markets.

The chemists who were responsible for these critical chemical developments were not the great chemists of the time such as Joseph Priestley but were more like industrial chemists who saw problems in processes for which chemistry could provide a solution. One of the most important of the time was Thomas Henry.
So to conclude the spinning jenny was a machine only as good as it could be as long as the industrial processes developed at the same rate alongside it.

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The 'Spinning Jenny' is a spinning machine with multiple spinning frames. This allowed the workers to work with eight or more spools of thread at once. As the technology improved more and more spools were added greatly increasing the amount of cloth produced for the same amount of effort.

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The spinning Jenny made life better for the majority of people by lowering the cost of producing textiles. Prices for textiles decreased as a result of the manufacturing process being sped up and made more effective. Consumers of textiles ultimately saved money as a result.