In ancient times textile production was a cottage industry using flax and wool. Weaving was a family activity. The children and women would card the fiber — break up and clean the disorganized fluff into long bundles.
The spinning wheel was invented between 500 and 1000AD, replacing the earlier method of hand spinning with a spindle. Probably developed in India and first used in Europe in the 1330s, the spinning wheel was the first improvement on the distaff and spindle. The spinning wheel makes it possible to turn the spindle, twist the fibers, and wind the thread mechanically instead of manually.
A weaver and carpenter named James Hargreaves (c. 1720 – April 22, 1778) was one of the very few weavers who owned their own spinning wheel in the village of Stanhill, Lancashire. He invented a machine in 1764 that could spin eight threads at the same time. He called his new invention a spinning jenny.
Hargreaves kept the machine secret for some time, but produced a number for his own growing industry. The price of yarn fell, angering the large spinning community in his local area.
The amount of cotton yarn Hargreaves and his children began to produce alarmed other spinners, who feared that the machine would put them out of work; so they broke into his home and destroyed his machine. Eventually they broke into his house and smashed his machines, forcing him to flee to Nottingham in 1768.
Hargreaves set up a fairly profitable yarn mill to supply hosiers in Nottingham. On July 12, 1770, he took out a patent on his invention, but since he had sold several of his machines, the patent was declared invalid when challenged in court. This left others free to use the invention without paying him royalties.
In 1769 Sir Richard Arkwright invented the spinning frame – later renamed the water frame following the change to water power. The machine produced a strong twist for warps, substituting wooden and metal cylinders for human fingers. This made possible inexpensive cotton-spinning.
The yarn produced by Hargreaves' spinning jenny was too coarse and rough for fine grades of cloth, and a young inventor from Bolton, Lancashire named Samuel Crompton (December 3, 1753 – June 26, 1827) set about the task of overcoming these defects. For ten years he earned a scanty living by day as a yarn spinner, and by night worked at his invention, which he was obliged to guard from his suspicious neighbors.
By 1779 Samuel Crompton had devised a machine which produced yarn of such astonishing fineness that the house was beset by persons eager to know the secret. He called his machine the "spinning mule," because it was a hybrid combining the principles of Hargreaves' jenny and Arkwright's roller frame.
Crompton had no funds to obtain a patent, so he was forced to sell his idea to a Bolton manufacturer for very little return. The spinning mule was such a great success producing a finer, smoother, and more elastic yarn, that it displaced the other spinning machines.
It was 20 years before Crompton had the means to set up a small factory in Bolton, and by that time thousands of his spinning machines were in use, with no profit for him. He was eventually awarded a national grant of ₤5000 in 1812, but Crompton's later ventures, in bleaching and cotton, were failures.
The spinning wheel was invented between 500 and 1000AD, replacing the earlier method of hand spinning with a spindle. Probably developed in India and first used in Europe in the 1330s, the spinning wheel was the first improvement on the distaff and spindle. The spinning wheel makes it possible to turn the spindle, twist the fibers, and wind the thread mechanically instead of manually.
A weaver and carpenter named James Hargreaves (c. 1720 – April 22, 1778) was one of the very few weavers who owned their own spinning wheel in the village of Stanhill, Lancashire. He invented a machine in 1764 that could spin eight threads at the same time. He called his new invention a spinning jenny.
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| Model of the spinning jenny in a German museum By Markus Schweiß, |
Hargreaves kept the machine secret for some time, but produced a number for his own growing industry. The price of yarn fell, angering the large spinning community in his local area.
The amount of cotton yarn Hargreaves and his children began to produce alarmed other spinners, who feared that the machine would put them out of work; so they broke into his home and destroyed his machine. Eventually they broke into his house and smashed his machines, forcing him to flee to Nottingham in 1768.
Hargreaves set up a fairly profitable yarn mill to supply hosiers in Nottingham. On July 12, 1770, he took out a patent on his invention, but since he had sold several of his machines, the patent was declared invalid when challenged in court. This left others free to use the invention without paying him royalties.
In 1769 Sir Richard Arkwright invented the spinning frame – later renamed the water frame following the change to water power. The machine produced a strong twist for warps, substituting wooden and metal cylinders for human fingers. This made possible inexpensive cotton-spinning.
The yarn produced by Hargreaves' spinning jenny was too coarse and rough for fine grades of cloth, and a young inventor from Bolton, Lancashire named Samuel Crompton (December 3, 1753 – June 26, 1827) set about the task of overcoming these defects. For ten years he earned a scanty living by day as a yarn spinner, and by night worked at his invention, which he was obliged to guard from his suspicious neighbors.
By 1779 Samuel Crompton had devised a machine which produced yarn of such astonishing fineness that the house was beset by persons eager to know the secret. He called his machine the "spinning mule," because it was a hybrid combining the principles of Hargreaves' jenny and Arkwright's roller frame.
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| The only surviving Samuel Crompton spinning mule. By Pezzab |
Crompton had no funds to obtain a patent, so he was forced to sell his idea to a Bolton manufacturer for very little return. The spinning mule was such a great success producing a finer, smoother, and more elastic yarn, that it displaced the other spinning machines.
It was 20 years before Crompton had the means to set up a small factory in Bolton, and by that time thousands of his spinning machines were in use, with no profit for him. He was eventually awarded a national grant of ₤5000 in 1812, but Crompton's later ventures, in bleaching and cotton, were failures.
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| Mules operating in a Cotton mill. |
Samuel Crompton's improvements of the machines made by Hargreaves and Arkwright transformed spinning from a hand-operated cottage industry to the machine-operated factory process of today. The mule was the most common spinning machine from 1790 until about 1900 and was still used for fine yarns until the early 1980s.
Source Compton's Encyclopedia
Source Compton's Encyclopedia
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