James Hargreaves’s spinning jenny, invented in the 1760s, revolutionized weaving in England and helped establish the country as the world’s greatest exporter of woolen cloth. (© North Wind Picture Archives)
British inventor of the spinning jenny.
Born in 1720 to a rural agricultural family in Oswaldwistle, England, James Hargreaves was not an educated person, but he did have experience in weaving cloth (during the eighteenth century, English families in the countryside produced their own food and weaved their own cloth) and as a carpenter. John Kay’s invention of the flying shuttle when Hargreaves was just thirteen years old reduced the time needed to weave cloth, however, it also created a shortage of thread. Hargreaves married Elizabeth Grimshaw in 1740, and the couple went on to have a large family. Two years later, several inventors developed a machine for spinning thread, but the required investment included the building of a small factory. The complex process failed to catch on, and the shortage of thread continued.
In 1761, the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Commerce, and Manufacturers offered a 50-pound prize for the best machine designed to alleviate the shortage. Hargreaves won the prize with his spinning jenny. The machine consisted of a moving carriage, designed to stretch the thread, which was attached to a large wheel with six spinning-wheel mechanisms. The device was easy enough for a small child to operate and was small enough to fit into the average cottage kitchen. The original spinning jenny could spin 8 threads at a time, while later models were capable of producing 120 threads at a time. The original model was capable of producing the same amount of thread as eight people. Since fewer workers were required, many feared that they would lose their livelihood.
James Hargreaves’s spinning jenny, invented in the 1760s, revolutionized weaving in England and helped establish the country as the world’s greatest exporter of woolen cloth. (© North Wind Picture Archives)
Although initial reaction to the new machine aroused suspicion and resulted in the destruction of Hargreaves’s machines by angry workers, by 1770, when he received his patent, more than 20,000 spinning jennies were in operation, all constructed by those who had used his original design or improved on it. But the spinning jenny was only capable of producing coarse thread. In 1771, Richard Arkwright created the water frame. In 1775, Samuel Crompton combined the water frame and the spinning jenny into a device called the spinning mule, which perfected the process begun by Hargreaves. With the invention of the spinning jenny, the water frame, and the mule, the shortage of thread was resolved and English textile mills boomed.
Hargreaves died in his Nottingham factory in 1777.
Cynthia Clark Northrup
See also: Textiles.
Aspin, Christopher. James Hargreaves and the Spinning Jenny. Helmshore, UK: Helmshore Local History Society, 1964.