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The spinning jenny is a multi-spindle spinning machine invented by James Hargreaves in Standhill, near Blackburn, circa 1764. It dramatically reduced the amount of work needed to produce yarn, with a single worker able to work eight or more spindles at once, and later versions carried eighty or more. Eight rovings on a movable beam were drawn out by rolling the beam back and forth to the proper thickness, released all at once by a clamp, and collected on spindles, producing coarse yarn that lacked strength but was suitable mainly for weft filling rather than for the stronger warp threads of a fabric.
The spinning jenny is a multi-spool spinning wheel, invented by James Hargreaves in Standhill, near Blackburn, circa 1764. The device dramatically reduced the amount of work needed to produce yarn, with a single worker able to work eight or more spools at once.
James Hargreaves was born in Oswaldtwistle, England in 1720. He received no formal education and was never taught how to read or write. He moved to Standhill looking for work and raised a family there, working as a spinner and carpenter.
Blackburn was known for the production of Blackburn greys, a type of fabric that combined linen warp and cotton weft. At the time cotton production could not keep up with demand, and Hargreaves spent some time considering how to improve the process. The most common story told about the invention of the device is that his daughter, Jenny, knocked over one of their own spinning wheels. The device kept working as normal, with the spindle now pointed upright. Hargreaves realized there was no particular reason the spindles had to be horizontal, as they always had been, and he could place them vertically in a row.
Whatever the inspiration, the basic idea was developed as a machine with eight spindles at one end, spun from a larger than normal wheel at the other. A set of eight rovings were attached to a beam that could roll from the spindle end to the wheel end on a horizontal frame, and the operator could roll it back and forth over the yarn to draw it out to the proper thickness. A clamp-like device in the roving beam allowed the operator to then release all the threads at once, to be collected on spools.
The flying shuttle had increased yarn demand by the weavers by doubling their productivity, and now the spinning jenny could supply that demand by increasing the spinner's productivity even more. The machines were often operated by children, who could more easily move about them. The machine produced coarse yarn that lacked strength, but it was still suitable for filling out the weft of fabric, using stronger yarn for the warp. Later developments improved the quality of the yarn, and increased the number of spindles to eighty or more.
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 Blackburn. Eventually they broke into his house and smashed his machines, forcing him to flee to Nottingham in 1767. There he set up shop producing jennies in secret for one Mr. Shipley, with the assistance of a joiner named James.
Eventually Hargreaves applied for a patent on the jenny in July 1770. By this time a number of spinners in Lancashire were already using copies of the machine, and Hargreaves sent notice that he was taking legal action against them. The manufacturers met, and offered Hargreaves 3000. He at first demanded 7000, and at last stood out for 4000, but the case eventually fell apart when it was learned he had already sold several in the past.
The partnership with Shipley carried on "with moderate success" Hargreaves' death on April 22nd, 1778. That year Samuel Crompton invented the spinning mule, combining the spinning jenny with Richard Arkwright's spinning frame and again dramatically increasing yarn production.
| The above article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/spinning_jenny). Article revised by Apparel Search 11/1/04. |
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James Hargreaves' insight, in Standhill near Blackburn circa 1764, can be told in one image: spindles standing upright in a row. The most common story says his daughter Jenny knocked over one of their own spinning wheels, the device kept working with its spindle pointed upright, and Hargreaves realized there was no particular reason spindles had to be horizontal, as they always had been. Whatever the inspiration, the basic idea was developed as a machine with eight spindles at one end, spun from a larger than normal wheel at the other. A set of eight rovings were attached to a beam that could roll from the spindle end to the wheel end on a horizontal frame, and the operator could roll it back and forth over the yarn to draw it out to the proper thickness. A clamp-like device in the roving beam allowed the operator to then release all the threads at once, to be collected on spools.
The gain was multiplication without mechanized power. One worker, one wheel, one moving beam - and eight threads drawn, twisted and wound in parallel instead of one. Later developments increased the number of spindles to eighty or more, so a single operator's output rose by an order of magnitude beyond the single-spindle wheel. The machines were often operated by children, who could more easily move about them. Context explains the urgency: the flying shuttle had increased yarn demand by weavers by doubling their productivity, and Blackburn was known for Blackburn greys, a fabric combining linen warp and cotton weft, at a time when cotton production could not keep up with demand. Hargreaves, a spinner and carpenter with no formal education who was never taught to read or write, built the machine that let spinning answer the weavers at last.
The jenny had a clear limit. The machine produced coarse yarn that lacked strength, but it was still suitable for filling out the weft of fabric, using stronger yarn for the warp. Weft yarn crosses the loom under far less tension than warp, so the jenny's soft, weaker output found a ready role while stronger warp yarn came from elsewhere. Later developments improved the quality of the yarn, but the jenny's identity stayed fixed: a hand-powered multiplier for household and small-workshop spinning, not a factory engine.
Its social impact arrived before its patent. 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 Blackburn, who eventually broke into his house and smashed his machines, forcing him to flee to Nottingham in 1767. There he produced jennies in secret for Mr. Shipley, applied for a patent in July 1770, and then saw his legal case against Lancashire copyists fall apart when it was learned he had already sold several machines. He died on April 22, 1778. That same year Samuel Crompton invented the spinning mule, combining the spinning jenny with Richard Arkwright's spinning frame and again dramatically increasing yarn production - the jenny's row of upright spindles carried forward into the next machine, even as the jenny itself remained the hand-worked bridge between the single wheel and the powered factory.
The spinning jenny is a multi-spool spinning wheel invented by James Hargreaves in Standhill, near Blackburn, circa 1764. It dramatically reduced the work needed to produce yarn, with one worker able to work eight or more spools at once.
Eight rovings were attached to a beam that could roll from the spindle end to the wheel end on a horizontal frame. The operator rolled it back and forth to draw the yarn to the proper thickness, then a clamp released all the threads at once to be collected on spools.
The machine produced coarse yarn that lacked strength, but it was still suitable for filling out the weft of fabric, using stronger yarn for the warp. Later developments improved quality and increased spindles to eighty or more.