James HargreavesDied 22 Apr 1778 (born c. 1721).English inventor of the spinning jenny, the first practical application of multiple spinning by a machine. At the time he devised the machine, he was a poor, uneducated spinner and weaver living at Standhill, near Blackburn, Lancashire. On the machine, carriage pulled away from the raw cotton, emulating the action of a hand spinner. The drawn-out thread was then wound onto a spindle as the carriage returned. The hand- powered jenny produced several threads at once and increased a spinner's output eight fold. The machine did not twist the thread enough to give it sufficient strength for the warp; but it was suitable for weft. By 1767 he had so perfected it that children could work it.[Birth year circa 1720-1.] |
