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The Flying Shuttle, The Spinning Jenny, The Water Frame, The Mule, The Power Loom.
For centuries, handloom weaving had been carried out in which the shuttle bearing the yarn was passed tediously from one hand to the other. In 1733, John Kay perfected his Flying shuttle. This considerably sped up the process. A weaver using Kay's machine could produce cloth which was a lot wider faster than ever before.
In 1764, James Hargreaves invented the Spinning Jenny. He had gotten the idea when his daughter, Jenny, had accidentally knocked over the family spinning wheel. The spindle continued to turn and it gave Hargreaves the idea that a whole line of spindles could be worked off a single wheel. The machine which he ended up building had eight spindles which the thread was spun onto from a parallel set of rovings. This meant that eight threads could be spun at once which saved a lot of labour. It was then improved so that it could spin eighty threads! The thread which was produced from the Spinning Jenny was coarse and not very strong. By the time that James Hargreaves died in 1778 it is said that over 20 000 Spinning Jenny's were being used in the UK
To start the video, go over the box with your mouse. All of the looms invented after 1764 were used in the big factories as they are too big for the domestic system.
Richard Arkwright invented the Water Frame in 1769. It could only be used in the factories. It made much stronger thread than the Spinning Jenny. It was first powered by horses until he realised that it was too expensive to continue using them. He then tried to harness the power from a warm water spring. That didn't work either, Arkwright ended up buying a Steam Machine from Boulton and Watt. Arkwright began to use the thread produced by the Water Frame to make calicoes. A cloth made solely of cotton was produced for the first time in Britain.
Samuel Crompton invented the Mule in 1784. It was a hybrid combination of the The Spinning Jenny & The Water Frame. It could be powered by steam machines and many factory owners decided to buy Crompton's Mules. He put the money that earned into starting up a cotton factory. This failed and he ended up dying in poverty in 1827.
The Power Loom was invented by Edmund Cartwright in 1786. He was inspired when he went to visit a factory which was owned by Richard Arkwright (inventor of the Water Frame). He was determined to make a machine which would improve the speed and quality of weaving. by 1850, there were 250 000 cotton power looms in Britain.
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