James Hargreaves is generally regarded as the inventor of the spinning jenny, the first successful multi-spindle spinning machine, which appeared in England in 1764. The machine revolutionized the textile industry, as it required only one operator to spin eight thread, thus multiplying efficiency eightfold (subsequent design improvements increased the number of spindles to 80, multiplying efficiency eightyfold, and then to 120). The spinning jenny is attributed as one of several innovations that fueled the Industrial Revolution, as it exemplified the period’s mechanization of the manufacturing process, thereby drastically reducing the amount of labor necessary to produce goods that traditionally had been handcrafted.
Hargreaves was born in Stanhill, a village within Ostwaldtwistle, in Lancashire, England, and baptized on January 8, 1720. His father was George Hargreaves. He never learned to read or write, having received no formal education, though he had a natural inclination toward engineering. He married Elizabeth Grimshaw at Church Kirk on September 10, 1740, and together the couple eventually had 11 children (one, Henry, died as an infant).
Hargreaves supported his family as a hand-loom weaver in the Blackburn region, which was famous for its Blackburn Checks and Greys. Before the mechanization of his trade, a weaver was dependent on several spinners to supply yarn (spinners outnumbered weavers four-to-one in Blackburn at the time—2,400 spinners to 600 weavers in a population of about 4,000). Har-greaves most likely relied on his children to spin the yarn that he wove. This system undoubtedly inspired him to consider alternative means of supplying himself with yarn. His inventiveness made itself manifest early on, as he purportedly invented a system to double the output in the carding process by hanging a series of two or three interconnected cards from the ceiling.
In 1761, the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Commerce and Manufacturers of Britain offered a 50-pound prize for the improvement of the spinning machine, an enticement that may have figured into Hargreaves’s designs. In any case, his reputation for inventiveness is evidenced by the fact that Robert Peel employed him at his Brookside Mill in 1762 to assist in the building of a carding engine with cylinders, a project that never reached fruition.
Hargreaves’s invention of the spinning jenny in 1764 is surrounded in myth. Legend has it that, at the village inn (or at his home, depending on the account), he witnessed the accidental overturning of a spinning wheel, which continued to rotate horizontally, with its spindle vertically inclined. This sight inspired his realization that such an arrangement could accommodate a series of spindles in place of just one. His original design (supposedly first drawn on the hearthstone with a burnt stick) included eight spindles. Accounts differ as to the origins of the name—some say he named it after his wife or one of his daughters (none of whom was named Jenny)—but regardless, the name undoubtedly (and perhaps humorously) drew upon another connotation of the word "jenny," or "engine." A later account, from 1807, claimed that he used only a pocketknife to construct his prototype.
By 1767, Hargreaves had perfected the design of his spinning jenny to such a degree that children could operate it. Up until then, he had tried to keep his invention a secret, going so far as to move from Stanhill to Ramsclough. By then, however, he had sold several, arousing the wrath of local spinners who feared the machine would displace them of their craft. In 1768, a mob gathered at Blackburn Market Cross and ransacked Brookside Mill (Peel apparently owned some spinning jennies) and Hargreaves’s home in Ramsclough, forcing a hammer into his hand to smash his own jennies.
Hargreaves moved to Nottingham, where the high demand for spun thread protected him from such retribution. In partnership with Thomas James, he established a cotton mill. Finally, after his design had already been copied many times over, he applied for a patent on July 12, 1770 (his spinning jenny had 16 spindles by then.) Unfortunately, such a measure was too little, too late, and his claim to the invention remained disputed throughout his life. By the time Hargreaves died in Nottingham in April 1778, the spinning jenny had grown to encompass 120 spindles (all run by one operator), and more than 20,000 of them had proliferated throughout Britain. It remained the primary machine for spinning from 1770 until 1810.
