Spinning Jenny

The Spinning Jenny, also called Spinning Engine was invented in 1764 by James Hargreaves (1720 – 1778).

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In the 18th – Century happened to be an acute deprivation of yarn in the county Lancashire. Due to this deprivation the British Society of Arts announced a competition where they looked out for a machine with the ability to spin six twines of wool, flax, hemp or cotton at the same time and which is run by only one person (Ziegler 2).

The aim was not only to fight the deprivation but also to increase the labour productivity effectively and further to start controlling the homebound industry by concentrating the manufacturing (Braudel 566 - 567; Ziegler 2).

The wanted specifications by the British Society of Arts were achieved by James Hargreaves, a handloom weaver, who presented the Spinning Jenny in 1764 (Ziegler 2).

The idea for the Spinning Jenny got Hargreaves by an incident when accidentally a spinning wheel felt down in his house. When he saw how wheel and newel turned further like of its own volition he thought about a way to automatise the spinning action (link title).

There are only a few informations about Hargreaves himself. He was born near Blackburn, but the exact location is unknown. He was not able to read or to write but he had an interest in carpentry and engineering. Legend has it that the name “Jenny” came from his daughter who is said to be the person who overthrow by accident the spinning wheel. Modern research doubts this, because none of Hargreaves daughters (there were several) was named Jenny neither his wife. It is believed that the name “Jenny” is simply an abbreviation for a machine or engine (link title;link title).

The Spinning Jenny was later not anymore run by a person but with waterpower which moved the wheel by a crank-handle (Zigler 2). One of the most competitors of the Spinning Jenny became the Waterframe Spinning Machine who was found in 1769 by Richard Arkwright (1732 – 1792) (Braudel 566; Ziegler 2).

Through the inventions of the Spinning Jenny and the Waterframe Spinning Machine were the production ten times higher (Braudel 567).

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Bibliography:

Ziegler, Dieter. Die Industrielle Revolution. Geschichte Kompakt. Ed. Gabriele Haug-Moritz (et. al.). Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2005.

Braudel, Fernand. Civilization and Capitalism. 15th – 18th Century. 3. vols. Transl. Sian Reynolds. London: William Collins Sons & Co Ltd, 1984.

Deutsches Museum. Die Spinning Jenny von James Hagreaves. Die Legende von der kleinen Jenny. Auszug aus: Meisterwerke aus dem Deutschen Museum. 4. vols. < link title(Last use: 26.01.2010).

Harling, Nick. James Hargreaves 1720-1778. Cotton Town: Blackburn with Darwen. >link title< (Last use: 26.01.2010).

Spinning Jenny. The Beginning of the Machine Age. > [1] < (Last use: 26.01.2010).