Spinning+Jenny

=Spinning Jenny =  toc

Spinning Jenny was a spinning wheel invented by James Hargreaves. He was inspired by his daughter's accident. The Spinning Jenny allowed you to spin eight threads versus the original one. Unfortunately, a patent was never put on the inventions, so many people stole the idea. When he died, many were being used in Britain


 The Spinning Jenny was invented around 1766 by James Hargreaves. The invention was said to be inspired when Hargreaves daughter knocked over the spinning wheel. When it kept spinning, this gave Hargreaves an idea. Some claim that this is just a myth and that "jenny" is a term meaning machine.




Eight threads vs. One
The Spinning Jenny allowed you to spin eight threads at once instead of one. This made production much quicker. Yet, the price of cotton cloth didn't drop. Cotton is not very strong, so it could only be used for the cloth going across on a piece of cloth. Linen had to be used for the rest and linen had a much higher price than cotton.

Small and Cheap
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The machine was small and very inexpensive to make. The machine could fit in a home and be made quickly and for a small amount of money, which is good if it had a patent. Unfortunately, for Mr. Hargreaves, there was no patent. So, Englishmen were making a lot of them without spending too much.

<span style="color: rgb(255,0,151); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Used by Hand
<span style="color: rgb(255,0,151); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">It was a great invention, but you had to use your hands and work! What else were they going to use. At first the manual labor probably not bad and not unusual of course. That is, until the water-frame was invented. This was operated with water. People who could afford it probably left their spinning jenny and ran to the water-frame.

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<span style="color: rgb(255,0,151); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">As I said before, after the invention of the water-frame, people probably abandoned "Jenny." I think this because the water-frame made stronger thread than the spinning jenny. Also, it ran on water. This might not be true for everyone if they didn't haver access to water, but most people, I believe, made the switch. ==<span style="color: rgb(255,0,151); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> == <span style="color: rgb(255,0,151); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">

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<span style="color: rgb(255,0,151); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Garraty, John A. The Story of America. Austin, TX: Holt, RInehart and WInston, 1990. "Industrial Revolution" March 15, 2009. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">[] "Spinning Jenny" March 15, 2009.[]