AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 



practical mechanical device for performing the same 

 work as the ancient spinning-wheel. Hargreaves was 

 an illiterate and humble weaver living at Standhill, 

 near Blackburn, in England, and the story is told that 

 he first conceived the idea of his spinning-machine 

 by observing an overturned wheel and noticing that 

 the spindles seemed to work as well in the vertical 

 position as in the horizontal. Experimenting along 

 the lines suggested by this idea, he finally constructed 

 a machine consisting of a frame containing a number 

 of vertical spindles and actuated by a wheel turned 

 by hand, upon which he was able to spin about a dozen 

 threads simultaneously in the same length of time, 

 and with no greater effort than was required to spin 

 a single thread by the old method. The first patent 

 was taken out for this machine in 1770, Hargreaves 

 constantly adding improvements to his device, until 

 he was able to spin as many as thirty threads as easily 

 as a single one. 



Hargreaves describes his patent as covering "a 

 method of making a wheel or engine of an entire new 

 construction, and never before made use of, in order 

 for spinning, drawing, and twisting cotton, and to be 

 managed by one person only, and that the wheel or 

 engine will spin, draw, and twist sixteen or more threads 

 at one time, by a turn of motion of one hand, and a 

 draw of the other." The following is his description 

 of the process: "One person, with his or her right 

 hand turns the wheel, and with the left hand takes 

 hold of the clasps, and therewith draws out the cotton 

 from the slubbing-box ; and, being twisted by the turn 



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