INGENUITY AND LUXURY 



of the wheel in the drawing out, then a piece of wood 

 is lifted up by the toe, which lets down a presser-wire, 

 so as to press the threads so drawn out and twisted, 

 in order to wind or put the same regularly upon the 

 bobbins which are placed on the spindles." 



The description is not very intelligible to one who has 

 not seen a model of the machine, particularly as most 

 persons nowadays are unfamiliar with the process of 

 spinning which was an every-day practice in all ordi- 

 nary households at the time when the spinning-jenny 

 was invented. It will perhaps aid in understanding 

 the process to explain that the entire method of re- 

 ducing cotton to a spun thread consists in drawing out 

 the fibers until they are practically parallel and then 

 twisting them so that they cling tightly together. In 

 primitive spinning the drawing process was accom- 

 plished by hand, and the final twist given by a revolving 

 spindle. Hargreaves' invention did not change the 

 principle but only made it possible for the operator 

 to manipulate several or numerous threads at once. 

 A revolutionary method of effecting the same ends was 

 introduced by another inventor soon after the intro- 

 duction of the spinning-jenny as we shall see in a mo- 

 ment. But first we must follow the fortunes of the 

 spinning-jenny itself. 



As soon as the wonderful possibilities of this new 

 machine became known among the cotton-workers 

 in the neighborhood, Hargreaves' shop was attacked, 

 his spinning- jenny destroyed, and the inventor driven 

 from his home. Fleeing to Nottingham Hargreaves 

 again constructed his spinning-machines, the merits 



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