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{{Short description|English inventor of the Spinning Jenny}}
'''James Hargreaves''' (] – ], ]) was a ] and ] in ], ]. He is credited with inventing the ] in ].
{{other people}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox person
| name = James Hargreaves
| image =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 13 December 1720 <!--{{birth date|df=yes|1720|??|??}} -->
| birth_place = ], Lancashire, England
| death_date = {{death-date and age|22 April 1778|13 December 1720}}
| death_place = ], ], ]
| death_cause =
| resting_place = St Mary’s Church Yard, Nottingham
| nationality = British
| known_for = ]
| employer =
| occupation = Weaver, Carpenter, Inventor
| title =
| height = 5'10
| boards =
| spouse = {{marriage|Elizabeth Grimshaw|1740}}<ref name="Hargreaves1" >{{cite web
|url=http://www.james-hargreaves-family.net.nz/
|title=James Hargreaves' Family
|access-date=8 January 2015
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150522051653/http://www.james-hargreaves-family.net.nz/ |archive-date=22 May 2015
|url-status=dead
}}</ref>
| children = 12<ref name="Hargreaves1"/>
}}
'''James Hargreaves''' ({{circa|1720}} – 22 April 1778)<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-255264/James-Hargreaves |title=James Hargreaves, or James Hargraves (English inventor) – Britannica Online Encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Britannica.com |access-date=29 May 2012}}</ref> was an English ], ]{{citation needed|date=August 2024}} and inventor who lived and worked in ], England. Hargreaves is credited with inventing the ] in 1764.


He was one of three men responsible for the mechanisation of spinning: ] patented the ] in 1769 and ] combined the two, creating the ] in 1779.{{sfn|Timmins|1996|pp=21,24}}
Along with ], Hargreaves is one of the most famous names of the ] in Britain, yet little is known of him as a person. He lived at ], then a town with a population of about 5000, known for the production of "Blackburn greys," ]s of ] ] and ] ]. They were usually sent to ] to be ]ed. The demand for cotton ] outstripped supply, and the crude one-thread ] could not keep up.


==Life and work==
The idea for the jenny is said to have come from the inventor seeing a one-thread wheel overturned upon the floor, when both the wheel and the ] continued to revolve. He realised that if a number of spindles were placed upright and side by side, several ]s might be spun at once. This idea may have come from Hargreaves, or perhaps from ], who had a daughter called Jenny: the sources given below are in conflict.
James Hargreaves was born at Stanhill, ] in Lancashire. He was described as "stout, broadest man of about five-foot ten, or rather more".{{sfnp|Baines|1835|p=162}} He was illiterate{{dubious|reason=Although uneducated, he was certainly able to read and write|date=August 2024}} and worked as a ] during most of his life.<ref >{{Cite journal
|last=Allen |first=Robert C.
|title=The Industrial Revolution in Miniature: The Spinning Jenny in Britain, France, and India
|journal=]
|publisher=]
|doi=10.1017/S0022050709001326
|volume=69 |issue=4 |page=907
|date=December 2009
|jstor=25654027
|s2cid=17803617
}}</ref> He married and baptismal records show he had 13 children,<ref name="Hargreaves1"/> of whom the author Baines in 1835 was aware of '6 or 7'.{{sfnp|Baines|1835|p=162}}


==Spinning jenny==
Whoever the inventor was, he designed a frame, in one part of which he placed eight ]s in a row, and in another part a row of eight spindles. The result was to increase production by a factor of eight, and the number of spindles was later increased to sixteen and gradually to a hundred. However, to operate it required awkward movements, and they were often worked by children, who were better able to perform them. Hargreaves certainly developed the idea from its crude beginnings.
{{main|Spinning jenny}}
] that was used in textile mills]]
], Germany]]


The idea for the ] is said to have come when a one-thread spinning wheel was overturned on the floor, and Hargreaves saw both the wheel and the ] continuing to revolve. He realized that if several spindles were placed upright and side by side, several ] might be spun at once. The spinning jenny was confined to producing cotton weft threads and was unable to produce yarn of sufficient quality for the warp. A high-quality warp was later supplied by ] ].
Opposition to the machine caused Hargreaves to leave for ], where the cotton ] ] benefited from the increased provision of suitable yarn. Arkwright also ended up in the town, and was even more successful. Hargreaves made jennies for a man called Shipley, and in July ], he took out a ], which enabled him to take legal action against the Lancashire manufacturers who had begun using it. Although he failed in this, Hargreaves' business was carried on until his death in 1778, the year before that in which ] invented the ].


Hargreaves built a jenny for himself and sold several of them to his neighbours.{{sfnp|Baines|1835|p=162}}
==See also==
His invention was initially welcomed by other hand spinners until they saw a fall in the price of yarn.
* ]

* ]
Opposition to the machine caused Hargreaves to leave for ], where the cotton ] industry benefited from the increased provision of suitable yarn. In Nottingham Hargreaves made jennies for a man named Shipley, and on 12 June 1770, he was granted a patent, which provided the basis for legal action (later withdrawn) against the Lancashire manufacturers who had begun using it. With a partner, Thomas James, Hargreaves ran a small mill in ] and lived in an adjacent house. The business was carried on until he died in 1778 when his wife received a payment of £400.{{sfnp|Baines|1835|p=162}}
* ]

==Legacy==
When ] invented the ] in c.1779, he stated he had learned to spin in 1769 on a jenny that Hargreaves had built.{{sfn|Baines|1835|p=159}}

Hargreaves was one of three men responsible for the mechanisation of spinning.

==Dispute over Hargreaves' contribution==
False claims were being made about Hargreaves as early as 1828, when ], writing in the '']'' in 1828,{{sfnp|Baines|1835|p=161}} introduced several errors, and a distorted view of his life and contributions has persisted ever since. Parish burial records show that Hargreaves (misspelt as "Hargraves") did not die in the workhouse, as had been claimed.{{sfnp|Baines|1835|p=163}}

A ferocious legal battle had been mounted in the 1780s to have ]'s most important patents annulled. ] had claimed that he was the true inventor of both the spinning frame and the spinning jenny.{{sfnp|Baines|1835|p=155}} Conflicting evidence as to the circumstances of several inventions was canvassed,{{sfnp|Baines|1835|p=155}} and although Arkwright's patents were annulled, the question of authorship was not settled.{{efn-lr|See ]}}

Other records show that neither Hargreaves's wife nor any of his daughters bore the name Jenny, contrary to a myth repeated in school textbooks as late as the 1960s, children's books as late as 2005<ref >{{cite book
|last=Pierce |first=Alan
|title=The Industrial Revolution
|year=2005
|publisher=ABDO Publishing Company |location=Edina, Minnesota
|isbn=9781591979333
|page=9
}}</ref> and on educational websites to the present day.{{efn-lr|e.g. }} The 'jenny' refers to an engine, a common slang term in Lancashire in the 18th century, and encountered occasionally even now.

==References==
{{Notelist-lr}}


{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*
* Secondary source.
* {{cite book|last=Baines|first=Edward|title=History of the cotton manufacture in Great Britain;|publisher=H. Fisher, R. Fisher, and P. Jackson|location=London|year=1835|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofcottonm00bainrich}}
* {{cite book|last=Nasmith|first=Joseph|author-link=Joseph Nasmith|title=Recent Cotton Mill Construction and Engineering|publisher=John Heywood|location=London|year=1895|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AiKgZYuP1xoC&q=Recent+Cotton+Mill+Construction+and+Engineering|edition=Elibron Classics|isbn=978-1-4021-4558-2}}
* {{cite book|last=Marsden|first=Richard|title=Cotton Spinning: its development, principles an practice.|publisher=George Bell and Sons 1903|year=1884|url=https://archive.org/details/cottonspinningit00mars|access-date=26 April 2009}}
* {{cite book|last=Guest|first=Richard|title=The British Cotton Manufactures: and a Reply to an Article on the Spinning Contained in a Recent Number of the Edinburgh Review|publisher=E. Thomson & Sons and W. & W. Clarke and Longman, Rees, & Co|location=London|year=1828|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2noDAAAAYAAJ&q=The+British+Cotton+Manufactures:+and+a+Reply+to+an+Article+on+the+Spinning+Contained+in+a+Recent+Number+of+the+Edinburgh+Review}}
* {{cite book |last=Timmins |first=Geoffrey |url=https://archive.org/details/fourcenturiesofl0000timm |title=Four Centuries of Lancashire Cotton |publisher=Lancashire County Books |location=Preston |year=1996 |isbn=978-1-871236-41-5 |url-access=registration}}

==Further reading==
* {{Cite book |author=Abram, W. A. |title=A History of Blackburn Town & Parish |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofblackbu00abrauoft |publisher=Blackburn J.G. & J. Toulmin |year=1877 |pages=–10}}


==External links== ==External links==
{{commons category}}
* from http://www.cottontown.org on Hargreaves and the Spinning Jenny.
*
* from http://www.cottontimes.co.uk/
*
<!--This reference needs to be changed. Most of the information is correct, but some details are oddly inaccurate and biased (James Hargreaves's death date is not 1777. The website also claims that Thomas Highs invented the Spinning Jenny, a claim that has now been dismissed by historians) -->

{{Lancashire cotton}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hargreaves, James}}
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Latest revision as of 00:25, 11 December 2024

English inventor of the Spinning Jenny For other people named James Hargreaves, see James Hargreaves (disambiguation).

James Hargreaves
Born13 December 1720
Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, England
Died22 April 1778 (1778-04-23) (aged 57)
Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Great Britain
Resting placeSt Mary’s Church Yard, Nottingham
NationalityBritish
Occupation(s)Weaver, Carpenter, Inventor
Known forSpinning jenny
Height5'10
Spouse Elizabeth Grimshaw ​(m. 1740)​
Children12

James Hargreaves (c. 1720 – 22 April 1778) was an English weaver, carpenter and inventor who lived and worked in Lancashire, England. Hargreaves is credited with inventing the spinning jenny in 1764.

He was one of three men responsible for the mechanisation of spinning: Richard Arkwright patented the water frame in 1769 and Samuel Crompton combined the two, creating the spinning mule in 1779.

Life and work

James Hargreaves was born at Stanhill, Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire. He was described as "stout, broadest man of about five-foot ten, or rather more". He was illiterate and worked as a hand loom weaver during most of his life. He married and baptismal records show he had 13 children, of whom the author Baines in 1835 was aware of '6 or 7'.

Spinning jenny

Main article: Spinning jenny
The improved spinning jenny that was used in textile mills
Model of the spinning jenny in a museum in Wuppertal, Germany

The idea for the spinning jenny is said to have come when a one-thread spinning wheel was overturned on the floor, and Hargreaves saw both the wheel and the spindle continuing to revolve. He realized that if several spindles were placed upright and side by side, several threads might be spun at once. The spinning jenny was confined to producing cotton weft threads and was unable to produce yarn of sufficient quality for the warp. A high-quality warp was later supplied by Arkwright's spinning frame.

Hargreaves built a jenny for himself and sold several of them to his neighbours. His invention was initially welcomed by other hand spinners until they saw a fall in the price of yarn.

Opposition to the machine caused Hargreaves to leave for Nottingham, where the cotton hosiery industry benefited from the increased provision of suitable yarn. In Nottingham Hargreaves made jennies for a man named Shipley, and on 12 June 1770, he was granted a patent, which provided the basis for legal action (later withdrawn) against the Lancashire manufacturers who had begun using it. With a partner, Thomas James, Hargreaves ran a small mill in Hockley and lived in an adjacent house. The business was carried on until he died in 1778 when his wife received a payment of £400.

Legacy

When Samuel Crompton invented the spinning mule in c.1779, he stated he had learned to spin in 1769 on a jenny that Hargreaves had built.

Hargreaves was one of three men responsible for the mechanisation of spinning.

Dispute over Hargreaves' contribution

False claims were being made about Hargreaves as early as 1828, when Richard Guest, writing in the Edinburgh Review in 1828, introduced several errors, and a distorted view of his life and contributions has persisted ever since. Parish burial records show that Hargreaves (misspelt as "Hargraves") did not die in the workhouse, as had been claimed.

A ferocious legal battle had been mounted in the 1780s to have Richard Arkwright's most important patents annulled. Thomas Highs had claimed that he was the true inventor of both the spinning frame and the spinning jenny. Conflicting evidence as to the circumstances of several inventions was canvassed, and although Arkwright's patents were annulled, the question of authorship was not settled.

Other records show that neither Hargreaves's wife nor any of his daughters bore the name Jenny, contrary to a myth repeated in school textbooks as late as the 1960s, children's books as late as 2005 and on educational websites to the present day. The 'jenny' refers to an engine, a common slang term in Lancashire in the 18th century, and encountered occasionally even now.

References

  1. See Disputes over patents
  2. e.g. Burchill S.A.


  1. ^ "James Hargreaves' Family". Archived from the original on 22 May 2015. Retrieved 8 January 2015.
  2. "James Hargreaves, or James Hargraves (English inventor) – Britannica Online Encyclopedia". Britannica.com. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
  3. Timmins 1996, pp. 21, 24.
  4. ^ Baines (1835), p. 162.
  5. Allen, Robert C. (December 2009). "The Industrial Revolution in Miniature: The Spinning Jenny in Britain, France, and India". The Journal of Economic History. 69 (4). Cambridge University Press: 907. doi:10.1017/S0022050709001326. JSTOR 25654027. S2CID 17803617.
  6. Baines 1835, p. 159.
  7. Baines (1835), p. 161.
  8. Baines (1835), p. 163.
  9. ^ Baines (1835), p. 155.
  10. Pierce, Alan (2005). The Industrial Revolution. Edina, Minnesota: ABDO Publishing Company. p. 9. ISBN 9781591979333.

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

Lancashire cotton
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Engine makers
Machinery makers
Mill owners
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Industrial processes
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