Spinning jenny
The yarn produced by the jenny was not very strong until Richard Arkwright invented the water-powered water frame.
These bars could be drawn along the top of the frame by the spinner's left hand thus extending the thread.
The spinner used his right hand to rapidly turn a wheel which caused all the spindles to revolve, and the thread to be spun.
That industry was centred in the east and south in towns such as Norwich which jealously protected their product.
In 1700 an Act of Parliament was passed to prevent the importation of dyed or printed calicoes from India, China or Persia.
Lancashire businessmen produced grey cloth with linen warp and cotton weft, which they sent to London to be finished.
[5] Another law was passed, to fine anyone caught wearing printed or stained calico; muslins, neckcloths and fustians were exempted.
[6] In England, before canals, railways, and before the turnpikes, the only way to transport goods such as calicos, broadcloth or cotton-wool was by packhorse.
Later a series of chapmen would work for the merchant, taking wares to wholesalers and clients in other towns, and with them would go sample books.
A change came about 1740 when fustian masters gave out raw cotton and warps to the weavers and returned to collect the finished cloth (Putting-out system).
Ten years later this had changed and the fustian masters were middle men, who collected the grey cloth and took it to market in Manchester where it was sold to merchants who organised the finishing.
[citation needed] To hand weave a 12-pound (5.4 kg) piece of eighteenpenny weft took 14 days and paid 36 shillings in all.
He improved the reed, and invented the raceboard, the shuttleboxes and the picker which together allowed one weaver to double his output.
[citation needed] Hargreaves kept the machine secret for some time, but produced a number for his own growing industry.
There he set up shop producing jennies in secret for one Mr Shipley, with the assistance of a joiner named Thomas James.
[11][12] By this time a number of spinners in Lancashire were using copies of the machine, and Hargreaves sent notice that he was taking legal action against them.
Another myth has Thomas Earnshaw inventing a spinning device of a similar description – but destroying it after fearing he might be taking bread out of the mouths of the poor.
