Hargreaves and the Spinning Jenny

Around 1764 James Hargreaves, a Lancashire weaver and carpenter, built the spinning jenny, a hand-powered machine that let one person spin several threads at once. Early jennies spun about eight threads, and later versions many more. Because it was small and cheap, the jenny fitted into cottages and at first strengthened the domestic system rather than replacing it. Its yarn, however, was relatively weak and suited mainly for the weft, the threads running across the cloth.

Many hand spinners saw the jenny as a threat to their earnings, and in 1768 a crowd broke into Hargreaves's home and destroyed machines, prompting him to move to Nottingham. He patented the jenny in 1770, but because many copies were already in use, he struggled to enforce it. The jenny shows how a new technology can bring both opportunity and fear at once.