Six inventions of the Industrial Revolution.

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Edward Phillips

29.09.2002.

Six inventions of the Industrial Revolution

The first industry to mechanise in Britain was the cotton industry.  The breakthrough was an innovation for weaving.

Weaving Machines

Until the early 1800’s, almost all weaving was done on hand looms because nobody could solve the problems of mechanical weaving.  In 1733, John Kay, a Lancashire clock-maker, invented the ‘Flying Shuttle’.  Using this, weavers could work much faster, so they needed more spun thread; it took 8 spinners to supply one weaver.  This machine made all the movements for weaving but it often went out of control, and a number of attempts were made to invent a better spinning machine to increase the amount of thread available. In 1764 James Hargreaves invented the Spinning Jenny (see below).  In the mid 1780’s, an Anglican clergyman named Edmund Cartwright, developed a steam-powered loom.  In 1803, John Horrocks, a Lancashire machine manufacturer, built an all-metal loom.  Other British machine makers made further improvements to the steam-powered loom during the early 1800’s.  By 1835, Great Britain had more than 120,000 power looms.  Most of them were used to weave cotton.  After the mid-1800’s, hand looms were used only to make fancy patterned cloth, which still could not be made on power looms.

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Spinning Machines

For hundreds of years before the Industrial Revolution, spinning had been done in the home on a simple device called a ‘spinning wheel’.  One person operated the wheel, powering it with a foot pedal.  The spinning wheel produced only one thread at a time.

In 1738 Lewis Paul, a Middlesex inventor, and John Wyatt, a Lichfield mechanic, patented an improved roller spinning machine.  This machine pulled the strands of material through sets of wooden rollers that moved at different speeds, making some strands tighter than others.  When combined, these strands were stronger than strands of ...

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