The Spinning Jenny

This spinning machine was used to spin sixty threads at one time. This made the machine considerably more productive than the hand spinning wheels and flyer spinning wheels. How the machine works: The spinner clamps in the roving with the "press" across the entire width and moves the trolley out, stretching the roving. The spinner then turns the handwheel, the spindles then twist the threads. When the trolley is moved back, the spun threads are wound. The process is then repeated. James Hargreaves invented this spinning machine. The first "Jenny" built in 1767 had 8 spindles. Just a few years later, spinning Jennys with up to 100 spindles were in use. As the news of the invention spread, the fear of losing their meager wages drove many hand spinners onto the streets in protest. They broke into Hargreaves' house, destroyed his spinning machine and threatened to become violent. He was finally forced to leave his home of Blackburn. In the following decades, many band spinners used the "Jenny" and the fully mechanical fine spinning machine (self-acting spinning machine) developed from it. However, both machines were not capable of being operated continuously and therefore were unsuitable for use in the "factory system of production" of the 18th/19th centuries.