Mule jenny for spinning cotton

Around 1774 the Englishman Samuel Crompton invented the mule jenny by combining two existing machines, the spinning jenny and the water-powered spinning frame. Strands of raw thread were placed on the rack on the fixed frame, crushed and drawn out by small cylinders, then rolled around a spool on a mobile carriage worked by hand. By varying the speed of the machine’s components yarn of varying widths and torsions could be produced, which could be used both for the warp and the weft. By doing the work of several spinners, the machine considerably reduced the cost of thread and increased textile production, by then largely mechanised. Charles Albert, a Parisian ‘constructor of steam pumps, mechanisms and mills’ – who played a key role in disseminating English techniques in France in the early 19th century – donated this scale model to the Conservatoire in 1811.