James Hargreaves
1720 – 1778 British weaver, carpenter, inventor
Lancashire weaver who invented the spinning jenny, one of the first machines to mechanize the spinning of cotton.
James Hargreaves was a poor weaver and carpenter in Lancashire who around 1764 built the spinning jenny, a machine that let one worker spin many threads at once. The device sharply raised the output of yarn, but spinners feared it would destroy their livelihoods, and a mob broke into his house and smashed his machines. He moved to Nottingham and set up in business, though weak patent protection meant he made little money from the invention. His birth year is not firmly recorded and is usually given as around 1720.
Connections
- rival of Richard Arkwright — Rival cotton-spinning pioneer whose spinning jenny competed with Arkwright's water frame.
- rival of Richard Arkwright — Rival cotton-spinning pioneer whose water frame competed with the jenny.
In the timeline
- 1764 The spinning jenny the inventor
- 1764 Hargreaves invents the spinning jenny the inventor