Industrial Revolution:

The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major
changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transport, and technology had a profound
effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions starting in the United Kingdom, then
subsequently spreading throughout Europe, North America, and eventually the world.
The Industrial Revolution marks a major turning point in human history; almost every aspect
of daily life was eventually influenced in some way. Most notably, average income and
population began to exhibit unprecedented sustained growth. In the words of Nobel Prize
winning Robert E. Lucas, Jr., "For the first time in history, the living standards of the masses
of ordinary people have begun to undergo sustained growth. Nothing remotely like this
economic behaviour has happened before."
Starting in the later part of the 18th century, there began a transition in parts of Great
Britain's previously manual labour and draft-animalbased economy towards machine-
based manufacturing. It started with the mechanisation of the textile industries, the
development of iron-making techniques and the increased use of refined coal. Trade
expansion was enabled by the introduction of canals, improved roads and railways.
Textile Revolution:
The textile industry grew out of the industrial revolution in the 18th Century as mass
production of yarn and cloth became a mainstream industry. The demand for cloth
grew, so merchants had to compete with others for the supplies to make it. This
raised a problem for the consumer because the products were at a higher cost. The
solution was to use machinery, which was cheaper then products made by hand
(which took a long time to create), therefore allowing the cloth to be cheaper to the
consumer. In 1813, Francis Cabot Lowell set up the first American textile factory. It
combined the tasks that were needed to transform raw cotton into finished cotton.
One of the new spinning machines to produce cloth faster was the spinning jenny,
invented by Englishman James Hargreaves. This new machine connected multiple
spinning wheels in such a manner that up to eight threads can be processed at once.
Unfortunately, this machine was so beneficial that it replaced workers- resulting in
riots. In 1789, Samuel Slater memorized the secrets to textile manufacturing and
brought them over to America to build the first water-powered cotton mill in America;
being set up in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

Spinning Jenny:
The spinning jenny is a multi-spindle spinning frame. It was invented in 1764
by James Hargreaves in Stanhill, Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire in England. The device
reduced the amount of work needed to produce yarn, with a worker able to work
eight or more spools at once. This grew to 120 as technology advanced.
The spinning of cotton into threads for weaving into cloth had traditionally taken
place in the homes of textile workers - known as 'cottage industries'. But the 18th
century saw the emergence of the Industrial Revolution, the great age of steam,
canals and factories that changed the face of the British economy forever. James
Hargreaves Spinning Jenny, the patent for which is shown here, would
revolutionise the process of cotton spinning. The machine used eight spindles onto
which the thread was spun, so by turning a single wheel, the operator could now spin
eight threads at once. This increased to eighty with improvements in the technology.