The spinning machines
Cotton thread is mechanised, and the factory system begins.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 15 years
- Known to
- ± 1 year
- Era
- Early Modern, Holocene
Hargreaves' spinning jenny of 1764, Arkwright's water frame of 1769 and Crompton's mule of 1779 multiply the thread one worker can produce many times over. Because the water frame needs power, work moves out of homes into mills built beside rivers — Arkwright's Cromford mill runs day and night in shifts. The discipline of the factory, more than any single machine, is what is new.