Early Inventions in the British Textile Industry

Charles “Turnip”

Townshend

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Robert Bakewell, Selective Breeding

1710- 370 lbs 30 lbs

1800- 769 lbs 80 lbs

The Industrial Revolution...

The shift from an agrarian, hand-made, labor-intensive economy to a machine-made, labor-specialization economy.

1750 in England

Industrial Revolution in perspective:

• Transformation of every facet of society;• Accelerated the pace of modernization• Increased the size and importance of the middle

class• Created a new-”working” class• Became a force for democracy• Hastened the secularization of European life• Changed the geography of global interaction• Made possible the highest standard of living in

human history

A traditional spinning wheel

• The “putting-out” system- early capitalism

The Gallant Weaver, by Robert Burns      Where Cart rins flow in tae the sea,

        By many a flow'r and shading tree,        There lives a lad, the lad for me,        He is a gallant weaver.        Oh I had wooers ought of nine,        That gied me rings and ribbons fine,        But I was fear'd my heart wad tine,        And I gie'd it tae the weaver.

       My daddie sign'd my tocher band,       To gi'e the lad that has the land,       But tae my heart I'll add my hand,       And gie'd it to the weaver.       While birds rejoice in leafy bow'rs,       While bees delight in opening flow'rs,       While corn grows green in summer show'rs,       I'll love my gallant weaver.

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John Kay’s Flying Shuttle, 1733- doubled the speading of weaving thread, resulting in

“the Yarn Famine”

• 1764...James Hargreaves’

Spinning Jenny, - 8 spools of thread from one wheel!

Richard Awkright’s Water Frame, 1769

A system of rollers driven by water which spun firmer and finer thread on 100 spools

Awkright is known as “the Father of the Factory System.”

Samuel Crompton’s Spinning Mule, 1779

Combined the spinning jenny and the water frame from to make the Spinning Mule

James Watt’s Steam Engine, 1781

Edmund Cartwright’s Power Loom, 1785

Adapted the spinning mule to steam power allowing 200 spools of thread to be spun automatically, with little human interaction

Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin, 1793

50 lbs of cleaned cotton daily

1780-9 million bushels of cotton imported to England

1835-21 million bushels

One small boy could watch over 2 power looms whose output was 15x greater than a skilled handloom weaver

Factory towns spread all over England: Manchester became the cotton capital of the world

Luddites – displaced weavers rebelled in 1811- angry over their loss of jobs, they attacked and destroyed textile machines throughout England

Robert Fulton’s Clermont, 1807

George Stephenson’s Rocket, 1825

In summary…

• Technological advances in textiles

• Steam power

• The new iron age- steel

• Transportation and communication

• Incorporation

• Urbanization

• The working class

• Relief and reform