Step 18 of 103
Key textile inventions
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- Flying shuttle (John Kay, 1733): Doubled the speed of weaving. This created demand for more thread than spinners could produce.
- Spinning jenny (James Hargreaves, 1764): Allowed one worker to spin multiple threads at once. Solved the thread shortage but produced thread too weak for warp.
- Water frame (Richard Arkwright, 1769): Used water power to spin strong thread. Required large buildings near rivers, giving rise to the factory system.
- Spinning mule (Samuel Crompton, 1779): Combined the jenny and water frame, producing strong fine thread.
- Power loom (Edmund Cartwright, 1785): Mechanized weaving, completing the textile transformation.
- Cotton gin (Eli Whitney, 1793): Removed seeds from cotton fiber. Made American slave-grown cotton economically viable on a massive scale and tied American slavery to British industrialization.
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