James Hargreaves (about 1720 – April 22, 1778) was an English weaver, carpenter, and inventor who lived and worked in Lancashire, England. He is known for inventing the spinning jenny in 1764.

He was one of three men who helped make spinning faster with machines. Richard Arkwright invented and protected the water frame in 1769, and Samuel Crompton combined the spinning jenny and the water frame to create the spinning mule in 1779.

Life and work

James Hargreaves was born in Stanhill, Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire. He was described as a strong and broad-shouldered man who was about five feet ten inches tall. He could not read or write and spent most of his life working as a hand loom weaver. He married and had children. Baptismal records show he had 13 children, but a writer named Baines in 1835 only knew about 6 or 7 of them.

Spinning jenny

The idea for the spinning jenny is said to have come when a single-thread spinning wheel was knocked over, and Hargreaves noticed the wheel and spindle still turning. He realized that placing several spindles upright and next to each other could allow multiple threads to be spun at the same time. The spinning jenny could only make cotton weft threads and was not able to produce high-quality yarn for the warp. Later, Arkwright's spinning frame provided high-quality warp yarn.

Hargreaves built a jenny for himself and sold several to his neighbors. His invention was first welcomed by other hand spinners until they noticed the price of yarn dropping.

Opposition to the machine caused Hargreaves to move to Nottingham, where the cotton hosiery industry used the increased supply of suitable yarn. In Nottingham, Hargreaves made jennies for a man named Shipley. On June 12, 1770, he received a patent, which later allowed legal action (but was later withdrawn) against Lancashire manufacturers who started using the machine. With a partner named Thomas James, Hargreaves operated a small mill in Hockley and lived in a nearby house. The business continued until Hargreaves died in 1778, when his wife received a payment of £400.

Legacy

In about 1779, Samuel Crompton created the spinning mule. He said he learned to spin in 1769 using a jenny that Hargreaves had built. Hargreaves was one of three men who helped make spinning easier by using machines.

Dispute over Hargreaves' contribution

False statements about Hargreaves appeared as early as 1828. Richard Guest, who wrote in the Edinburgh Review that year, included several mistakes and created an incorrect picture of Hargreaves' life and achievements. This wrong view has continued for many years. Church records show that Hargreaves (misspelled as "Hargraves") did not die in a workhouse, as some had claimed.

In the 1780s, there was an intense legal battle to cancel Richard Arkwright's most important patents. Thomas Highs claimed he was the real inventor of both the spinning frame and the spinning jenny. Different evidence about how these inventions came about was discussed. Although Arkwright's patents were canceled, the question of who truly invented them was never fully answered.

Other records show that neither Hargreaves' wife nor his daughters had the name Jenny, which is different from a myth found in school books as late as the 1960s, children's books as recently as 2005, and on educational websites today. The word "jenny" refers to a type of engine. It was a common slang term in Lancashire during the 18th century and is still used sometimes today.