A Timeline of Textile Machinery Inventions

The  Industrial Revolution  was the transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. During this transition, hand production methods changed to machines and new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes were introduced. Water power efficiency improved and the increasing use of  steam power increased. Machine tools were  developed and the factory system was on the rise.  Textiles  were the main industry of the Industrial Revolution as far as employment, the value of output and capital invested. The textile industry was also the first to use modern production methods.  The Industrial Revolution began in  Great Britain  and most of the important technological innovations were British. The Industrial Revolution was a major turning point in history; almost every aspect of daily life changed in some way. Average income and population began to grow exponentially. Some economists say that the major impact of the Industrial Revolution was that the  standard of living  for the general population began to increase consistently for the first time in history, but others have said that it did not begin to really improve until the late 19th and 20th centuries.  At approximately the same time the Industrial Revolution was occurring, Britain was undergoing an  agricultural revolution, which also helped to improve living standards and provided surplus labor available for industry. Textile Machinery Several inventions in textile machinery occurred in a relatively short time period during the Industrial Revolution. Here is a timeline highlighting some of them: 1733  Flying shuttle  invented by John Kay:  an improvement to looms that enabled weavers to weave faster.1742  Cotton mills were first opened in England.1764  Spinning jenny  invented by James Hargreaves:  the first machine to improve upon the spinning wheel.1764  Water frame  invented by Richard Arkwright:  the first powered textile machine.1769  Arkwright patented the water frame.1770  Hargreaves patented the Spinning Jenny.1773  The first all-cotton textiles were produced in factories.1779  Crompton invented the  spinning mule  that allowed for greater control over the weaving process.1785  Cartwright patented the  power loom.  It was improved upon by William Horrocks, known for his invention of the variable speed batton in 1813.1787  Cotton goods production had increased 10 fold since 1770.1789  Samuel Slater  brought textile machinery design to the US.1790  Arkwright built the first steam-powered textile factory in Nottingham, Engla nd.1792  Eli Whitney invented the  cotton gin:  the machine that automated the separation of cottonseed from the short-staple cotton fiber.1804  Joseph Marie Jacquard  invented the Jacquard Loom that weaved complex designs. Jacquard invented a way of automatically controlling the warp and weft threads on a silk loom by recording patterns of holes in a string of cards.1813  William  Horrocks invented the variable speed batton (for an improved power loom).1856  William Perkin invented the first synthetic dye.