Early Powered Spinning and Weaving
The spinning jenny represented an advance in spinning capability, but was still hand operated and machines of 30 spindles were the largest ever made. It was the introduction of the mule and the water frame that dramatically improved productivity. By the mid 1820s a power assisted mule with 600 spindles could process 100 pounds of cotton in as little as 135 hours.
Further improvements to the mule during the early 19th century increased not only its speed, but the quality of the finished thread, making it strong enough to be used as a warp, enabling all cotton cloths to be woven.
The adoption of powered machinery in weaving developed at a slower rate. Edmund Cartwright's loom of the early 1780s was not successful. William Horrocks introduced an improved loom in 1803, which had a more effective means of winding the woven cloth on to a beam at the back of the loom. Improvements continued, and in 1841 William Kenworthy and James Bullough invented the weft-stop motion, which halted the lathe of the loom, if a shuttle was trapped in the warp, making it easier for a weaver to supervise more than one loom.
|
