Hargreaves, JAMES

Hargreaves, JAMES, the inventor of the spinning-jenny, used in the manufacture of cotton, was an illiterate weaver and carpenter of Standhill, near Blackburn, in Lancashire, where he was born. In 1760 he helped Robert Pecl (the founder of that family) in the construction of a carding-machine; and half-a-dozen years later he invented the spinning-jenny, the idea of which is said to have been suggested to him by seeing a spinning-wheel, which one of his children had upset, continue to revolve horizontally, whilst the spindle revolved vertically. But his fellow-spinners, imbued with strong prejudices against machinery, broke into his house and destroyed his frame. He then removed to Nottingham (1767), where he erected a spinning-mill. Three years later he took out a patent for his invention; but, as it was proved that he had sold some of his machines before the patent was obtained, it was thereby declared to have been invalidated. Hargreaves continued to carry on business as a yarn manufacturer till his death on 22d April 1778, when his share in the mill was bought by his partner for £400. See Francis Espinasse's Lancashire Worthies (1874).