were performed on the wool to change thetexture and color. Most of each stage of production was performed either by women orchildren. The textile industry in England before the Industrial Revolution was complicatedand grossly inefficient. The process of manufacturing was different from one locality toanother. Generally, a merchant employed putters who distributed the raw materials tospinners and weavers who were scattered throughout the countryside. Changes in theprocess of manufacturing textiles were already occurring in the late seventeen century;however these changes were not accepted with arms wide open by many Englishmen. John Kay’s flying-shuttle, which enabled one weaver to do the work of two, and LewisPaul’s roller spinner, which was to make spinning more efficient (later to be perfected byRichard Arkwright), were the precusors of the inventive spirit and the application of newtechnology to the textile industry. By the 1760’s the textile industry was experiencingrapid change. James Hargreaves’ jenny, a device which enabled the operator tosimultaneously spin dozens of threads, was becoming readily adopted. By as early as1788, 20,000 of Hargreaves jenny were being employed in England and Scotland. Soonthe water frame was developed by Arkwright and others, which performed similarly toPaul’s roller spinner but now was powered by water rather than muscle. Arkwright,Samuel Need and Jedidiah Strutt set up a water-powered factory that utilized hisinvention. The factory, located in Cromford, had more than six-hundred workers, most ofwhom were women and children. The factory spun cotton thread faster than the humanworkers could supply the carded and combed raw material. The adage “necessity is the mother of invention” is appropriate for what washappening in England during the Industrial Revolution. With larger yields in agriculturemore people could be fed, so in turn England’s po...
