1779 Samuel Crompton invents the spinning mule

This picture shows a mule-spinning machine.
It is taken from a much larger print, which shows the whole manufacturing process in the early nineteenth century.

This invention made it possible for spinning to become a large-scale factory based industry. It combined the advantages of the spinning jenny and the water frame. It was able to spin many yarns at once and yarns fine enough to be used as weft and warp.

At first the spinning mule was made of wood, but after 1792 it was made of iron and was power driven. The spread of power-driven mules meant that domestic spinning could no longer compete with the factories. Many domestic spinners went to work in the new factories.

Later, in 1825, Richard Roberts invented the self-acting spinning mule. The self-acting mule wound the spun yarn directly onto spindles rather than the spinner doing this by hand.

In 1828 the ring spinning frame as invented by Jenks in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, USA. This invention did not spin fine enough yarn suitable for warp but was still used to produce yarn used for the weft.

For more information on the spinning process go to the cotton process activity.

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