Spinning jenny was an abbreviation of 'engine'. Thomas Highs of Leigh has claimed to be the inventor and the story is repeated using his wife's name. Another myth has Thomas Earnshaw inventing a spinning device of a similar description - but destroying it after fearing he might be taking bread out of the mouths of the poor. Spinning jenny The spinning jenny is a multi-spindle spinning frame, and was one of the key developments in the industrialization of weaving during the early Industrial Revolution. It was invented in 1764 by James Hargreaves in Stanhill, Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire in England. The device reduced the
Spinning (textiles) the spinning jenny water frame helped meet this demand through mechanisation. Its technology was specialised and costly, and employed water as motive power. Spinning and weaving as cottage industries were displaced by dedicated manufactories, developed by industrialists and their investors; the spinning and weaving industries, once widespread, were concentrated where the sources of water, raw materials and manpower were most readily available, particularly West Yorkshire. The British government was very protective of the technology and restricted its export. After World War I the colonies where the cotton was grown started to purchase and manufacture significant quantities of cotton spinning machinery.