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 jenny grey cloth, and took it to shopkeepers. Ten years later this had changed and the fustian masters were middle men, who collected the grey cloth and took it to market in Manchester where it was sold to merchants who organised the finishing. To handweave a piece of eighteenpenny weft took 14 days and paid 36 shillings in all. Of this nine shillings was paid for spinning, and nine for carding. So by 1750, a rudimentary manufacturing system feeding into a marketing system emerged. In 1738 John Kay started to improve the loom. He improved the reed, and invented the raceboard,