James Hargreaves (1720 – 1778) was a weaver, carpenter and inventor in Lancashire, England. He is credited with inventing the spinning jenny in 1764.
Born at Knuzden Brook near Stanhill, Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, he lived at Blackburn, then a town with a population of about 5,000, known for the production of "Blackburn greys," cloths of linen Warp and cotton weft. They were usually sent to London to be printed. The demand for cotton yarn outstripped supply, and the one-thread spinning wheel could not keep up.
Read more about James Hargreaves: Spinning Jenny
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“When we of the so-called better classes are scared as men were never scared in history at material ugliness and hardship; when we put off marriage until our house can be artistic, and quake at the thought of having a child without a bank-account and doomed to manual labor, it is time for thinking men to protest against so unmanly and irreligious a state of opinion.”
—William James (1842–1910)