weavers used their skill and strength to produce the desired goods. With the advent of new inventions, the tasks were performed by machines that needed to be operated at regular intervals by skilled or semi-skilled people. Factories became the places where the goods were produced in large quantities. The Age of Revolutions Cotton Industries: The first factories were established in the cotton industry.
This became possible due to the invention of spinning jenny, flying shuttle, water frame and Crompton’s Mule. Flying shuttle was invented by John Kay in . Before this invention the thread in the shuttle in the weaver’s hand had to be carried slowly across and through the other threads placed lengthwise, called the warp. The flying shuttle quickened this process and thus doubled the weaver’s output.
Spinning Jenny, invented in by James Hargreaves, could spin eight threads at the same time while in the traditional method only one thread could be spun. Water frame, developed in by Richard Arkwright, was able to spin threads at a time. Crompton’s Mule, a combination of Water Frame and Spinning Jenny, was invented by Samuel Crompton. It gave greater control over the weaving process and as a result, spinners could make many different types of yarn.
Spinning Jenny In , only tons of cotton were imported by Britain. With innovations in spinning and weaving and the rise of factory production in textiles, the demand of raw cotton increased dramatically. By , the country was importing , tons each year. By the early nineteenth century, Manchester, the centre of the British textile industry, had acquired the nickname "Cottonopolis”.
Iron industries: Traditionally iron could be extracted from iron ore by heating (smelting) it. For this, a large quantum of charcoal was required which was obtained by burning firewood. Sources of coal had depleted by because of deforestation. Britain partially solved the problem, as about , Abraham Darby a coal owner in Derbyshire, discovered that coke could be used for melting.
The chief obstacle for the extraction of