In the history of technology, James Hargreaves is one of the names that keeps returning.
The record lists James Hargreaves as English cotton weaver; inventor of the spinning jenny.
James Hargreaves was born at Blackburn in 1720. His recorded nationality is the Kingdom of Great Britain.
The eighteenth century organised knowledge into academies, expeditions and collections, and turned patronage into something closer to a profession.
The record gives his occupations as carpenter and inventor.
The work that carried his reputation furthest concerned inventing the spinning jenny in 1764. Technical work compounds - each layer makes the next one cheaper to attempt.
That the work was done from the Kingdom of Great Britain matters. Opportunity has never been evenly distributed, and where a person is based shapes which doors open and whose work gets seen.
James Hargreaves died in 1778 at the age of 58. The work outlived the arguments around it.
Achievements
- Worked as carpenter and inventor
