Enlightenment · Europe · Science

1779

Crompton Invents the Spinning Mule

1779

Samuel Crompton, working in Bolton by night to keep the design secret, combined Arkwright's water frame with Hargreaves's jenny to make a machine that spun yarn both fine and strong. It needed neither the river's pull nor the cottage's patience. Britain's cotton mills now had the tool that would beat Indian muslin.