Editing Industrial Revolution (section)

===Textile manufacture===
{{Main|Textile manufacture during the British Industrial Revolution}}

====British textile industry====
[[File:Hand-loom weaving.jpg|thumb|Weaving with handlooms from [[William Hogarth]]'s ''[[Industry and Idleness]]'' in 1747]]
In 1750, Britain imported 2.5&nbsp;million pounds of raw cotton, most of which was spun and woven by the cottage industry in [[Lancashire]]. The work was done by hand in workers' homes or master weavers' shops. Wages were six times those in India in 1770 when productivity in Britain was three times higher.<ref name="Beckert_2014" /> In 1787, raw cotton consumption was 22&nbsp;million pounds, most of which was cleaned, carded, and spun on machines.<ref name="David S. Landes 1969"/>{{rp|41–42}} The British textile industry used 52&nbsp;million pounds of cotton in 1800, and 588&nbsp;million pounds in 1850.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Industrialization and Society|last=Hopkins|first=Eric|publisher=Routledge|year=2000|location=London|page=2}}</ref>

The share of value added by the cotton textile industry in Britain was 2.6% in 1760, 17% in 1801, and 22% in 1831. Value added by the British woollen industry was 14% in 1801. Cotton factories in Britain numbered about 900 in 1797. In 1760, approximately one-third of cotton cloth manufactured in Britain was exported, rising to two-thirds by 1800. In 1781, cotton spun amounted to 5&nbsp;million pounds, which increased to 56&nbsp;million pounds by 1800. In 1800, less than 0.1% of world cotton cloth was produced on machinery invented in Britain. In 1788, there were 50,000 spindles in Britain, rising to 7&nbsp;million over the next 30 years.<ref name="Beckert_2014"/>

====Wool====
The earliest European attempts at mechanised spinning were with wool; however, wool spinning proved more difficult to mechanise than cotton. Productivity improvement in wool spinning during the Industrial Revolution was significant but far less than cotton.<ref name="David S. Landes 1969" /><ref name="David_Landes_1999" />

====Silk====
[[File:Silkmill1.jpg|thumb|[[John Lombe]]'s silk mill site today in [[Derby]], rebuilt as [[Derby Silk Mill]]]]
Arguably the first highly mechanised factory was [[John Lombe]]'s [[Derby Silk Mill|water-powered silk mill]] at [[Derby]], operational by 1721. Lombe learned silk thread manufacturing by taking a job in Italy and acting as an industrial spy; however, because the Italian silk industry guarded its secrets, the state of the industry at that time is unknown. Although Lombe's factory was technically successful, the supply of raw silk from Italy was cut off to eliminate competition. To promote manufacturing, the Crown paid for models of Lombe's machinery which were exhibited in the [[Tower of London]].<ref>{{cite ODNB|id=75296|first=Richard L.|last=Hills|title=Cotchett, Thomas|authorlink=Richard L. Hills}}</ref><ref>{{cite ODNB|id=47971|first=K. R.|last=Fairclough|title=Sorocold, George}}</ref>

====Cotton====
Parts of India, China, Central America, South America, and the Middle East have a long history of hand-manufacturing cotton textiles, which became a major industry after 1000 AD. Most cotton was grown by small farmers alongside food and, spun in households for domestic consumption. In the 1400s, China began to require households to pay part of their taxes in cotton cloth. By the 17th century, almost all Chinese wore cotton clothing, and it could be used as a [[medium of exchange]]. In India, cotton textiles were manufactured for distant markets, often produced by professional weavers.<ref name="Beckert_2014">{{cite book|title= Empire of Cotton: A Global History|last=Beckert|first= Sven|year= 2014|publisher =Vintage Books Division Penguin Random House |location=US|isbn= 978-0-375-71396-5}}</ref>

Cotton was a difficult [[raw material]] for Europe to obtain before it was grown on [[Plantation complexes in the Southern United States|colonial plantations]].<ref name="Beckert_2014" /> Spanish explorers found [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] growing sea island cotton (''[[Gossypium barbadense]]'') and green seeded cotton ''[[Gossypium hirsutum]]''. Sea island cotton began being exported from Barbados in the 1650s. Upland green seeded cotton was uneconomical because of the difficulty of removing seed, a problem solved by the [[cotton gin]].<ref name="Roe1916" />{{rp|157}} A strain of cotton seed brought from Mexico to [[Natchez, Mississippi]], in 1806 became the parent genetic material for over 90% of world production today; it produced bolls three to four times faster to pick.<ref name="Beckert_2014" />

====Trade and textiles====
[[File:Colonisation 1754.png|thumb|European colonial empires at the start of the Industrial Revolution, superimposed upon modern political boundaries]]
The [[Age of Discovery]] was followed by [[colonialism]] beginning around the 16th century. Following the discovery of a [[trade route]] to India around southern Africa by the Portuguese, the British founded the [[East India Company]], and other countries founded companies, which established trading posts throughout the Indian Ocean region.<ref name="Beckert_2014" />

A largest segment of this trade was in cotton textiles, which were purchased in India and sold in [[Southeast Asia]], including the [[List of islands of Indonesia|Indonesian archipelago]] where spices were purchased for sale to Southeast Asia and Europe. By the 1760s, cloth was over three-quarters of the East India Company's exports. Indian textiles were in demand in Europe where previously only wool and linen were available; however, cotton goods consumed in Europe was minor until the early 19th century.<ref name="Beckert_2014" />

====Pre-mechanized European textile production====
[[File:Landauer I 014 v.jpg|thumb|upright=.7|[[Weaving|Weaver]] in [[Nürnberg]], {{Circa|1524}}]]
By 1600, [[Flemish people|Flemish]] refugees began weaving cotton in English towns where cottage spinning and weaving of wool and linen was established. They were left alone by the [[guild]]s who did not consider cotton a threat. Earlier European attempts at cotton spinning and weaving were in 12th-century Italy and 15th-century southern Germany, but these ended when the supply of cotton was cut off.

British cloth could not compete with Indian cloth because India's labour cost was approximately one-fifth to one-sixth that of Britain's.<ref name="auto" /> In 1700 and 1721, the British government passed [[Calico Acts]] to [[Protectionism|protect]] domestic woollen and linen industries from cotton fabric imported from India.<ref name="David S. Landes 1969" /><ref name="Ayers1989" /> The demand for heavier fabric was met by a domestic industry based around Lancashire that produced [[fustian]], a cloth with flax [[Warp and weft|warp]] and cotton [[Warp and weft|weft]]. Flax was used for the warp because wheel-spun cotton had insufficient strength, the resulting blend was not as soft as 100% cotton and more difficult to sew.<ref name="Ayers1989">{{Cite book
 |last1        = Ayres
 |first1       = Robert
 |author1-link = Robert Ayres (scientist)
 |title        = Technological Transformations and Long Waves
 |year         = 1989
 |url          = http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Admin/PUB/Documents/RR-89-001.pdf
 |pages        = 16–17
 |access-date  = 20 December 2012
|archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20120301220936/http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Admin/PUB/Documents/RR-89-001.pdf
 |archive-date = 1 March 2012
}}</ref>

On the eve of the Industrial Revolution, spinning and weaving were done in households, for domestic consumption, and as a cottage industry under the [[putting-out system]]. Under the putting-out system, home-based workers produced under contract to merchant sellers, who often supplied the raw materials. In the off-season, the women, typically farmers' wives, did the spinning and the men did the weaving. Using the [[spinning wheel]], it took 4-8 spinners to supply one handloom weaver.<ref name="David S. Landes 1969" /><ref name="Ayers1989" /><ref name="McNeil1990">{{Harvnb|McNeil|1990}}</ref>{{rp|823}}

====Invention of textile machinery====
[[File:Spinning jenny.jpg|thumb|A model of the [[spinning jenny]] in a museum in [[Wuppertal]]. Invented by [[James Hargreaves]] in 1764, the spinning jenny was one of the innovations that started the revolution.]]
[[File:Mule-jenny.jpg|thumb|The only surviving example of a spinning mule built by the inventor Samuel Crompton, the mule produced high-quality thread with minimal labour, now on display at [[Bolton Museum]] in [[Greater Manchester]]]]
[[File:Marshall's flax-mill, Holbeck, Leeds - interior - c.1800.jpg|thumb|The interior of Marshall's [[Temple Works]] in [[Leeds]], West Yorkshire]]
The [[flying shuttle]], patented in 1733 by [[John Kay (flying shuttle)|John Kay]]—with subsequent improvements including an important one in 1747—doubled the output of a weaver, worsening the imbalance between spinning and weaving. It became widely used around Lancashire after 1760 when John's son, [[Robert Kay (inventor)|Robert]], invented the dropbox, which facilitated changing thread colors.<ref name="McNeil1990" />{{rp|821–822}}

[[Lewis Paul]] patented the roller [[spinning frame]] and the flyer-and-[[bobbin]] system for drawing wool to a more even thickness. The technology was developed with John Wyatt of [[Birmingham]]. In 1743, a factory opened in [[Northampton]] with 50 spindles on each of five of Paul and Wyatt's machines, this operated until 1764. A similar mill was built by [[Daniel Bourn]]. Paul and Bourn patented [[carding]] machines in 1748. Based on two sets of rollers that travelled at different speeds, it was later used in the first [[cotton mill|cotton spinning mill]].

In 1764, in [[Oswaldtwistle]], Lancashire, [[James Hargreaves]] invented the [[spinning jenny]]. It was the first practical spinning frame with multiple spindles.<ref>R. Ray Gehani (1998). "Management of Technology and Operations". p. 63. John Wiley and Sons, 1998</ref> The jenny worked in a similar manner to the spinning wheel, by first clamping down on the fibres, then drawing them out, followed by twisting.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ayres|1989|p=1}}</ref> It was a simple, wooden framed machine that only cost £6 for a 40-spindle model in 1792<ref>{{cite book|first= David S.|last= Landes|date=1969|title= The Unbound Prometheus|publisher= Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge|isbn= 978-0-521-09418-4|page=63}}</ref> and was used mainly by home spinners. The jenny produced a lightly twisted yarn only suitable for weft, not warp.<ref name="McNeil1990" />{{rp|825–827}}

The [[water frame]], was developed by [[Richard Arkwright]] who, patented it in 1769. The design was partly based on a spinning machine built by Kay, hired by Arkwright.<ref name="McNeil1990" />{{rp|827–830}} The water frame was able to produce a hard, medium-count thread suitable for warp, finally allowing 100% cotton cloth to be made in Britain. Arkwright used water power at a factory in [[Cromford]], [[Derbyshire]] in 1771, giving the invention its name. [[Samuel Crompton]] invented the [[spinning mule]] in 1779, so called because it is a hybrid of Arkwright's water frame and [[James Hargreaves]]'s [[spinning jenny]] (a [[mule]] is the product of crossbreeding a [[mare|female horse]] with a [[donkey|male donkey]]). Crompton's mule could produce finer thread than hand spinning, at lower cost. Mule-spun thread was of suitable strength to be used as a warp and allowed Britain to produce highly competitive yarn in large quantities.<ref name="McNeil1990" />{{rp|832}}

Realising expiration of the Arkwright patent would greatly increase the supply of spun cotton and lead to a shortage of weavers, [[Edmund Cartwright]] developed a vertical [[power loom]] which he patented in 1785.<ref name="McNeil1990" />{{rp|834}} Samuel Horrocks patented a loom in 1813, which was improved by [[Richard Roberts (engineer)|Richard Roberts]] in 1822, and these were produced in large numbers by Roberts, Hill & Co. Roberts was a maker of high-quality machine tools and pioneer in the use of jigs and gauges for precision workshop measurement.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ayres|1989|p=18}}</ref>

The demand for cotton presented an opportunity to [[Planter class|planters]] in the Southern US, who thought upland cotton would be profitable if a better way could be found to remove the seed. [[Eli Whitney]] responded by inventing the inexpensive [[cotton gin]]. A man using a cotton gin could remove seed in one day as would previously have taken two months to process.<ref name="Roe1916">{{citation | last = Roe | first = Joseph Wickham | title = English and American Tool Builders | publisher = Yale University Press | year = 1916 | location = New Haven, Connecticut | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=X-EJAAAAIAAJ | lccn = 16011753 | access-date = 16 October 2015 | archive-date = 3 July 2023 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230703113712/https://books.google.com/books?id=X-EJAAAAIAAJ | url-status = live }}. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 ({{LCCN|27024075}}); and by Lindsay Publications, Inc., Bradley, Illinois, ({{ISBN|978-0-917914-73-7}}).</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Angela|last=Lakwete|title=Inventing the Cotton Gin: Machine and Myth in Antebellum America|url={{Google books|yJ4_L3QGpRMC|page=PR7|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}}|year=2005|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|isbn=978-0-8018-8272-2}}</ref>

These advances were capitalised on by [[entrepreneur]]s, of whom the best known is Arkwright. He is credited with a list of inventions, but these were developed by such people as Kay and [[Thomas Highs]]. Arkwright nurtured the inventors, patented the ideas, financed the initiatives, and protected the machines. He created the cotton mill which brought the production processes together in a factory, and developed the use of power, which made cotton manufacture a mechanised industry. Other inventors increased the efficiency of the individual steps of spinning, so that the supply of [[yarn]] increased greatly. Steam power was then applied to drive textile machinery. [[Manchester]] acquired the nickname [[Cottonopolis]] during the early 19th century owing to its sprawl of textile factories.<ref>G.E. Mingay (1986). "The Transformation of Britain, 1830–1939". p. 25. Routledge, 1986</ref>

Though mechanisation dramatically decreased the cost of cotton cloth, by the mid-19th century machine-woven cloth still could not equal the quality of hand-woven Indian cloth. However, the high productivity of British textile manufacturing allowed coarser grades of British cloth to undersell hand-spun and woven fabric in low-wage India, destroying the Indian industry.<ref name="Beckert_2014" />