The domestic system of textile production in Britain began to change with the Industrial Revolution. New spinning and weaving machines like the spinning jenny, water frame, and power loom increased production. Richard Arkwright's water-powered cotton mill used the new factory system of production. This system employed many workers and helped launch the factory age, though luddites opposed the machines. Ultimately, the factory system and new technologies drastically increased Britain's cotton cloth output.

1. The Industrial Revolution
Changes in the Textile
Industry

2. The Domestic System
• Before the Industrial
Revolution, the production of
Woollen Cloth was Britain’s
most important
manufacturing industry
• Cloth making was centred in
areas where sheep farming
was common: Yorkshire, the
Cotswolds, Devon …
• The main processes –
carding, spinning and
weaving were carried out in
the cottages of workers
• This was known as the
Carding
Spinning
Weaving

3. How did the Domestic
System work?
• A merchant delivered wool to the
workers’ homes
• Children carded (untangled) the
wool
• Women and girls spun the wool
into yarn using a spinning wheel
• Men wove the yarn into cloth on a
loom
• The merchant took the cloth to
other workers for stretching,
dyeing, and cropping

4. Advantages and Disadvantages of the
Domestic System
• Advantages
1. It was convenient for
workers who could stay at
home, work at their own
pace and mind the
children
2. Their earnings from
spinning and weaving
were extra to the living
they were making from
working the land (open
field system)
3. Some workers were quite
skilled and produced a
good quality product
• Disadvantages
1. The quality of cloth
varied from worker to
worker
2. The system wasted the
merchant’s time
3. Production was slow
4. Workers could cheat the
merchant
5. The merchant could
cheat the workers
6. “Piece-rates” could be
very low
7. Cottages were often
dirty, badly-lit and poorly

5. Why was there a Revolution in
the textile industry?
• The population was growing rapidly
• There was an increase in the demand
for better quality cloth
• The price of raw cotton fell as more
was imported from the slave plantations
of USA (after 1776)
• New machines were invented which
speeded up the working of cotton

6. New Technology
• Spinning
• 1764 James Hargreaves
invented “Spinning
Jenny”
• 1769 Sir Richard
Arkwright invented
“Water Frame”
• 1779 Samuel Crompton
invented “Spinning Mule”
(so-called because it
combined the best of the
Jenny and the Frame) –
became the most
• Weaving
• 1733 John Kay
invented “Flying
Shuttle”
• 1785 Edmund
Cartwright
invented “Power
•Hand power
•Water power – leads
to building of first mills
or “Factories”
•James Watt’s Steam
Engine- form 1770s…

7. James Hargreaves and the
Spinning Jenny 1764
• This was the first of the new spinning
machines
• The first models produced thread on 8
spindles at once (instead of 1)
• Probably called “Jenny” meaning
“Gin”,or “Ginny” short for engine (not
after his wife!)
• Angry spinners smashed up
Hargreaves’ home in Blackburn
• Designed for use in domestic system

8. Sir Richard Arkwright 1732-
92
• One of the great entrepreneurs of the Industrial
Revolution
• His “Water Frame”was the first machine to be
designed as a “factory” machine – driven by
water power
• The “Factory Age” began with Arkwright’s mill
at Cromford, Derbyshire
• He devised the “Factory System”
• Employed thousands of workers
• Patented his machine
• Made a huge fortune

9. The Factory System
• Other entrepreneurs were quick to
copy Arkwright’s system
• Many spinning factories were built
• For a while weaving remained a
domestic craft
• The wages of hand loom weavers
soared as great quantities of spun
yarn were produced
• However, by the 1820s Power Looms
were being introduced and weavers

10. The Luddites
• Many skilled craftsmen lost out to the new
machines
• The first“Luddites” were croppers in
Yorkshire
• They formed a secret society and smashed
machines
• The mill owners and the government
reacted strongly
• Britain was at war with France
• Luddites were captured by use of spies
• Several machine-breakers were hanged,

11. The Importance of Manchester
(and Southern Lancashire)
• Manchester and Southern Lancashire
became the main location for the Cotton
Industry because:-
1. The climate was damp – ideal for working
cotton
2. It was close to the port of Liverpool – the main
port for trade with the USA and imports of raw
cotton
3. There were skilled spinners and weavers just
across the Pennines in the Yorkshire woollen
industry
4. The Pennines supplied fast-flowing streams

12. Conclusions
• The development of the Factory System
massively increased the amount of
cotton cloth produced
• A new class of “entrepreneurs” made
great fortunes
• Towns and cities grew up around the new
factories – the process of “Urbanisation”-
living conditions and public health
worsened
• Working conditions were very different in
the factories to the old Domestic System