3Transitioning to the Second Industrial Revolution
Cotton Industry
The desire to reduce costs and improve productivity encouraged several labor-saving inventions that were more easily achieved in less regulated industries such as cotton. Cotton benefited from being a new product, unlike wool and linen, government and industry-regulated. For example, in 1733, a mechanic John Kay (1704–1780, a British machinist and engineer) invented the flying shuttle. As a result, the required number of workers fell from two to one, lowering the weaving machine’s operating costs and increasing the demand for cotton yarn. In 1764, James Hargreaves (1720–1778, a British weaver and carpenter) invented the spinning jenny, the spinning ...
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