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Culture:American
Title:spinning jenny; vertical spinning machine
Date Made:1800-1835
Type:Tool - Textile Working
Materials:base metal: iron; leather, wood; red paint
Place Made:United States; Massachusetts; Shelburne
Measurements:overall: 68 1/2 x 27 x 28 in.; 173.99 x 68.58 x 71.12 cm
Accession Number:  HD 85.032
Museum Collection:  Historic Deerfield

Description:
Vertical spining machines were used in early 19th-century homes for domestic production of yarn for weaving. Their advantage over traditional spinning wheels was that they could spin multiple yarns (between eight and twelve) at once, thereby increasing production. This early mechanization was pioneered by Englishman James Hargreaves in Lancashire, England, c.1764. Hargreaves' "spinning jenny" was probably slang for a spinning engine. Vertical spinners were noted in the American colonies by c.1775. Initially used for spinning cotton, by 1828 they could be used for spinning wool rovings (rather than shorter wool rolags, which had to be pieced together to get usable lengths). Marketing and advertisements of vertical spinners appear in newspapers between about 1810 and 1840, when yarn production began to move out of the home and into factories. Vertical spinning machines fell into two categories, cord-driven and belt-driven. An image of a vertical (belt-driven) spinning machine can be observed in Edward Lamson Henry's 1874 painting Hattie Otis at the Spinning Jenny, in the collection of the New York State Museum.

Subjects:
Leather

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+85.032

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