Crompton's “mule” was an improvement on Hargreave's “spinning jenny” [see entry] and enabled the production of large quantities of high quality yarn. It was a crucial step in the industrialisation of textile production, and thus in the wider industrial revolution. By the 1810s there were over 350 mills using over 4 million mule spindles to furnish yarn to the new power loom invented by Cartwright in 1785 [see entry].
Please see our Topics entry on The Industrial Revolution
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Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Crompton’s spinning mule". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 January 2004 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1363, accessed 23 November 2024.]
