Spinning Mule

The spinning mule is a machine used to spin cotton and other fibres in the mills of Lancashire and elsewhere. They were used extensively from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century. Mules were worked in pairs by a minder, with the help of two boys: the little piecer and the big or side piecer. The carriage carried up to 1320 spindles and could be 150 feet (46 m) long, and would move forward and back a distance of 5 feet (1.5 m) four times a minute. It was invented between 1775 and 1779 by Samuel Crompton. The self-acting (automatic) mule was patented by Richard Roberts in 1825. At its peak there were 50,000,000 mule spindles in Lancashire alone. Modern versions are still in niche production and are used to spin woollen yarns from noble fibers such as cashmere, ultra-fine merino and alpaca for the knitware market.

The spinning mule spins textile fibres into yarn by an intermittent process. In the draw stroke, the roving is pulled through rollers and twisted; on the return it is wrapped onto the spindle. Its rival, the throstle frame or ring frame uses a continuous process, where the roving is drawn, twisted and wrapped in one action. The mule was the most common spinning machine from 1790 until about 1900 and was still used for fine yarns until the early 1980s. In 1890, a typical cotton mill would have over 60 mules, each with 1,320 spindles, which would operate four times a minute for 56 hours a week.

Read more about Spinning MuleHistory, Operation of A Mule, Social and Economic, Mule-spinners' Cancer, See Also

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Cotton-spinning Machinery - History - Spinning Mule
... The spinning mule or mule jenny was created in 1779 by Samuel Crompton ... It was a combination of the Arkwright's water frame and the Hargreaves' spinning jenny ... The mule consisted of a fixed frame containing a creel of bobbins holding the roving, connected through the headstock to a parallel carriage containing the spindles ...
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... Spinning Materials Noil Rolag Roving Sliver Staple Top Tow Woolen Worsted Techniques Carding Combing Heckling Long draw Scutching Short draw Twist per ... Mills Ltd Courtaulds Bagley Wright Industrial processes Textile manufacturing Cotton-spinning machinery Dref Friction Spinning Magnetic ring spinning Open end spinning Ring spinning Spinning frame ...
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1947 59 Notes Built by the Newton moor Spinning Co ... Hard times and the mill stopped spinning in 1932 ... It had 35 pairs of mules built by Taylor, Laing Co of Stalybridge ...
Samuel Crompton - Spinning Mule
... the manufacture of muslin, and he got the idea from his pet mule and which was known as the muslin wheel or the Hall i' th' Wood (pronounced Hall-ith-wood) wheel, from the name of the house in ... The muslin wheel later became known as the spinning mule ... to pay him for the use of the mule, but all he received was about £60 ...

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