s of manufacturing, made England the
greatest manufacturing nation in the world, and gave her a source of
wealth that enabled her to carry on the costly wars against Napoleon.
The half century of this revolution is one of the most important in
English history, on account of the results in methods of transportation,
in agriculture, in social conditions, etc., and it is almost impossible
to have a satisfactory knowledge of succeeding history without
understanding this period. It is for this reason that it is treated at
such length.

This may be divided into as many lessons as the teacher wishes. The
dates given are not intended to be memorized by the pupils; they are
introduced simply to emphasize the order of the inventions. To emphasize
further the sequence, the class may be asked at each step what invention
would be needed next. The oral method--both pure narrative, and
development--is supposed to be used.

1. _Domestic System of Manufacture._--Before 1760 the manufacture of
cotton goods was carried on in the homes of the people. A spinner would
procure a supply of raw cotton from the dealer and carry it home, where,
with the help of his family, he would spin it into threads or yarn and
return it to the dealer. The spinning was all done by hand or foot-power
on a wheel that required one person to run it, and that would make only
one thread at a time. The weaving was also done at home. Because of the
use of Kay's flying shuttle (1732), the demand of the weavers for yarn
was greater than the spinners could supply, because one weaver could use
the product of many spinners, and there was great need of finding some
way of producing yarn more rapidly, to keep the weavers busy.

2. _Hargreaves' Spinning-jenny._--The first important invention of the
period was the spinning-jenny of Hargreaves (1764). This man was an
ordinary spinner, and the story is told that one day, when he was
returning from the dealer with a fresh supply of cotton, he came home
before his wife expected him. Supper was not ready, and in her haste to
rise to prepare it, she overturned the wheel when it was still in
motion. Hargreaves, entering at that moment, noticed that the spindle,
usually horizontal, was now revolving in an upright position. This gave
him the idea, and a short time afterwards he invented a machine with
which one person could spin several threads at once (at first eight).
From it has been developed the complicated machinery for spinnin