Ring spinning frame
Hiladora de anillos (ring frame)
- Date
- 1828 · confidence high
- Place
- Providence, Rhode Island, United States
- Credited to
- John Thorp (improved by William Jenks)
- Field
- Tools
What it is
A continuous spinning machine in which the yarn is twisted as it passes through a small traveller on a ring while winding onto the bobbin. It is simpler and faster than the mule and became the standard spinning machine of the modern cotton industry.
Thorp patented the ring in 1828, following Danforth's cap spinning (1828); William Jenks improved it with the traveller in 1830. There were simultaneous variants.
What it led to
- continuous spinning needing less skilled labour
- majority of cotton spinning from the late 19th century
- high-speed spindles of present-day Asian mills