Changes

Cotton used to be an expensive [[textile]] when an Indian hand spinner took 50,000 hours to spin 100 pounds of cotton. In the 1760s, the hand-operated cotton ‘Mule’ spinning machine created stronger threads and could spin many bobbins at the same time, so the time dropped to 300 hours. In 1825, the automated self-acting mule spinner reduced the spinning time of 100 pounds of cotton to 135 hours. Cotton cloth then became cheap, and cotton production a major industry. <ref>Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History</ref>

Cotton used to be an expensive [[textile]] when an Indian hand spinner took 50,000 hours to spin 100 pounds of cotton. In the 1760s, the hand-operated cotton ‘Mule’ spinning machine created stronger threads and could spin many bobbins at the same time, so the time dropped to 300 hours. In 1825, the automated self-acting mule spinner reduced the spinning time of 100 pounds of cotton to 135 hours. Cotton cloth then became cheap, and cotton production a major industry. <ref>Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History</ref>