Textile factories significantly grew during the First Industrial Revolution, especially british ones.

Mechanized textiles factory of the 18/19th century.

image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution#/media/File:Powerloom_weaving_in_1835.jpg

The growing demand for clothing and cloth was satisfied by the integration of machinery in the factory system. In fact, several inventions in textile machinery occurred in a relatively short time period during the Industrial Revolution. Since they made weaving cloth and spinning yarn and thread much easier, producing cloth became faster and required less time and far less human labor.

Here is a timeline highlighting the most interesting innovations:

1733

Flying shuttle: invented by John Kay: an improvement to looms that enabled weavers to weave faster.

Machine for opening and dressing wool that incorporated the flying shuttle.

image source: https://twitter.com/sim_manchester/status/868008853325193216

1742

Cotton mills were first opened in England.

1764

Spinning jenny invented by James Hargreaves: the first machine to improve upon the spinning wheel, patented in 1770.

image source: https://www.thoughtco.com/industrial-revolution-in-pictures-1991940

1769

Richard Arkwright patented the water frame: the first powered textile machine.

image source: https://medium.com/@ghazalakkas/inventions-in-the-textile-industry-spinning-frame-caedcd3ce490

1773

The first all-cotton textiles were produced in factories.

1779

Crompton invented the spinning mule that allowed for greater control over the weaving process.

image source: https://www.sutori.com/item/samuel-crompton-1779-the-spinning-mule-was-made-of-combined-feature-from-he-wate

1785

Cartwright patented the power loom. It was improved upon by William Horrocks, known for his invention of the variable speed batton in 1813.

image source: https://sites.google.com/a/masdstudent.org/inventions-that-changed-america—the-industrial-revolution/4-the-power-loom

1789

Samuel Slater brought textile machinery design to the United States, spreading for the first time the effects of the british industrial revolution.

1790

Arkwright built the first steam-powered textile factory in Nottingham, England.

1792

Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin: the machine that automated the separation of cottonseed from the short-staple cotton fiber.

image source: http://ushaplahs201617.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-entrepreneurial-spirit-of-eli.html?m=0

1804

Joseph Marie Jacquar invented the Jacquard Loom that weaved complex designs. Jacquard invented a way of automatically controlling the warp and weft threads on a silk loom by recording patterns of holes in a string of cards.