Hargraves, Not Hargreaves

Abstract

Reading the Book Reviews in Technology and Culture (Vol. VIII, No. 1 [January 1967]), I was surprised to find (p. 95) the traditional spelling of the family name of the inventor of the Spinning Some twenty years ago, my English friend, William A. Hunter of Manchester, devoted most of his spare time to discovering, through documents and various sources, details about the life and work of the inventor in question. Among other things, he discovered that the family name should be spelled Hargraves (not Hargreaves). In the Transactions of the Newcomen Society for the Study of the History of Engineering and Technology (XXVIII [1951-53], 141-51), Hunter published an article on Hargraves and the Invention of the Spinning Jenny. I refer to this and other articles by the same author. In 1947, I had the pleasure of accompanying Hunter to important historical sites in Manchester and in the district where James Hargraves lived and worked. William Hunter was not a man to sit behind a desk; he liked to pilgrimage to the very spot, and, being a prominent Boy Scout leader, he had an excellent scouting mind also when engaged in historical research. Death took him too soon-a man of the textile business, an enthusiast of the history of textile machines, and, like many Britons, an amateur in the finest sense of the word. Perhaps the spelling of a family name should be regarded as a small detail which could be ignored. However, for many years I have in numerous Swedish books corrected the spelling of James Hargraves' name in accordance with William Hunter's discovery, and I think that the correct spelling should be brought to the attention of the readers of this journal.