In this lecture, Dr. Barbara Hahn, Associate Professor of History at Texas Tech University, explains the methods used by historians of technology to understand technological change, using the Industrial Revolution as a case study. This classic case of rapid and revolutionary technological change focuses on textile production in the north of England in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, with the mechanization of spinning as the key innovation in the path toward mass production. Exploring changing machines for spinning illustrates history-of-technology approaches, while interpreting mechanical change from these approaches illustrates the contextual and contingent nature of technological change - which can then be applied to the new technologies appearing today.