John Kay (17 June 1704 – c. 1779) was an English inventor whose most important creation was the
flying shuttle
The flying shuttle was one of the key developments in the industrialization of weaving during the early Industrial Revolution. It allowed a single weaver to weave much wider fabrics, and it could be mechanized, allowing for automatic machine l ...
, which was a key contribution to the
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
. He is often confused with
his namesake,
[ ( John Kay's essay on the two John Kays of the Industrial Revolution).] who built the first "spinning frame".
Early life
John Kay was born on 17 June 1704 in the
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
hamlet of
Walmersley,
just north of
Bury
Bury may refer to:
*The burial of human remains
*-bury, a suffix in English placenames
Places England
* Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village
* Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire
** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...
. His
yeoman farmer
Yeoman is a noun originally referring either to one who owns and cultivates land or to the middle ranks of servants in an English royal or noble household. The term was first documented in mid-14th-century England. The 14th century also witn ...
father, Robert, owned the "Park" estate in Walmersley, and John was born there. Robert died before John was born, leaving Park House to his eldest son. As Robert's fifth son (out of ten children), John was bequeathed £40 (at age 21) and an education until the age of 14. His mother was responsible for educating him until she remarried.
Apprenticeship
He apprenticed with a
hand-loom reed maker, but is said to have returned home within a month claiming to have mastered the business. He designed a
metal substitute for the natural reed that proved popular enough for him to sell throughout England.
After travelling the country, making and fitting wire reeds, he returned to Bury and, on 29 June 1725, both he and his brother, William, married Bury women. John's wife was Anne Holte. His daughter Lettice was born in 1726, and his son
Robert
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
in 1728.
[Lord (1903) p. 81]
In Bury he continued to design improvements to textile machinery; in 1730 he patented a
cord
Cord or CORD may refer to:
People
* Alex Cord (1933–2021), American actor and writer
* Chris Cord (born 1940), American racing driver
* Errett Lobban Cord (1894–1974) American industrialist
* Ronnie Cord (1943–1986), Brazilian singer
* Co ...
ing and
twisting machine for
worsted
Worsted ( or ) is a high-quality type of wool yarn, the fabric made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from Worstead, a village in the English county of Norfolk. That village, together with North Walsham and Aylsham, for ...
.
The flying shuttle
In 1733,
he received a patent for his most revolutionary device: a "wheeled
shuttle" for the
hand loom
A loom is a device used to weave cloth and tapestry. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads. The precise shape of the loom and its mechanics may vary, but ...
. It greatly accelerated
weaving
Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal th ...
, by allowing the shuttle carrying the
weft
Warp and weft are the two basic components used in weaving to turn thread or yarn into fabric. The lengthwise or longitudinal warp yarns are held stationary in tension on a frame or loom while the transverse weft (sometimes woof) is draw ...
to be passed through the
warp threads faster and over a greater width of cloth.
[
] It was designed for the broad loom, for which it saved labour over the
traditional process, needing only one operator per loom (before Kay's improvements
a second worker was needed to catch the shuttle).
Kay always called this invention a "wheeled shuttle", but others used the name "fly-shuttle" (and later, "flying shuttle") because of its continuous speed, especially when a young worker was using it in a narrow loom. The shuttle was described as travelling at "a speed which cannot be imagined, so great that the shuttle can only be seen like a tiny cloud which disappears the same instant."
Opposition
![Reed diagram](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Reed_diagram.jpg)
In July 1733, Kay formed a partnership in
Colchester
Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian.
Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colches ...
,
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
to begin fly-shuttle manufacturing.
[
] No industrial unrest was anticipated, this being the
first device of the modern era to significantly enhance productivity. But by September 1733 the Colchester weavers, were so concerned for their livelihoods that they petitioned the King to stop Kay's inventions.
The flying shuttle was to create a particular imbalance by doubling weaving
productivity
Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proces ...
without changing the rate at which thread could be spun,
[
] disrupting spinners and weavers alike.
Kay tried to promote the fly-shuttle in Bury, but could not convince the woollen manufacturers that it was sufficiently robust; he spent the next two years improving the technology, until it had several advantages over the device specified in the 1733 patent. This was to be one of his difficulties in the coming patent disputes.
[
]
In 1738 Kay went to
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
, where his problem had become
royalty
Royalty may refer to:
* Any individual monarch, such as a king, queen, emperor, empress, etc.
* Royal family, the immediate family of a king or queen regnant, and sometimes his or her extended family
* Royalty payment for use of such things as int ...
collection (the annual licence fee was 15
Shillings
The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence or ...
per shuttle).
[
] He continued to invent, patenting some machines in the same year, though these were not taken up industrially.
[
In 1738 Patent No. 561 was issued to Kay for a ]windmill
A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called windmill sail, sails or blades, specifically to mill (grinding), mill grain (gristmills), but the term is also extended to windpumps, wind turbines, and ...
for working pumps and for an improved pump-chain.
The Shuttle Club
Kay (and, initially, his partners) launched numerous
patent infringement
Patent infringement is the commission of a prohibited act with respect to a patented invention without permission from the patent holder. Permission may typically be granted in the form of a license. The definition of patent infringement may v ...
lawsuits, but if any of these cases were successful, compensation was below the cost of prosecution. Rather than capitulate, the manufacturers formed "the Shuttle Club", a
syndicate
A syndicate is a self-organizing group of individuals, companies, corporations or entities formed to transact some specific business, to pursue or promote a shared interest.
Etymology
The word ''syndicate'' comes from the French language, Frenc ...
which paid the costs of any member brought to court; their strategy of
patent piracy and mutual
indemnification
In contract law, an indemnity is a contractual obligation of one party (the ''indemnitor'') to compensate the loss incurred by another party (the ''indemnitee'') due to the relevant acts of the indemnitor or any other party. The duty to indemni ...
nearly bankrupted Kay.
[
]
In 1745, he and Joseph Stell patented a machine for
cloth ribbon weaving, which they anticipated might be worked by
water wheel
A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with a number of blades or buckets ...
,
but they were unable to advance their plans because of Kay's legal costs.
Impoverished and harassed, Kay was compelled to leave Leeds, and he returned to Bury.
[Barlow (1878) p.97] Also in 1745, John's twelfth, and final, child, William, was born.
[Lord (1903) p.82]
Kay remained inventive; in 1746 he was working on an efficient method of salt production,
[Mann (1931) p.456] and designing improvements to
spinning technology: but that made him unpopular among Bury spinners.
Also, fly-shuttle use was becoming widespread in weaving, increasing cotton
yarn
Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, used in sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery, ropemaking, and the production of textiles. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manufact ...
demand and its
price
A price is the (usually not negative) quantity of payment or compensation given by one party to another in return for goods or services. In some situations, the price of production has a different name. If the product is a "good" in the c ...
; and Kay was blamed.
Life in France
He had suffered violent treatment in England, but he did not leave the country on that account, but because of his inability to enforce (or profit from) his patent rights.
Trudaine's ''Bureau de Commerce'' was known to support textile innovations (and would later actively recruit immigrant inventors). Probably encouraged by the prospect of state support, in 1747, Kay left England for France (where he had never been before, and did not speak the language).
State subsidy
He went to Paris, and throughout 1747 negotiated with the French Government (in English) to sell them his technology.
[ (The amount Kay demanded would be equivalent to £ at today's prices.)
]
Denied the huge
lump sum
A lump sum is a single payment of money, as opposed to a series of payments made over time (such as an annuity).
The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development distinguishes between "price analysis" and "cost analysis" by whether th ...
he wanted, Kay finally agreed to 3,000 ''
livres
The (; ; abbreviation: ₶.) was one of numerous currencies used in medieval France, and a unit of account (i.e., a monetary unit used in accounting) used in Early Modern France.
The 1262 monetary reform established the as 20 , or 80.88 gr ...
'' plus a pension of 2,500 ''livre'',
(annually from 1749) in exchange for his patent, and instruction in its use (to the manufactures of
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
). He retained the sole rights to shuttle production in France, and brought three of his sons to Paris to make them. Although wary of entering the manufacturing provinces (because of his experiences with rioting weavers in England) he was prevailed upon to do so.
At one time, the French authorities may have discouraged his communication with England, but Kay wrote about the unanticipated use of his technology in England to the French government: "My new shuttles are also used in England to make all sorts of narrow
woollen
Woolen (American English) or woollen (Commonwealth English) is a type of yarn made from carded wool. Woolen yarn is soft, light, stretchy, and full of air. It is thus a good insulator, and makes a good knitting yarn. Woolen yarn is in contrast t ...
goods, although their use could have been more perfect had the weavers
consulted me".
The beginning of
mechanisation
Mechanization is the process of changing from working largely or exclusively by hand or with animals to doing that work with machinery. In an early engineering text a machine is defined as follows:
In some fields, mechanization includes the ...
in French textile production is traditionally dated to 1753, with the widespread adoption of the flying shuttle there. Most of these new shuttles were copies, not made by the Kays. John Kay unsuccessfully tried to enforce his manufacturing monopoly, and began to quarrel with the French authorities, briefly returning to England, in 1756 (it is said that he was in his Bury home in 1753 when it was vandalised by a mob, and that he narrowly escaped with his life,
but this is probably a 19th-century tale based on earlier Colchester riots; Kay was probably in France throughout the early 1750s).
He found his prospects in England unimproved; by 1758 he was back in France, which became his adopted country,
though he was to visit England at least twice more. In the winter of 1765/66 he appealed to the
Royal Society of Arts
The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...
to reward him for his inventions, and exhibited his card-making machine for them. The Society could find no-one who understood the shuttle,
and there was a breakdown in correspondence, so that no award was ever made. He was in England again in 1773, but returned to France in 1774 having lost his pension (at aged 70).
Old age
His offer to teach pupils if the pension were restored was not taken up, and he spent his remaining years developing and building machines for cotton manufacturers in
Sens
Sens () is a Communes of France, commune in the Yonne Departments of France, department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in north-central France, 120 km from Paris.
Sens is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture and the second city of the d ...
and
Troyes
Troyes () is a commune and the capital of the department of Aube in the Grand Est region of north-central France. It is located on the Seine river about south-east of Paris. Troyes is situated within the Champagne wine region and is near to ...
. Though he was busy with engineering and letter-writing until 1779, he received only 1,700 ''livres'' from the French state over these five years, reaching a state of penury in March 1778 before receiving his final advance (to develop yet more machinery).
His last known letter (8 June 1779) listed his latest achievements for the ''
Intendant
An intendant (; pt, intendente ; es, intendente ) was, and sometimes still is, a public official, especially in France, Spain, Portugal, and Latin America. The intendancy system was a centralizing administrative system developed in France. In ...
de Commerce'', and proposed further inventions. But since these were never made, and no more is heard of the 75-year-old Kay, it is believed that he must have died later in 1779.
[Mann (1931) p. 464-465]
Legacy
![John Kay Memorial detail medal plaque](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/John_Kay_Memorial_detail_medal_plaque.jpg)
In Bury, Kay has become a local hero: there are still several
pubs
A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
named after him, as are the Kay Gardens. Bury town centre has
William Venn Gough
William Venn Gough (1842–1918) was an architect responsible for a number of prominent buildings in Bristol. His works include the Cabot Tower, Colston's Girls' School (now Montpelier High School), Trinity Road Library, St Aldhelm's church ...
's 1908 Memorial to John Kay (sculpture by
John Cassidy). Planning began after a 1903 Bury public meeting launched a public subscription. 19th century efforts to acknowledge Kay achieved little, but by 1903 it was felt that Bury "owed John Kay's memory an
atonement
Atonement (also atoning, to atone) is the concept of a person taking action to correct previous wrongdoing on their part, either through direct action to undo the consequences of that act, equivalent action to do good for others, or some other ...
", and that all Bury should contribute in restitution to "that wonderfully ingenious and
martyred
A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...
man".
John Kay's son, Robert, stayed in
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
,
[If Robert stayed in France at all, he had permanently returned to Bury by 1748. Since Robert was born in 1728, he probably never left Britain when John Kay did. See:
] and in 1760 developed the "drop-box",
[
] which enabled looms to use multiple flying shuttles simultaneously, allowing multicolour wefts.
His son John ("French Kay") had long resided with his father in France. In 1782 he provided an account of his father's troubles to
Richard Arkwright
Sir Richard Arkwright (23 December 1732 – 3 August 1792) was an English inventor and a leading entrepreneur during the early Industrial Revolution. He is credited as the driving force behind the development of the spinning frame, known as t ...
, who sought to highlight problems with patent defence in a parliamentary petition.
Ford Madox Brown
Ford Madox Brown (16 April 1821 – 6 October 1893) was a British painter of moral and historical subjects, notable for his distinctively graphic and often William Hogarth, Hogarthian version of the Pre-Raphaelite style. Arguably, his mos ...
portrayed Kay and his invention in a
mural painting in
Manchester Town Hall
Manchester Town Hall is a Victorian, Neo-gothic municipal building in Manchester, England. It is the ceremonial headquarters of Manchester City Council and houses a number of local government departments. The building faces Albert Square to th ...
.
Thomas Sutcliffe
In the 1840s, one of Kay's great-grandsons,
Thomas Sutcliffe, campaigned to promote a
Colchester
Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian.
Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colches ...
heritage for Kay's family. In 1846 he unsuccessfully sought a parliamentary
grant
Grant or Grants may refer to:
Places
*Grant County (disambiguation)
Australia
* Grant, Queensland, a locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia
United Kingdom
* Castle Grant
United States
* Grant, Alabama
* Grant, Inyo County, ...
for Kay's descendants in compensation for his ancestor's treatment in England.
He was inaccurate in the details of his grandfather's
genealogy
Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kins ...
and story, and his "Fanciful and Erroneous Statements" were discredited by John Lord's detailed examination of
primary source
In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called an original source) is an artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or any other source of information that was created at the time under ...
s.
[
][Whilst Colchester had a long association with weaving and the wool trade, this link seems to rely on an 1848 source (White's History Gazetteer and Directory of the County of Essex) which has been repeated uncritically by later writers. There is an exploration of this in an article by Don Scott in the ''Essex Journal'' (Essex Journal, Spring 2008 pp. 6–9) which finds no independent evidence of the Colchester connection. (This article also explores the archives of the ]Royal Society of Arts
The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...
and their dealings with John Kay.)
See also
*
Bradford Industrial Museum
References
*
----
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kay, John
English inventors
Textile engineering
Textile workers
People of the Industrial Revolution
1704 births
1780 deaths
Cotton industry in England
Industrial Revolution in England
People from Bury, Greater Manchester
18th-century British engineers