Robert Kay (1728–1802) was an English inventor, best known for designing a ''drop box'' to improve the capability of weaving

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 t ...

s. Robert Kay was born in 1728 to John Kay and Ann Holt. He became a shuttlemaker in his native

Bury, Lancashire Bury ( ) is a market town on the River Irwell in Greater Manchester, England. Metropolitan Borough of Bury is administered from the town, which had an estimated population of 78,723 in 2015. The town is within the historic county boundarie ...

, married in 1748 and had several children. His father emigrated to France in 1747 and was joined there by Robert and two other sons, James and John. The flying shuttle, also known as the wheel-shuttle, had been invented by John senior around 1733 but his commercial acumen did not match his engineering ingenuity and financial problems may have contributed to the move abroad. Robert had returned to Bury probably in 1759 and in either that year or 1760, he designed a method for deploying multiple shuttles simultaneously, enabling the use of

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 dra ...

s of more than one colour and so making it easier for the weaver to produce cross-striped material. These shuttles were housed at the side of the loom in what became known as the ''drop box''. He did not patent the invention but went on to produce other improvements to the shuttle that assisted in producing checked material and

ticking Ticking is a type of cloth, traditionally a tightly-woven cotton or linen textile. It is traditionally used to cover tick mattresses and bed pillows. The tight weave makes it more durable and hinders the stuffing (straw, chaff, hair, down feathers, ...

for beds, as well as a mechanism for manufacturing the cards used in carding machines. The drop box probably caused an increase in the use of the flying shuttle: combining the two made the weaving mechanism more complex, but it greatly increased the production speed of even fairly complex cloths.

References

Notes Citations {{DEFAULTSORT:Kay, Robert 1728 births 1802 deaths English inventors Weaving People from Bury, Greater Manchester

See also

References