page_title: John Kay (flying shuttle)
section_title: Opposition
hierarchical_section_title: John Kay (flying shuttle) / The flying shuttle / Opposition
caption_attribution_description: English: Diagram showing the various parts of a reed, with little letters: A is the wires or dents (teeth) B is the wooden ribs that hold the reed together C is the tarred cotton cord that bind the reed together
context_page_description: John Kay was an English inventor whose most important creation was the flying shuttle, which was a key contribution to the Industrial Revolution. He is often confused with his namesake, who built the first "spinning frame".
context_section_description: In July 1733, Kay formed a partnership in Colchester, Essex 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 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, where his problem had become royalty collection (the annual licence fee was 15 Shillings per shuttle). He continued to invent, patenting some machines in the same year, though these were not taken up industrially.
caption: Reed structure: A: wires or dents
  B: wooden ribs
  C: tarred cord
exif: {}