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— CH. 1 · BORN IN WALMERSLEY —

John Kay (flying shuttle)

~5 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
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  • John Kay entered the world on the 17th of June 1704 in the Lancashire hamlet of Walmersley. His father Robert owned the Park estate there before dying before his son was born. As the fifth son out of ten children, John received only £40 and an education until age fourteen. His mother educated him until she remarried. He apprenticed with a hand-loom reed maker but returned home within a month claiming to have mastered the business. He designed a metal substitute for natural reeds that proved popular enough to sell throughout England. After travelling the country making wire reeds, he returned to Bury. On the 29th of June 1725 both he and his brother William married local women from Bury. John's wife was Anne Holte. Their daughter Lettice arrived in 1726 followed by their son Robert in 1728.

  • In 1733 he secured a patent for what became known as the flying shuttle. The critical specification attached to patent number 542 dated the 26th of May 1733 described a new invented shuttle running on four wheels over a board about nine feet long. A small cord commanded by the weaver allowed movement from side to side with great ease. This device greatly accelerated weaving by allowing the shuttle carrying weft to pass through warp threads faster. It saved labour over traditional processes needing only one operator per loom before Kay's improvements. Before this invention a second worker was needed to catch the shuttle. Kay always called this invention a wheeled shuttle while others used the name fly-shuttle because of its continuous speed. One observer described it 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.

  • By September 1733 Colchester weavers petitioned the King to stop Kay's inventions due to concerns for their livelihoods. The flying shuttle created an imbalance by doubling weaving productivity without changing thread spinning rates. In July 1733 Kay formed a partnership in Colchester Essex to begin manufacturing but industrial unrest soon followed. He spent two years improving technology until it had several advantages over the original patent specification. In 1738 he went to Leeds where royalty collection became his problem as the annual licence fee was 15 Shillings per shuttle. Manufacturers formed the Shuttle Club syndicate paying costs for any member brought to court. Their strategy of patent piracy and mutual indemnification nearly bankrupted him. If any lawsuit succeeded compensation remained below prosecution costs. Impoverished and harassed Kay left Leeds returning to Bury after legal costs drained resources. His twelfth child William arrived in 1745 marking the end of his large family.

  • In 1747 Kay left England for France having never been there before or spoken its language. He negotiated with the French Government throughout that year to sell them his technology. Denied a huge lump sum he wanted, Kay finally agreed to 3,000 livres plus a pension of 2,500 livres annually from 1749. This exchange included instruction in use to manufactures of Normandy. He retained sole rights to shuttle production outside Languedoc where he sold all rights for 15,000 livres before reaching agreement. He brought three sons to Paris to make shuttles despite wariness about entering manufacturing provinces due to rioting weavers experiences. The beginning of mechanisation in French textile production is traditionally dated to 1753 with widespread adoption of flying shuttles there. Most new shuttles were copies not made by the Kays. John Kay unsuccessfully tried enforcing his manufacturing monopoly and began quarrelling with French authorities.

  • By 1758 Kay was back in France which became his adopted country though he visited England at least twice more. In winter 1765/66 he appealed to Royal Society of Arts to reward him for inventions exhibiting card-making machine. The society found no one understanding the shuttle causing correspondence breakdown so no award ever came. He returned to England again in 1773 but went back to France in 1774 having lost his pension at age seventy. His offer to teach pupils if pension restored remained unaccepted spending remaining years developing machines for cotton manufacturers in Sens and Troyes. Though busy engineering until 1779 he received only 1,700 livres from French state over five years reaching penury in March 1778 before final advance. His last known letter dated the 8th of June 1779 listed latest achievements proposing further inventions. Since these never materialized and no more heard of the seventy-five-year-old Kay believed died later that year.

  • In Bury Kay has become local hero with several pubs named after him including Kay Gardens. William Venn Gough created 1908 Memorial to John Kay sculpted by John Cassidy standing in town centre. Planning began after 1903 Bury public meeting launched subscription feeling Bury owed John Kay's memory an atonement. Nineteenth century efforts acknowledging Kay achieved little until then all Bury contributed restitution to wonderfully ingenious martyred man. John Kay's son Robert stayed in Britain developing drop-box enabling looms using multiple flying shuttles simultaneously allowing multicolour wefts by 1760. His son John French Kay resided long term with father providing account of troubles to Richard Arkwright in 1782 highlighting patent defence problems. Ford Madox Brown portrayed Kay and invention in mural painting Manchester Town Hall. Thomas Sutcliffe great-grandson campaigned promoting Colchester heritage for family in 1840s unsuccessfully seeking parliamentary grant compensation. His fanciful erroneous statements discredited by John Lord detailed examination finding no independent evidence of Colchester connection despite repeated uncritical sources.

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Common questions

When was John Kay born and where did he grow up?

John Kay entered the world on the 17th of June 1704 in the Lancashire hamlet of Walmersley. His father Robert owned the Park estate there before dying before his son was born.

What patent number did John Kay receive for the flying shuttle invention?

The critical specification attached to patent number 542 dated the 26th of May 1733 described a new invented shuttle running on four wheels over a board about nine feet long. This device greatly accelerated weaving by allowing the shuttle carrying weft to pass through warp threads faster.

Why did John Kay leave England for France in 1747?

Impoverished and harassed by legal costs from manufacturers forming the Shuttle Club syndicate, John Kay left England for France having never been there before or spoken its language. He negotiated with the French Government throughout that year to sell them his technology after industrial unrest followed his manufacturing efforts in Colchester Essex.

How much money did John Kay receive from the French government for his shuttle technology?

Kay finally agreed to 3,000 livres plus a pension of 2,500 livres annually from 1749. This exchange included instruction in use to manufactures of Normandy where he sold all rights for 15,000 livres outside Languedoc.

When is the death date of John Kay believed to have occurred?

John Kay received only 1,700 livres from French state over five years reaching penury in March 1778 before final advance. His last known letter dated the 8th of June 1779 listed latest achievements proposing further inventions since these never materialized and no more heard of the seventy-five-year-old Kay believed died later that year.

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All sources

38 references cited across the entry

  1. 1bookMemoir of John KayJohn Lord — J. Clegg — 1903
  2. 2webScience and Society Picture Library
  3. 3inlineJohn Ainsworth (b. 1777) says in his book Walks around Bury (1842) that he saw this picture in 1842, and that it appeared to show the inventor's son who he knew "very well". Although Ainsworth knew th
  4. 4bookThe cotton trade and industrial Lancashire, 1600–1780J. de L. Mann — Manchester University Press — January 1931
  5. 5inlineJ. B. Thompson's 1964 summary in The achievements of Western civilisation says "date of death unknown". Nobody has yet found exact records or year of his death, though all sources agree it occurred in
  6. 6bookMemoir of John KayJ. Lord — 1903
  7. 7webWeaving the fine fabric of successJ. Kay — Financial Times — 2 January 2003
  8. 8bookLancashire worthiesF. Espinasse — Simpkin, Marshall, & Co — 1874
  9. 9webJohn Kay, inventor of the flying shuttle8 December 2007
  10. 10bookMemoir of John KayJohn Lord — 1903
  11. 11webJohn Kay 1704–1780 Inventor of the Flying ShuttleCotton Town website
  12. 12inlineMore specifically, for a "New Engine or Machine for Opening and Dressing Wool" that incorporated his flying shuttle – John Kay Biography (1704–1764). A less important portion of the same patent (Briti
  13. 13bookCurious bits of historyA. W. Macy — The Cosmopolitan press — 1912
  14. 14web1733 – Flying Shuttle, Automation of Textile Making
  15. 15bookA history of scienceE. H. Williams — Harper — October 1904
  16. 16bookCottonG. Bigwood — Holt — 1919
  17. 17bookThe cotton trade and industrial Lancashire, 1600–1780J. de L. Mann et al. — Manchester University Press — 1931
  18. 18journalWill you lose your job because of a new machine?M. Mok — March 1931
  19. 19bookAll the year round1860
  20. 20bookThe cotton trade and industrial Lancashire, 1600–1780J. de L. Mann — 1931
  21. 21bookThe Industrial Revolution in the Eighteenth Century: An Outline of the Beginnings of the Modern Factory System in EnglandP. Mantoux — 1928
  22. 22bookBiographical Dictionary of the History of TechnologyR. L. Hills — Routledge — August 1998
  23. 23bookDictionary of National BiographyL. Stephen et al. — 1908
  24. 24bookThe history and principles of weaving by hand and by powerA. Barlow — S. Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington — 1878
  25. 25bookThe Industrial RevolutionM. Beggs-Humphreys et al. — Routledge — April 2006
  26. 26bookThe cotton trade and industrial Lancashire, 1600–1780J. de L. Mann — Manchester University Press — 1931
  27. 27bookThe cotton trade and industrial Lancashire, 1600–1780J. de L. Mann et al. — 1931
  28. 28inlineAlthough Kay certainly did write to the Society of Arts, and was in contact with his sons in Bury, it was thought by some in England that was unreachable; a letter published in Williamson's Liverpool
  29. 29inlineLetter in the French Archives nationales. Extract quoted p. 470 of Mann (1931) from the Paris archives range F/12 (992 à 1083: Inventions & related correspondence 1702–1830) section 993.
  30. 30bookThe emergence of modern business enterprise in France, 1800–1930M. S. Smith — Harvard University Press — January 2006
  31. 31inlineAccording to Barlow (1878) Kay only survived this 1753 break-in because "two friends carried him away in a wool sheet" -a story given by Dickens in his weekly magazine 28 April 1860, and traced back t
  32. 32webManchester Engineers and Inventorswww.manchester2002-uk.com
  33. 33bookPublic sculpture of Greater ManchesterT. Wyke et al. — Liverpool University Press — 2005
  34. 34journalThe John Kay Memorial18 March 1903
  35. 35bookBiographical Dictionary of the History of TechnologyR. L. Hills — 1998
  36. 36bookPatents for inventions. Abridgments of specifications relating to weavingPatent office — 1871
  37. 37eb1911Alan Summerly Cole
  38. 38bookThe Arkwrights: spinners of fortuneR. S. Fitton — Manchester University Press — 1989