John Wyatt (April 1700 – 29 November 1766), an English

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an id ...

, was born near

Lichfield Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west ...

and was related to Sarah Ford, Doctor Johnson's mother. A carpenter by trade he began work in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

on the development of a spinning machine. In 1733 he was working in the mill at New Forge (Powells) Pool, Sutton Coldfield attempting to spin the first

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor p ...

thread ever spun by mechanical means. His principal partner was Lewis Paul (who was sponsored by the Duke of Shrewsbury) and together they developed the concept of elongating cotton threads by running them through rollers and then stretching them through a faster second set of rollers. They produced the first ever roller spinning machine but it was very successful. Paul took out thread in 1738 and in 1758, the year before he died. In 1757 the Rev.

John Dyer John Dyer (1699 – 15 December 1757) was a painter and Welsh poet who became a priest in the Church of England.Shaw, Thomas B. ''A Complete Manual of English Literature''. Ed. William Smith. New York: Sheldon & Co., 1872. 372. Print. He was m ...

of Northampton recognised the importance of the Paul and Wyatt cotton spinning machine in his poem ''The Fleece'' (Dyer, p. 99): :A circular machine, of new design :In conic shape: it draws and spins a thread :Without the tedious toil of needless hands. :A wheel invisible, beneath the floor, :To ev'ry member of th' harmonius frame, :Gives necessary motion. One intent :O'erlooks the work; the carded wool, he says, :So smoothly lapped around those cylinders, :Which gently turning, yield it to yon cirue :Of upright spindles, which with rapid whirl :Spin out in long extenet an even twine. Wyatt went to work for

Matthew Boulton Matthew Boulton (; 3 September 172817 August 1809) was an English manufacturer and business partner of Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century, the partnership installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engin ...

in his foundry in Birmingham. There he invented and produced a weighing machine and experimented with donkey power to run his spinning machine. He was brought down by his debts and was made bankrupt. Despite their failures, their ideas laid the foundations for others who followed, particularly Sir Richard Arkwright.

References

* * English inventors Textile engineers 1700 births 1766 deaths Industrial Revolution in England People of the Industrial Revolution People from Lichfield Spinning 18th-century British engineers {{England-engineer-stub