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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 ...
, was born near
Lichfield Lichfield () is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated south-east of the county town of Stafford, north-east of Walsall, north-west of ...
and was related to Sarah Ford, Doctor Johnson's mother. A carpenter by trade he began work in
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
on the development of a spinning machine. In 1733 he was working in the mill at New Forge (Powells) Pool,
Sutton Coldfield Sutton Coldfield or the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield ( ), is a town and civil parish in the city of Birmingham, West Midlands County, West Midlands, England. The town lies around 8 miles northeast of Birmingham city centre, 9 miles south of L ...
attempting to spin the first
cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, 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 ...
thread ever spun by mechanical means. His principal partner was Lewis Paul 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 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 businessman, inventor, mechanical engineer, and silversmith. He was a business partner of the Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century, the par ...
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. In their book
Das Kapital ''Capital: A Critique of Political Economy'' (), also known as ''Capital'' or (), is the most significant work by Karl Marx and the cornerstone of Marxian economics, published in three volumes in 1867, 1885, and 1894. The culmination of his ...
,
Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
and
Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.
spinning machine and with that the industrial revolution of the 18th century, he did not mention that a donkey moved the machine ..)Karl Marx - Friedrich Engels - Werke (Vol. 23): ''Das Kapital'', Vol. I, fourth section, pp. 391-440 Dietz Verlag, East Berlin (DDR) 1968
online
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See also

* Cotton-spinning machinery#History


References


Sources

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