John Kay was born about the year of 1704. He was the twelfth child born to a
farmer. He later took charge of his father's woolen mill. He made advancements to a lot
of machinery. What Kay did was make handloom weaving dramatically faster, and easier.
He called his invention the Flying Shuttle. This is said to be one of the most important
inventions in textile history, and also said to jumpstart the industrial revolution more than
any other of the inventions of its time did. Before this invention, handloom weaving was
based on a shuttle having yarn being slowly and difficulty moved from one hand to the
other hand. He patented his invention in 1733. How he made it was he placed shuttle
boxes on both sides of the loom and connected them with a long board. This is better
known has a shuttle race. Cords attached to a picking peg making a single weaver, using
one hand, could make the shuttle go back and forth across the loom from one shuttle box
Someone using this invention could make more cloth in a faster period of time.
The first factories to use it were Yorkshire woolen factories. After the started to others
did as well. Some manufacturers used his invention. Some were very reluctant to pay the
royalties that Kay deserved. Most of the time Kay had to go to court for this money. The
winnings and usually plus some were taken as a cost which made Kay poorer than before
In 1753 Kay's house was ransacked by a group of textile workers who thought
Kay's invention would ruin their way of making a living as weavers. A very depressed
Kay left England to go to France. In France he was believed to die in 1764 a very poor
man. Even after his death his invention was still being used in factories. People realized
that his invention had changed the world of textiles forever. The factories found out that
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