Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 39.djvu/319

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The earlier improvements in spinning machinery which have been described, preceded, in point of time, the development of the loom, and thus made more conspicuous the primitive methods of weaving that continued in vogue, and became a stimulus to inventors in this field. Arkwright's machinery was even regarded as an evil, for a time, on the theory that it enabled England to spin more yarn than her weavers could fabricate, and the surplus, exported to the Continent, could there be woven into cloth so cheaply as to seriously injure English trade.

The strict chronological order of the initiative steps in the development of woolen machinery would have headed the list of the noble army of inventors with the name of John Kay. Kay had the management of a woolen factory at Colchester, England, belonging to his father. Having a sort of universal genius for mechanical invention, he introduced various improvements in dressing, batting, and carding machinery, as well as in the Dutch drawboy and inkle looms, that had been brought from abroad by his father. He also invented an improvement in reeds for looms, by making the dents of their polished blades of metal, instead of cane (the only materials used up to that time), by which they were not only rendered more durable, but adapted to the weaving of fabrics of a finer, stronger, and more even texture than cane reeds could produce. Kay secured patents for several of these improvements, which were universally adopted. But his crowning invention was the first fly-shuttle known to man, patented May 26, 1733. Hitherto the shuttle had been thrown back and forth between the warp threads, being thrown by one hand and caught by the other alternately, while each weft thread was driven home by the "layer" propelled by the hand which had just cast the shuttle. In broadcloths, the process differed in this, that a weaver stood upon either side of the work, and the shuttle was thrown alternately from one to the other. Thus for more than five thousand years, by millions of skilled workmen, one generation following in the exact footsteps of another, had the clothing of the people been woven, with little attempt to expedite or to simplify the process. Thus had been fabricated the mummy-cloth of Egypt, the "woolen wind" or fibrous muslins of the Indias, the rich tapestries of the Greeks and Romans, and every other fabric of every character and age.

John Kay's invention consisted of a race-board fixed to the "layer" under the warp, with a shuttle-box at each end, a spindle and picker in each box, and a cord passing from each picker to a short lever held in the weaver's right hand. These improvements did not dispense with the weaver's hands and feet in forming the