Kay, John (1704-1764?), a British inventor, devised the fly shuttle (also called flying shuttle), a device that saved weavers’ time and labor. Before his invention, a weaver had to pass the shuttle through the threads on a loom by hand (see Weaving ). Kay’s fly shuttle was driven automatically through the threads by a hand-operated mechanism. With this shuttle, weavers doubled their output and the width of cloth they could make.
Kay was born on July 16, 1704, near Bury, Lancashire, England. He invented the fly shuttle in 1733 while working for a cloth manufacturer in Colchester, Essex, England. Kay was granted a patent for a power loom in 1745. Many workers feared the threat to employment that his inventions posed and drove him from Colchester back to Bury. In 1753, a mob of textile workers wrecked Kay’s home in Bury. Kay left England for France, where he is believed to have died a pauper.
