John Kay Report

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Maya Streloff 14th/04 /2012 Social Studies 9 John Kay (Flying Shuttle) John Kay was the twelfth child born. He was born in the Lancashire hamlet of Walmersley just north of Bury in England in June 17th 1704. John Kay’s father Robert owned the park estate in Walmersley, but before John Kay was born his father had died and his mother was responsible for his education till she was remarried. At age twenty-two John Kay only had forty dollars and an education until he was fourteen. After John Kay has traveled the country with his brother William they both got married to Bury women. Then a woman that John Kay married too was named Anne Holte in 1725. And had their first child named Lettice Kay in 1726 and then two years later had another child named Robert kay in 1728. John had twelve children over his life time but two have died in childhood. In 1730 John Kay had made a machine that twisted string to make rope. There was little is known about his early life but he was living in Bury when he invented the flying shuttle which was a key contribute to the Industrial Revolution. John Kay always called this invention a wheeled shuttle but others used the name fly-shuttle and then later flying shuttle. For centuries handloom weaving had been carried out on the basis of the shuttle bearing the yarn being passed slowly and awkwardly from one hand to the other. In 1733 Kay made his flying shuttle that really increased the speed of this process. Kay placed shuttle boxes at each side of the loom connected by a long board, known as a shuttle race. By means of cords attached to a picking peg, a single weaver, using one hand, could cause the shuttle to be knocked back and forth across the loom from one shuttle box to the other. By using John Kay's flying shuttle a single weaver could produce a much wide piece of cloth, but before the flying shuttle wide looms

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