biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1704–c.1764)
|
| biography:
| Inventor, born near Bury, Greater Manchester, NW England, UK. He took charge of his father's woollen mill, made many improvements to the machinery, and obtained a patent for a device for twisting and cording mohair and worsted (1730). In 1733 he patented his flying shuttle, one of the most important inventions in the history of textile machinery. The new shuttle was eagerly adopted by weavers, but they were reluctant to pay the royalties due to him, and the cost of court actions against defaulters nearly ruined him. After his house was ransacked by a mob of textile workers, who feared that his machines would destroy their livelihood, he left England for France (1753), where he is believed to have died a pauper. |
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