Wyatt, John

Wyatt, John

(born April 1700, Lichfield, Staffordshire, Eng.—died Nov. 29, 1766, Birmingham, Warwickshire) British mechanic who contributed to the development of power spinning. He began his career as a carpenter, but by 1730, with financial support from Lewis Paul, he was working on machines for boring metal and making files. The spinning machine (see drawing frame), first patented in 1738, was almost certainly Paul's idea, with Wyatt providing technical skill; its principle was to draw the fibres through sets of rollers turning at different speeds. It was superseded by Richard Arkwright's water frame in the 1770s.