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John Wyatt
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John Wyatt

English mechanic
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Quick Facts
Born:
April 1700, Thickbroom?, Staffordshire, Eng.
Died:
Nov. 29, 1766, Birmingham, Warwickshire (aged 66)
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John Wyatt (born April 1700, Thickbroom?, Staffordshire, Eng.—died Nov. 29, 1766, Birmingham, Warwickshire) was an English mechanic who contributed to the development of power spinning.

Wyatt began his career as a carpenter in the village of Thickbroom, near Lichfield, but by 1730, with financial support from the Birmingham inventor Lewis Paul, he was working on machines for boring metal and making files. The spinning machine, first patented in 1738, was almost certainly Paul’s idea, with Wyatt providing the technical skill. The principle was to draw the fibres through sets of rollers turning at different speeds. It was successful for a time but was superseded by Richard Arkwright’s water frame in the 1770s. Wyatt later worked at Matthew Boulton’s Soho foundry.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.