Who invented the flying shuttle?

John Kay invented the flying shuttle. He patented his “wheeled shuttle” in 1733, creating a device that allowed a weaver to send the shuttle rapidly across a loom with a pull of a cord.

Before Kay's improvement, weaving broad cloth usually required two people, one to pass the shuttle and another to catch it. The flying shuttle let a single operator work a wider loom and greatly increased weaving speed. It also helped produce wider fabrics than many hand looms could manage efficiently.

Kay's invention was an important early step in the mechanisation of textiles during the Industrial Revolution. It increased the demand for spun yarn because weavers could work faster than spinners could supply thread. That imbalance encouraged further inventions, including machines associated with James Hargreaves, Richard Arkwright, and Samuel Crompton.

The device is commonly attributed to John Kay, although historians note that documentation about its precise origins is incomplete and that related shuttle ideas may have existed elsewhere. The other names in this quiz are associated with later spinning inventions, not the flying shuttle itself.