James Kay

Who was James Kay?

James Kay was a British inventor who developed a successful wet spinning process for flax in 1824, helping industrialise linen spinning in the British Isles. Thus allowing it to be a great commercial success and gain a forefront position in the world.

Kay was born at Edgefold Farm near Entwistle, Lancashire, and became a successful spinner with mills at Preston, Penny Bridge and Pendleton.

There were difficulties with Kay's patent application in 1825, which had been taken out for fourteen years. It seems he had been badly advised when his patent was drawn up. This resulted in the validity of his new development being disputed by John Marshall, of Leeds. Kay was forced to sue Marshall in court in 1835 for non-payment for the use of his patent, but the defendants disputed the validity of the patent on the grounds that so far as the invention was new it was useless, and that so far as it was useful it was not new. In 1839, the Court found that as the patent was taken out for an invention consisting of two parts, one of which was not new, the whole was found void. Kay also failed in his 1841 appeal.