4 
should be bestowed upon those of a very ingenious man who • 
preceded him, viz., Lewis Paul. The invention of “ spinning 
by rollers,” as it is familiarly termed, and for which Ark- 
wright usually obtains the credit, most undoubtedly origin- 
ated with Paul. It is only necessary to read the specification 
of the patent granted to Paul on the 24th June, 1738, to be 
satisfied on this point. It is true that there has been some 
dispute as to whether Paul himself really originated the 
invention described in that specification, a person of the name 
of Wyatt being mentioned by some as having communicated 
the invention to Paul, and another person of the name of 
Highs having laid some sort of claim to the invention. The 
claims of these parties, however, only rest upon some very 
vague assertions made by themselves or persons connected 
with them, such, for instance, as that contained in a letter 
written by Wyatt to Sir Leicester Holt, and quoted at page 
124 of Baines’s History of the Cotton Manufacture , in which 
W yatt says, referring to the machine known as Paul’s — <c I am 
the person that was the principal agent in compileing the 
spinning engine,” &c. Such assertions as these, however, 
cannot be taken as satisfactory proofs of the claims of these 
parties, and when in opposition to them we have the specifica- 
tion of a patent granted to Paul for this application, in which 
specification the name of Wyatt actually appears as that of a 
witness to the signature, &c., of the document by Paul, it is 
difficult for an unprejudiced person to come to any other con- 
clusion than that Paul was really the inventor of the contri- 
vance for which the patent was granted. However that may 
be, it is quite clear that this invention does not belong to 
Arkwright, whose first patent relating to spinning machinery 
was taken out in 1709, or above thirty years after the patent 
granted to Paul. And that Arkwright was aware of the 
existence of Paul’s patent is beyond all doubt, and is proved 
by documents which arc quoted in the work to which 1 have 
