Thomas Highs
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Thomas Highs (1718 – 1803) was a talented English reed-maker and inventor known for his creation of the spinning jenny, the throstle (a machine for the continuous twisting and winding of wool), and the water frame during the Industrial Revolution. For most of his early life he lived in Leigh, Lancashire, where he married Sarah Moss at the Leigh Parish Church on 23 February, 1747. Five years after his marriage, he became interested in cotton-spinning machinery and started to experiment with Lewis Paul and John Wyatt's drafting rollers which he would later try to perfect with the help of John Kay, a clockmaker from Warrington, Lancashire.<ref>The Unsung Thomas Highs. Cotton Times. Retrieved on September 3, 2006.</ref>
After labouring for months, John Kay eventually left the project while Highs continued to work on the machine. He later rebuilt it as a new device and dubbed it the "spinning jenny", possibly after his daughter Jane according to his neighbour, Thomas Leather. Even so, Highs never finished the spinning jenny and left it with James Hargreaves and his assistant John Kay (the same John Kay that had worked with Highs earlier on his life) so that he could return to working on the drafting rollers.<ref>Making History, programme 10. BBC. Retrieved on 29 October, 2006.</ref>
While Hargreaves worked on the spinning jenny, Highs was finishing up a new invention of his, the water frame. After he completed the water frame, he gave it to John Kay so that Kay could make a metal version of it. As Kay worked on it, he met Richard Arkwright, a wig-maker at the time.
Highs was not credited for his inventions during his lifetime due to his lack of both entrepreneurial skills and funding to patent the inventions. Instead, Richard Arkwright discovered the design secrets of both devices from John Kay and patented them without Highs' recognition. Arkwright later developed a substantial fortune and reputation in the cotton industry from Highs' inventions, while Highs lived the rest of his life in obscurity before he died in 1803.<ref>Rise of the factory system: Richard Arkwright. Making the Modern World. Retrieved on September 3, 2006.</ref>
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