John Lombe
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John Lombe was a silk spinner in 18th century Derby, England.
He was born in Norwich in approximately 1693 the son of a worsted weaver.
He was a younger half-brother of Thomas Lombe, who had amassed a fortune as a silk merchant in Norwich and London.
Thomas heard of the abortive silk mill built in Derby by George Sorocold and Thomas Cotchett. The Italians had been using power spinning since the early 1600s, with a description published by Vittorio Zonca. John was sent by his brother to investigate, and in 1718 the pair were able to patent a machine to wind, spin and twist silk using water power.
The centre for producing silk stockings by framework knitting had moved to the Midlands from London and the demand for spun silk was outstripping demand.
He engaged Sorocold to build a new larger mill on the site of the old one in Derby, completed in 1722, the year of John's death. Thomas was knighted in 1727. In 1732 the patent expired and his request for an extension was turned down. It was arguably the first successful powered continuous production unit in the world; the archetype of Richard Arkwright's later cotton mill at Cromford and the Derwent Valley Mills which marked the beginning of the factory system.
In recognition of his achievement he was given a grant of £14,000 to prepare a model of his machine which was displayed in the Tower of London for the benefit of other aspiring manufacturers. He died in 1739 and the building was sold to Samuel Lloyd and William Wilson. It continued to spin silk until 1890 when it partly collapsed.
The mill then passed through several hands and has been rebuilt several times, but the modified structure still exists and has been restored to house the Derby Industrial Museum.
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