PAUL, LEWIS

died 1759, London, Eng. English inventor who devised the first power spinning machine, in cooperation with John Wyatt. Paul was the son of a Huguenot refugee, at whose death he became a ward of the Earl of Shaftesbury. He began working with Wyatt about 1730, and they patented their machine in 1738. The idea was evidently Paul's, and the skilled Wyatt translated it into working machinery. The spinning machine operated by drawing cotton or wool through pairs of successively faster rollers. This spinning machine was eventually superseded by Richard Arkwright's water frame. Paul also patented a carding machine in 1748.