The first thread of cotton ever
spun by rollers was produced in a small house near Sutton Coldfield as
early as the year 1700, and in 1741 the inventor, John Wyatt, had a mill
in the Upper Priory, where his machine, containing fifty rollers, was
turned by two donkeys walking round an axis, like a horse in a modern
clay mill. The manufacture, however, did not succeed in this town,
though carried on more or less till the close of the century, Paul's
machine being advertised for sale April 29, 1795. The Friends'
schoolroom now covers the site of the cotton mill.
~Canals.~--The first Act for the construction of the "cut" or canal in
connection with Birmingham was passed in 1761, that to Bilston being
commenced in 1767. The delivery here of the first boat-load of coals
(Nov. 6, 1769) was hailed, and rightly so, as one of the greatest
blessings that could be conferred on the town, the immediate effect
being a reduction in the price to 6d per cwt, which in the following May
came down to 4d. The cutting of the first sod towards making the Grand
Junction Canal took place July 26, 1766, and it was completed in 1790.
In 1768 Briudley, the celebrated engineer, planned out the Birmingham
and Wolverhampton Canal, proposing to make it 22 miles long; but he did
not live to see it finished.
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