The precise date of the invention is not known; but in 1767 he employed John Kay, a watchmaker at Warrington, to assist him in the preparation of the parts of his machine, and he took out a patent for it in 1769.
This invention having been brought to a fairly advanced stage, he removed to Nottingham in 1768, accompanied by Kay and John Smalley of Preston, and there erected his first spinning mill, which was worked by horses.
Kay himself was produced to prove that he had communicated that model to Arkwright, and that this was the real source of all his pretended inventions.
In Kay Park (484 acres), purchased from the duke of Portland for 90co, stands the Burns Memorial, consisting of two storeys and a tower, and containing a museum in which have been placed many important MSS.
A Reformers' monument was unveiled in Kay Park in 1885.