Derby Rib Machine patent

This much stained document is a 'declaration of description and "orthographical draught" [drawing] of a machine for making turned, ribbed stockings pieces and other goods as stipulated by letters patent dated 6 May 1767 and sealed at Edinburgh 30 May 1767, granted to Jedediah Strutt wheelwright and William Woollatt hosier, both late of Blackwell and now of Derby, registered at Derby 5 Aug and recorded in Edinburgh'. It reaffirms Strutt and Woollatt's original 1759 patent for the Derby Rib machine, after an unsuccessful challenge in the courts in 1766.

Jedediah Strutt was born in South Normanton in Derbyshire in 1726, the son of a prosperous farmer and maltster. He married Elizabeth Woollatt in 1755, and in 1759, he and his brother-in-law, William Woollatt, took out a patent for an invention which, when added to a knitting frame, produced ribbed stockings. The Derby Rib Machine proved a great success and through a series of partnerships, Strutt built up a profitable hosiery business.

With the profits of his hosiery business, Strutt went into partnership with Richard Arkwright and moved into cotton spinning. Arkwright had patented a spinning frame in 1769, and Strutt, Arkwright and Samuel Need set up the world's first water-powered mill at Cromford in the Derwent Valley. Cromford Mill established a model for the introduction of the factory system which was replicated worldwide. Strutt subsequently set up his own successful cotton mills in nearby Belper and Milford.