with convenient loom-shop and a small garden attached, were from one and a half to two guineas per annum. The father would earn from 8s. to half a guinea, and his sons, if he had one, two, or three alongside of him, 6s. or 8s. a week; but the great sheet-anchor of all cottagers and small farms was the labour attached to the hand-wheel; and when it is considered that it required six or eight hands to prepare and spin yarn, of any of the three materials I have mentioned, sufficient for the consumption of one weaver, this shows clearly the inexhaustible source there was for labour for every person, from the age of seven to eighty years (who retained their sight and could move their hands), to earn their bread, say from 1s. to 3s. per week, without going to the parish." A weaver at this date had frequently to walk many miles to collect from various spinners the quantity of weft required to keep his hand-loom going, but the invention of the fly-shuttle made matters no better for him, as, although he could now turn out with the same labour as heretofore double the amount of pieces, he found no material increase in the product of the spinning-wheel. Here, then, was a block, to get over which there was only one way, and that was a corresponding increase in the production of the weft. Many attempts were made to bring the old spinning-wheel up to the requirements of the day, but not one of them proved efficacious. It may be noted here _en passant_ that, whilst most of the patents taken out at this period were intended to improve the processes in cotton manufacture, Kay's fly-shuttle was first applied in the weaving of woollen, but was afterwards made adaptable for cotton. Another great improvement was what was known as the "drop box," which was invented by Robert Kay (a son of John Kay) in 1769. This difficulty in keeping the woollen and cotton looms at work was brought before the Society of Arts in 1763, when its members, fully recognising the importance of the crisis, offered a prize of £50 for "the best invention of a machine that would spin six threads of wool, flax, hemp or cotton at one time, and require but one person to work and attend to it." This incentive caused many model spinning-wheels to be submitted for approval, none of which furnished what was required.