The New International Encyclopædia/Paul, Lewis

PAUL, pa̤l, Lewis (?-1759). An English inventor, of whose life very little is known. About 1729 he invented a pinking machine, and his acquaintance with Dr. Johnson seems due to the tact that Mrs. Desmoulins had learned pinking from him. Paul's important patent dates from 1738, and it is the earliest machine for the spinning of wool or cotton by two pairs of revolving rollers. The factories established at Birmingham and Northampton met with no success. Two other patents taken out by Paul were a carding machine (1748) and a spinning machine (1758). They seem to have been no more successful than the first, which, however, was the basis of Arkwright's invention.