John Steed
1766 'We hear from Bishop-Auckland that a new-constructed steam-engine has been lately erected there by John Steed, jun. for Mr. John Fletcher, which is so simple and easy a structure as will, if brought into practice, greatly reduce the expence of bearing[?] those useful machines.'[1]. Was this the same John Steed?
1781 Patent for the application of the crank motion. However, see below.
'John Steed, or Stead, appears to have been a Cumberland man, and, "according to the statement of his grandson, Mr. Charles Wilson, now of Shotley Park," had taken the idea of using the crank from his wife's spinning wheel. His brother, William, in conjunction with Adam Heslop and others, founded in 1798-9, the Lowca Ironworks, Whitehaven.- H. A. Fletcher on "The Heslop Engine," "Proceedings," Inst. Mech.E, 1879, page 93.'[2]