Philippe Henri de Girard patented in France spinning frames for both the dry and wet spinning of flax. His inventions were also patented in England in 1815, in the name of Horace Hall.Little is known about Horace Hall, it is a possible pseudonym. Undoubtedly if he had taken out his patent in England in 1815, the year of the Battle of Waterloo, in a French name there would not have been a lot of enthusiasm for it; possibly even suspicion.