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The earliest known example of as working ball bearing dates from the end of the 18th century. It had an outside diameter of 850mm and provided with 55mm cast iron balls in a similar arrangement to a modern ball race. It was installed in a windmill at Sprowston, Norwich in 1780 and can still be seen in the Bridewell Museum there.
The first patent for a ball race was by Philip Vaughan in 1794. He was an ironfounder and burgess of Carmarthen, who married there in 1793. There is some correspondence with him in the Dowlais Iron Works correspondence between 1789-1791, and in 1793 he was agent for Robert Morgan, owner of ironworks in Carmarthen and elsewhere.
Philip Vaughan later was owner or part-owner of tinplate works at Redbrook in the Wye Valley and at Kidwelly. He died at Kidwelly in 1824. One of his children, also Philip, was a solicitor and Mayor of Brecon.
