Volltext Seite (XML)
GENERAL REPORT OF THE JUDGES OF GROUP IX. 71 or blocks were placed corresponding to the pattern to be woven, the cylinder operating like that of a music-box. This apparatus was also used at Little Falls, in New Jersey. This, as well as other automatic devices tried elsewhere, was finally abandoned, as operating less favor ably than the hand-loom. In 1844 the hand-loom, both in Europe and this country, was universally used for making carpets. The system was revolutionized by an American invention, which marks the period of its introduction as the most important epoch in the whole history of the carpet-manufacture. Mr. E. B. Bigelow, of Boston, Massachusetts, in 1842, conceived a series of devices for making the carpet-loom automatic, so that the costly labor of men might be dispensed with, and the whole process of weaving might be conducted by women or boys. After applying in vain to several par ties engaged in the manufacture for the pecuniary means necessary for the costly experiment which he proposed, he succeeded in gain ing the attention of Mr. George W. Lyman, treasurer of the Lowell Manufacturing Company, through whose influence the construction of an establishment with the newly-invented machinery was under taken by the company, at a cost of many hundred thousand dollars. Mr. Bigelow was also seconded by Mr. Wright, the superintendent of the company, in the practical details of the adaptation of the inven tion. In 1845 the successful weaving of ingrain carpets by power had been demonstrated at Lowell, and its ultimate general use had become a fixed necessity of the manufacture. Since this successful experiment at Lowell, the manufacture of ingrain carpets in this country has been marked by a constantly extending development. The important establishment at Thomson- ville, Connecticut, now known as the Hartford Carpet Company, which used hand-looms concurrently with the Lowell Company, adopted Mr. Bigelow’s invention. Each of these two is unsurpassed by any in the world making similar products, in the amount of production and excellence of fabrics ; while many more recent and smaller estab lishments have their special excellences of fabric. The patents for the inventions of weaving Jacquard Brussels and Wilton carpets, although offered to the Lowell Company, were not accepted, and it became necessary, finally, for Mr. Bigelow to utilize his own Inventions. The result was the establishment of a factory at Clintonville, now Clinton, Massachusetts, in 1848, which was operated with success; and ultimately, of the organization, in 1854, of the Bigelow Carpet Company, which became the possessor of the works and franchise of the concern just mentioned. This establishment, the growth of more than a quarter of a century, is now the largest in the