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1 Bigelow, Erastus Brigham
SUBJECT AREA: Textiles[br]b. 2 April 1814 West Boyleston, Massachusetts, USAd. 6 December 1879 USA[br]American inventor of power looms for making lace and many types of carpets.[br]Bigelow was born in West Boyleston, Massachusetts, where his father struggled as a farmer, wheelwright, and chairmaker. Before he was 20, Bigelow had many different jobs, among them farm labourer, clerk, violin player and cotton-mill employee. In 1830, he went to Leicester Academy, Massachusetts, but he could not afford to go on to Harvard. He sought work in Boston, New York and elsewhere, making various inventions.The most important of his early inventions was the power loom of 1837 for making coach lace. This loom contained all the essential features of his carpet looms, which he developed and patented two years later. He formed the Clinton Company for manufacturing carpets at Leicester, Massachusetts, but the factory became so large that its name was adopted for the town. The next twenty years saw various mechanical discoveries, while his range of looms was extended to cover Brussels, Wilton, tapestry and velvet carpets. Bigelow has been justly described as the originator of every fundamental device in these machines, which were amongst the largest textile machines of their time. The automatic insertion and withdrawal of strong wires with looped ends was the means employed to raise the looped pile of the Brussels carpets, while thinner wires with a knife blade at the end raised and then severed the loops to create the rich Wilton pile. At the Great Exhibition in 1851, it was declared that his looms made better carpets than any from hand looms. He also developed other looms for special materials.He became a noted American economist, writing two books about tariff problems, advocating that the United States should not abandon its protectionist policies. In 1860 he was narrowly defeated in a Congress election. The following year he was a member of the committee that established the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[br]Further ReadingNational Cyclopedia of American Biography III (the standard account of his life). F.H.Sawyer, 1927, Clinton Item (provides a broad background to his life).C.Singer (ed.), 1958, A History of Technology, Vol. V, Oxford: Clarendon Press (describes Bigelow's inventions).RLHBiographical history of technology > Bigelow, Erastus Brigham
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2 Crossley, Sir Francis
SUBJECT AREA: Textiles[br]b. 26 October 1817 Halifax, Englandd. 5 January 1872 Belle Vue, Halifax, England[br]English developer of a power loom for weaving carpets.[br]Francis Crossley was the youngest of three brothers employed in their father's carpet-weaving business in Halifax and who took over the running of the company on their father's death in 1837. Francis seems to have been the one with technical ability, for it was he who saw the possibilities of weaving by power. Growth of the company was rapid through his policy of acquiring patents and then improving them, and it was soon at the forefront of the carpet-manufacturing trade. He had taken out rights on the patents of John Hill of Manchester, but his experiments with Hill's looms for weaving carpets were not successful.In the spring of 1850 Francis asked a textile inventor, George Collier of Barnsley, to develop a power loom for carpet manufacture. Collier produced a model that was a distinct advance on earlier looms, and Francis engaged him to perfect a power loom for weaving tapestry and Brussels carpets. After a great deal of money had been expended, a patent was taken out in 1850 in the name of his brother, Joseph Crossley, for a loom that could weave velvet as well as carpets and included some of the ideas of the American E.B. Bigelow. This new loom proved to be a great advance on all the earlier ones, and thus brought the Crossleys a great fortune from both sales of patent rights and the production of carpets from their mills, which were soon enlarged.According to the Dictionary of National Biography, Francis Crossley was Mayor of Halifax in 1849 and 1850, but Hogg gives this position to his elder brother John. In 1852 Francis was returned to Parliament as the Liberal member for Halifax, and in 1859 he became the member for the West Riding. Among his benefactions, in 1855 he gave to the town of Halifax a twelve-acre park that cost £41,300; a statue of him was erected there. In the same year he endowed twenty-one almshouses. In 1863 a baronetcy was conferred upon him in recognition of his commercial and public services, which he continued to perform until his death. In 1870 he gave the London Missionary Society £20,000, their largest single donation up to that time, and another £10,000 to the Congregational Pastor's Retiring Fund. He became ill when on a journey to the Holy Land in 1869, but although he made a partial recovery he grew worse again towards the end of 1871 and died early in the following year. He left £800,000 in his will.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsBaronet 1863.Further ReadingObituary, 1872, The Times 6 January.Dictionary of National Biography.J.Hogg (ed.), n.d., Fortunes Made in Business, London (provides an account of Crossley's career).RLH -
3 Textiles
See also: INDEX BY SUBJECT AREA[br]Dore, Samuel GriswoldHeilmann, JosuéLevers, JohnLister, Samuel CunliffeMa JunSong Yingxing
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Bigelow — may refer to:Companies named Bigelow* Bigelow Aerospace * Bigelow Tea CompanyPeople named Bigelow* Albert Bigelow, peace activist, Quaker * Charles Bigelow, type designer * Daniel Bigelow, lawyer and politician * Deuce Bigalow (alternate… … Wikipedia
Bigelow — bezeichnet Personen und Orte: Personen: Charles Bigelow (* 1945), US amerikanischer Typograf und Schriftentwerfer Henry Bryant Bigelow (1871–1967), US amerikanischer Zoologe Henry Jacob Bigelow (1818–1890), US amerikanischer Chirurg Herbert S.… … Deutsch Wikipedia
Bigelow — Bigelow, AR U.S. town in Arkansas Population (2000): 329 Housing Units (2000): 144 Land area (2000): 0.840399 sq. miles (2.176623 sq. km) Water area (2000): 0.000000 sq. miles (0.000000 sq. km) Total area (2000): 0.840399 sq. miles (2.176623 sq.… … StarDict's U.S. Gazetteer Places
Bigelow, AR — U.S. town in Arkansas Population (2000): 329 Housing Units (2000): 144 Land area (2000): 0.840399 sq. miles (2.176623 sq. km) Water area (2000): 0.000000 sq. miles (0.000000 sq. km) Total area (2000): 0.840399 sq. miles (2.176623 sq. km) FIPS… … StarDict's U.S. Gazetteer Places
Bigelow, MN — U.S. city in Minnesota Population (2000): 231 Housing Units (2000): 96 Land area (2000): 0.378229 sq. miles (0.979608 sq. km) Water area (2000): 0.000000 sq. miles (0.000000 sq. km) Total area (2000): 0.378229 sq. miles (0.979608 sq. km) FIPS… … StarDict's U.S. Gazetteer Places
Bigelow, MO — U.S. village in Missouri Population (2000): 38 Housing Units (2000): 26 Land area (2000): 0.091368 sq. miles (0.236642 sq. km) Water area (2000): 0.000000 sq. miles (0.000000 sq. km) Total area (2000): 0.091368 sq. miles (0.236642 sq. km) FIPS… … StarDict's U.S. Gazetteer Places
Bigelow — (spr. bíggelo), 1) John, amerikan. Publizist, geb. 25. Nov. 1817 in Malden (New York), wurde 1861 zum Konsul, 1864 zum Geschäftsträger, 1865 zum Gesandten der Vereinigten Staaten in Paris ernannt. Da damals wegen der Stellung Napoleons III. zu… … Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon
Bigelow — (spr. bíggeloh), John, amerik. Diplomat und Publizist, geb. 25. Nov. 1817 zu Malden (Neuyork), 1861 nordamerik. Konsul in Paris, 1864 66 Gesandter das., 1867 68 und 1877 78 Staatssekretär von Neuyork. Gab Franklins Werke (1887 fg.) heraus;… … Kleines Konversations-Lexikon
Bigelow — Cette page d’homonymie répertorie les différents sujets et articles partageant un même nom. Le nom de Bigelow est porté par plusieurs personnalités (par ordre alphabétique) : Henry Bryant Bigelow (1879 1967), océanographe et ichtyologiste… … Wikipédia en Français
Bigelow Aerospace — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Bigelow Aerospace Eslogan Join the Adventure! (¡Únete a la aventura!) Tipo Privada Fundación 1999 Fundador(es) … Wikipedia Español
Bigelow Aerospace — Bigelow Aerospace, LLC Rechtsform Limited Liability Company Gründung 1999 Sitz Las Vegas, Nevada, USA Leitung Robert Bigelow … Deutsch Wikipedia