- US inventor
and industrialist who devised power looms for weaving various patterned
fabrics and carpets, such as Wilton and Brussels carpets. Carpets
could now be made of virtually any colour, to virtually any pattern.
Bigelow was born in West Boylston, Massachusetts, and forced to go
out to work at the age of ten. Nonetheless he invented a loom for
weaving lace to trim stagecoach upholstery 1837, and in 1843 set up
the Clinton Company to manufacture ginghams. His power loom for weaving
Brussels and Wilton carpets was developed between 1845 and 1851. Together
with his other looms, this made the company so successful that the
town of Clinton, Massachusetts, grew up around the plant. Bigelow
helped found the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1861.
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