Cotton, William (1786-1866)

English inventor, financier, and philanthropist who in 1864 invented a knitting machine for the production of hosiery. This machine had a straight-bar frame which automatically made fully fashioned stockings knitted flat and sewn up the back. Cotton was born in Leyton, Essex, and self-educated. In 1807 he was admitted as a partner in the firm of Huddart and Company in E London, which manufactured a cordage-making machine designed by hydrographer and inventor Joseph Huddart. Cotton published a memoir of Huddart with an account of his inventions 1855, and gave money for the building of schools, churches, and lodging houses in the East End of London. In 1821 Cotton was elected a director of the Bank of England, and was its governor 1843-46. He invented an automatic weighing machine for sovereigns.