In 1778 a netting-machine was patented by William Horton, William Ross, Thomas Davies and John Golby. In 1802 the French Government offered a reward of io,000 francs to the person who would invent an automatic machine for net-making. Jacquard sub mitted a model of a machine which was brought under the notice of Napoleon I. and Carnot, and he was summoned to Paris by the emperor who asked—"Are you the man who pretends to do what God Al mighty cannot—tie a knot in a stretched string?" Jacquard's model, which is incom plete, was deposited in the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers; it was awarded a prize, and he himself received an appoint ment in the conservatoire, where he per fected his famous attachment to the com mon loom. In the United Kingdom, the first to succeed in invent ing an efficient machine and in establishing the industry of machine net-making was James Paterson of Musselburgh. Paterson, origi nally a cooper, served in the army through the Peninsular War, and was discharged after the battle of Waterloo. He established a net factory in Musselburgh about 2820 ; but the early form of machine was imperfect, the knots it formed slipped readily and, there being much prejudice against machine nets, the demand was small. Walter Ritchie, native of Musselburgh, devised a method for forming the ordinary hand-knot on the machine nets, and the machine, patented in July 1835, became the foundation of an ex tensive and flourishing industry. The Paterson machine is very complex. It consists of an arrangement of hooks, needles and sinkers, one of each being required for every mesh in the breadth being made. The needles hold the meshes, while the hooks seize the lower part of each and twist it into a loop. Through the series of loops so formed a steel wire is shot, carrying with it twine for the next range of loops. This twine the sinkers successively catch and depress sufficiently to form the two sides and loop of the next mesh to be formed. The knot formed by threading the loops is now tightened up, the last formed mesh is freed from the sinkers and transferred to the hooks, and the process of looping, threading and knotting thus con tinues.
Another form of net-loom, working on a principle distinct from that of Paterson, was in vented and patented in France by Onesiphore Pecqueur in 1840, and again in France and in Great Britain in 1849. This was im proved by many subsequent in ventors; especially by Baudouin and Jouannin.
The manufac ture of nets for the fisheries in the United States dates back to about 1844, being initiated by a manufacturer of cotton yarns at Canton, Massachusetts. The popularity with which the first experi mental cotton twines were received led the manufacturer to devote his whole time to their manufacture and improvement. In 1858 the first netting-machine in the United States was seen. The limita tions of this machine led to the development of new inventions, particularly those designed for handling heavy twines.
In 1937 there were nine establishments manufacturing nettings, nets, scrape bags, and seines. These establishments employed 502 wage earners, and paid $463,063 in wages. The total value of products manufactured was $3,363,435. The fibre materials used are flax, cotton, and manila.
In view of the wholly inadequate supply of domestic flax and as but little of it is suitable for the manufacture of netting, domestic manufacturers are dependent upon imports for their raw materials. The use of cotton in the making of nets has increased until the quantities used in 1920 exceeded those for linen. Manila is used by the domestic manufacturers in the making of trawls or other bag-nets.
Fishery apparatus employed in the fisheries of the United States and Alaska is valued at approxi mately $16,000,000, a large part of which is invested in nets, nettings and lines chiefly cotton, flax and hemp. Much of this material lasts but two years at best, so that the annual investment in new netting each year is an important factor in the fisheries.