The manufacture of ingrain carpets:in this country was begun early in the 19th century, the first ingrain mill probably being that eatah fished in 1810 by George M. Conradt, a native of Wiirtemberg, Germany, at Frederick CitY, Md. There carpets were made on a hand loom, on a drum rows of pegs similar to the cylinder of a music box, by which the harndls was worked. In 1821 a factory was established in New York by John and Nicholas Haight, with J. W. Mitchell, a Scotchman, who had come from Kilmarnock, the centre of the in grain trade in Scotland, as superintendent. In 1825 Alexander Wright, who was the superin tendent of a factory at Medway, Mass., owned by Henry Burdette, attempted to learn the processes of the Jacquard system, but was un able to gain any knowledge of them because the secrets were so jealously guarded that he was not even permitted to enter the mill. He there upon went to Scotland, and after purchasing the best hand looms on the market and securing mechanics to operate them, returned and started the manufacture of carpets on a scale which for those times was very extensive. factory was in 1828 sold complete to the Lowell Manu facturing Company, the machinery and „looms being transferred to their new mill LoWt11 upon its completion. Alexander Wright iwas the first superintendent of this mill,: *W.:to gether with Claude Wilson, one of the nw.ohatiks whom he had brought with him from Scotia** -devised many improvements in the Jitotftwid loom, making it simple in construction. eliininnI ing the more cptaple* parts in the, machiphry, and making the operation more easy and cer tain. Of course these looms did not reach a state of perfection till many years afterward, and the machinery was so expensive, the opera tion so tedious, and the skill required so great, in the making, that it was thought the de mand for carpets would not justify such an out lay, but through perseverance and the gradual introduction of improved methods the efforts put forth by the Lowell company were amply repaid, and the founders lived to see the estab lishment become one of the largest carpet fac tories in the country.
In 1840 the carpet industry was started in New York by Robert Beattie, followed in 1841 by E. S. Higgins and Company, who engaged in the manufacture of ingrain carpetings. In 1844 Alexander Smith started a factory at West Farms, N. Y. In 1845 John Bromley com menced to manufacture in Philadelphia and was practically the pioneer in what has grown to be the largest manufacturing centre of the coun try; where more yards of carpet of all grades are made than in any other city in the world, and where some of the finest factories in the world are located.
At this period the manufacture of carpet in this country was far from being a large Indus try. In Massachusetts there were seven factories in operation; in Connecticut there were four; in New York, eight; in New Jersey, four; Mary land had one; and in Pennsylvania there were only five, all of which were in or near Phila delphia. Of the total number of looms then in operation, 1,500, probably not more than 1,250 were used for ingrains, the others being used for the manufacture of Brussels, damasks, Venetian or rugs. The largest mills then were: The Lowell company, operating 150 looms; W. H. McKnight, Saxonville, Mass.,
150 looms; Orrin Thompson, Thompsonville and Tariffville, Conn., 250 looms; and W. H. Chatham, Philadelphia, 160 looms, while num bered among them were the first plants of such concerns as the Hartford Carpet Company, Robert Beattie and Sons, E. S. Higgins Carpet Company and McCallum and McCallum.
It was in 1841 that the second period in the history began. Erastus B. Bigelow (q.v.), a young medical student in Boston, 20 years of age, in 1839 became interested in the weaving of coach-lace, and started in to improve on the machinery, by which this class of goods was made, with the result that inside of two years he had brought forth an invention by the use of which the cost of the manufacture of these goods, which had been 22 cents a yard, was re duced to three cents. The same year he intro duced a power loom for weaving ingrain car pets, raising the product of eight yards a day possible on the hand loom to 10 or 12 yards, and later, after making several improvements, extending this total to 25 or 27 yards a day. He also invented and patented the power loom for weaving Jacquard Brussels, Wilton and tapes try carpets. He was, however, unable to inter est any of the manufacturers in his inventions and finally started a plant of his own at Clinton, Mass., and which was later organized as the Bigelow Carpet Company, now one of our greatest and most progressive companies. The exclusive right to use his process of manufac ture in England was at once purchased by the Crossleys of England and A. & E. S. Higgins of New York, and the Roxbury Carpet Com pany of Massachusetts acquired the use in the United States of his loom for tapestry and vel vet during the term of the patent.
To John Johnson of Halifax, England, be longs the credit of first manufacturing tapestry Brussels and velvet carpetings in this country. He be operations at Newark, N. J., in a mill with 25 looms, but this later was moved to Troy, N. Y., and in 1855 was purchased by the Roxbury Carpet Company and moved to Rox bury, Mass. The product of these looms origi nally was 5 yards per day; in 1856 it had ad vanced to 16 yards under the management of the Roxbury company, and now the average output per loom ranges from 60 to 65 yards, mainly possible through the introduction of the Bigelow inventions.
In 1856 Halcyon Skinner, a mechanic in the employ of Alexander Smith at his West Farms factory, began his investigations into the con struction of a power loom with the intention of making one himself of superior capabilities, and the result of his labors was that about a year later his patent was brought forth, but owing to the destruction of the mill by fire it was not until 1864 that his loom was put into operation in the new factory which Smith had built at Yonkers, N. Y. In January 1877 Skin ner invented his power loom for the manufac ture of moquette carpetings and later several important improvements were made on this, not only by him but by his sons, Charles and A. L Skinner. This increased the output of one and one-half yards a day, the result of the labors of two men and a boy, to about 11 yards a day, and this has gradually been increased till the output now reaches about 15,000,000 yards a year, made on 1,000 power looms and employ ing over 5,000 people.