John Lombe

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Commemorative plaque for John Lombe on Exeter Bridge in Derby , in the background the preserved parts of the Derby Silk Mill

John Lombe (* around 1693 in Norwich , Great Britain; † November 20, 1722 in Derby , Great Britain) was an English silk producer and industrial spy of the 18th century. He came from a family that had long been involved in wool and silk weaving.

At that time, English silk weaving lagged behind Italian silk weaving in Piedmont , Lucca a . a. in terms of quality, as she was unable to solve the secret of making a strong warp thread . So they had to import the warp threads, which drove up the price and, given the growing demand, invited industrial espionage.

In 1714 John Lombe traveled at the expense of his half-brother, the silk merchant Thomas Lombe (1685–1739) from London to Leghorn to spy on the strictly protected secret of the Italians. With the help of a bribe he was placed in a silk mill in Lucca (?). In the evenings he made precise drawings of the machine (so-called throwing machine) and its individual parts and smuggled them out hidden in a bale of silk. When he was exposed, he managed to escape on a British merchant ship and back to London.

After John's return, his half-brother Thomas acquired a patent on three machine types on September 9, 1718. They started production in rented rooms. At the same time, the brothers set up a modern textile factory in Derby on the River Derwent around 1720 , which cost over £ 30,000 in total and had around 300 workers ten years later. It had five floors and 468 windows. The machines were driven by a water wheel via a gear transmission (approx. 97,000 individual parts). The daily capacity was 318,504,960 yards of silk thread. George Sorocold (approx. 1668–1738) served as an engineer . The factory, which was rebuilt several times, is now a silk museum, the Derby Industrial Museum .

In 1722 John Lombe died at the age of 29. One suspected a slow-acting poisoning by an Italian employed by him. The company's success was limited. However, the machine and the factory became models for future productions.

Remarks

  1. ↑ In the Bodleian Library , Oxford there was a book (Vittorio Zonca: Novo teatro di machine et edificii) about the technical solution of the Italians since about 1620, but nobody knew that at the time.
  2. ^ G. Ripley, CA Dana: The New American Cyclopaedia, p. 649
  3. ↑ For example, the king of Sardinia forbade the export of raw silk from Piedmont for the purpose of boycott, so that new sources of supply had to be found. In addition, the patent expired in 1732 and could not be extended by Sir Thomas Lombe despite all efforts. The king's advisors only awarded him £ 14,000 in compensation.

literature

  • William H. Chaloner: People & Industries . Routledge Publishing 1963
  • DB Horn, Mary Ransome, David Charles: English Historical Documents, 1714-1783 . Routledge Publishing 1996
  • Samuel Smiles: Men of Invention and Industry . London, 1884
  • William Cooke Taylor: The handbook of silk, cotton, and woolen manufactures . London, 1843
  • John Merson: Roads to Xanadu. China and Europe and the emergence of the modern world. Hamburg, 1989

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Lombe, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English silk producer and industrial spy
DATE OF BIRTH around 1693
PLACE OF BIRTH Norwich , UK
DATE OF DEATH November 20, 1722
Place of death Derby , UK