William Cotton (inventor)

William Cotton (* 1817 ; † 1887 ) was a British inventor.

Cotton invented a flat knitting machine in 1860 , also called the "cotton machine " after him. The machine was used to manufacture single-thread knitted fabrics in a stocking factory . It was based on other knitting stools by William Lee and Arthur Paget .

This so-called "cotton machine" had a vertical needle bar and a power drive. The invention of the cotton machine was of far-reaching importance for the large-scale production of stockings, as up to 36 stocking lengths could be produced on it at the same time, making it suitable for the industrial mass production of knitted stockings, so-called cotton stockings.

The patent was bought shortly thereafter by the manufacturer Hermann Starker from Chemnitz and built the cotton machines under license in Chemnitz, Oberlungwitz and Hohenstein-Ernstthal , from where he served a large part of the market around 1900.

Individual evidence

^ Paul-August Koch, Günther Satlow: Large Textile Lexicon: Specialized lexicon for the entire textile industry. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1965, Vol. A -K, p. 249.

Web links

On the history of the mechanical flat knitting machine

personal data
SURNAME	Cotton, William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	British inventor of the cotton machine (knitting machine)
DATE OF BIRTH	1817
DATE OF DEATH	1887

[1] Paul-August Koch, Günther Satlow: Large Textile Lexicon: Specialized lexicon for the entire textile industry. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1965, Vol. A -K, p. 249.