Lamb's textile industry of the United States, embracing biographical sketches of prominment men and a historical résumé of the progress of textile manufacture from the earliest records to the present time; . ter terms of schools in the picker-room of the Northbridge Manufacturing Co. owned by his father. Whentwelve years of age he was placed in the repair-room of the mill, wherehe worked three years, and this experience was an apprenticeship to thebusiness in which he achieved his success as proprietor of the WhitinMachine Works. From 1822 to 1825 he was employed in the drygoodsstore of his br
Lamb's textile industry of the United States, embracing biographical sketches of prominment men and a historical résumé of the progress of textile manufacture from the earliest records to the present time; . ter terms of schools in the picker-room of the Northbridge Manufacturing Co. owned by his father. Whentwelve years of age he was placed in the repair-room of the mill, wherehe worked three years, and this experience was an apprenticeship to thebusiness in which he achieved his success as proprietor of the WhitinMachine Works. From 1822 to 1825 he was employed in the drygoodsstore of his brother, Paul Whitin, Jr., in New York City. He returned toNorthbridge in 1825, when a partnership was formed betvreen his father,his brother, Paul Whitin, Jr., and himself, as manufacturers of cotton yarnsand cloth under the firm name of P. Whitin & Sons. They erected a newmill on the old Whitin & Fletcher mill site. Paul Whitin, Jr., being incharge of the financial and mercantile department, and John C. ^Vhitin ofthe manufacturing and mechanical department. In an ell attached to the cotton mill the machine shop was located,and in this room the necessary repairs to the machinery were made. r\^ x^ ^,cv OF THE UNITED STATES 297 Whitin doing the work with the aid of one assistant. This departmentgave birth to the Whitin Machine Works. He had been early broughtto a knowledge of the inadequate construction of the machines in use inthe cotton mill, and the constant need of repairs, and he directed hisleisure time to the improvements needed. In fact, when a boy in thepicker-room, he had discovered the defects in the scutcher when appliedto cotton, long baled and necessarily matted, and his first invention, patentedin 1832, was to overcome this difficulty. While working on this invention,Colonel Paul Whitin died and the business was reorganized, his widowand three of the sons, Paul, John C. and Charles P., becoming equalpartners. The old firm name, P. Whitin & Sons, was retained
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidlambstextileindu01brow
