V. A Brief History of Cotton Thread 



Although Samuel Slater's wife is credited with 

 making the first cotton sewing thread from yarns 

 spun at the Pawtucket, Rhode Island, mill in about 

 1794, cotton thread did not become a manufactured 

 item at that time. Slater turned all his interests to 

 producing cotton-twist yarns needed for the warps 

 of cotton fabrics. By 1809, however, the agents of 

 Almy and Brown, partners and distributors for Slater, 

 were advertising cotton thread as follows: 



Factory Cotton and Thread Store, No. 26 Court Street 

 opposite Concert Hall. George Council, Agent for Almy 

 and Brown of Providence and Pawtucket Manufactories, 

 has now for sale from eight to ten thousand weight of 

 yarn, for weaving . . . five hundred pounds cotton 

 thread, in hanks, from No. 12 to 60 of a superior quality 

 and very white.* 



Although it was a short hop from the spinning of 

 cotton warps to the twisting of these cotton yarns to 

 form a sewing thread, the general manufacture of 

 cotton thread as an industry did not originate in the 

 United States but rather in Scotland in the early 19th 

 century. Napoleon's blockade, which curtailed Great 

 Britain's importation of silk — needed not only for 

 fabrics but also for making heddle strings for the 

 looms — stimulated the production of cotton thread 

 there. James and Patrick Clark, in desperation, 



attempted to substitute cotton for silk in their manu- 

 facture of these heddle strings. When they were 

 successful, they considered that if cotton could be used 

 successfully for this purpose it could also be made 

 suitable for sewing thread. In 1812 they built a factory 

 in Paisley, Scotland, which had long been noted 

 for its textile industries. The thread was sold in 

 hanks. About 1820 James' sons, James and John, 

 who were now running J. & J. Clark & Co., be- 

 gan to wind the thread on spools. For this service 

 they charged an extra halfpenny, which was refunded 

 when the empty spool was returned. The thread was 

 usually a three-ply or so-called three-cord thread. 



About 1815 James Coats, also of Paisley, started 

 manufacturing thread at Ferguslie, Scotland. His 

 two sons took over the company in 1826 and formed 

 the J. & P. Coats Company. Another brother, 

 Andrew Coats, became the selling agent in the 

 United States about 1840. But the cotton-thread 

 industry was not fully launched. 



As reported in an 1853 Scientific American, there was 

 "more American thread made ten years ago than 

 there is today."** It was not until the six-cord cabled 

 cotton thread, which was suitable for both machine 

 and hand sewing, was perfected that the industry 

 progressed into full operation. 



*WiLLiAm R. Bagnall, Textile Industrie 

 (Cambridge, Mass., 1893), vol. 1, p. 164. 



of the I 'nitrd Slates 



*Scientific American (Oct. 22, 1853), vol. 9, no. 6, p. 46. 



135 



