William Crompton

Who was William Crompton?

William Crompton was a United States inventor in the field of loom technology.

Crompton was brought up as a hand loom cotton weaver and, at an early age, learned the trade of a machinist. While superintendent of a cotton mill in Ramsbottom he made many experiments on cotton looms. He went to Taunton, Massachusetts, in 1836 and devised a loom for the manufacture of fancy cotton goods, receiving a patent on 23 November 1837. In this loom one part of the warp was depressed while the other was lifted, instead of allowing one part to remain stationary, thus securing more room for the passage of the shuttle. Another feature of it was an endless loop pattern chain, which, with its peculiar apparatus, operated the warp. This allowed many more pattern sequences and made them much easier to change.

Crompton went back to England in 1838 and, after patenting his loom there, returned with his family to America in 1839. In 1840, he adapted his loom to the weaving of fancy woolens for Middlesex Mills in Lowell, Massachusetts, where he worked for two years.