John HeathcoatBorn 7 Aug 1783; died 18 Jan 1861 at age 77.Pioneering English inventor of lace-making machinery. As a boy, Heathcoat made stockings and became familiar with the machines and used this knowledge to develop and patent his lace net machine (1809) which was capable of the intricate, complicated motions and delicate operations needed to produce lace. His machines made lace hundreds of times faster than it could be manufactured by hand. He established a company in 1808 and based his original factory in Nottingham. However in 1816, the Luddites burnt down the factory and destroyed most of his machines, and so he relocated the company to Tiverton, Devon, where he had previously purchased an old woolen mill on the banks of the River Exe.Image: Heathcoat, detail of an engraving by T.L. Atkinson after a portrait by W. Beetham, mid-19th century. |
