Martinsburg statesman-democrat. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1906-1921, 1912-05-31
EDWARD E. KlL5ouRN FAMOUS
INVENTOR DIES SUDDENLY
Inventions of Man Who Started Hos
iery Mills, in Msrtinsbure, Revolu-
tionized Manufacturing

manager OF the hllDOurn knitting Ma
chine Co, received a telegram Sat
urday. announcing the death of his
aged fatheE Mr.. Edward f. Kilbourn,
the noted inventor of knitting machin-
cry. who expired suddenly Friday
night of heart failure at his home in
New Brunswick, N. ]. He had been
very i'll for week with acute indiges-
ton, so that his death was not entirely
unexpected. Had Mr. Kilbourn lived
till the 5th Of June, he would have
been 81 years of age.
Mr.. c. w. Kilbourn and Mr. Frank
w. Van Horn. superintendent of the
Middlesex Mill left Saturday via
Hagerstown, for New Branswicl
The funeral of Mr. Edward E. Kill
bourn, who expired suadenly Friday
whose remarkable inventive genius
make possible the famous hosiery
mills of the Kilbourn Knitting Ma.
chine Co, of Martinsburg. was held
Monday afternoon, in New Brunswick.
AS result of the death of Mr. Kill
bourn, the Kilbourn mills were closed
today and all the department heads
attended the funeral this afternoon
They were: Messrs. W. f. Mulliss,
Frank w. Van Horn, Joseph Haas,
George w. F. Mulliss, Abram Horsfall
and Thomas M. Pearson. Mr.. H. H.
Emmert, director of the company,
also attended the funeral the gentle
men leaving here Sunday.
Mr.. Kilbourn's wife died about three
weeks ago and he leaves but one living
child Mr., Chas. w. Kilbourn, this city.
He was the last of his family.
His Career
E. Z. Kilbourn was born in Norfolk
Conn, June l. 1881. He went to work
in 1874. in his fathers mill at the age
of 10, making hosiery yarn and cloth.
In 184S, he became ovorseer in the
Bay State mill, now branch of the
American Wooden company, and then
considered one of the model mills of
the country, employing $500 hands in
manufacturing fine plaid shawls. AT
ter two and q half years, he returned
to his fathers mill at Norfolk which
was then engaged in manufacturing
This led him into machine expert.
ments in efforts to devise a mechan
ism for making hosiery automatically
by machinery and, in 1887, at the age
of rs. he succeeded in making the
first practical automatic hosiery ma
chine, which was adopted as the
standard type of hosiery machine of
the world displacing the old hand
loom which had been in operation in
England for nearly 300 years.
Mr.. Kilbourn exhibited his new ma
chine in London in the spring of 1853
The leading manufacturers who in
spected in pronounced it the most re-
markable machine they had ever
seen but forthwith did all in their
power to keep it out of England and
thereby lost control OF the hosiery
business of the world Shortly there
after, Germany adopted his type of
machine and became the greatest
knit goods factor among the nations.
At about the same time, in connec-
ton with Lucius Porter and DR.. w.
W. Welsh, he organized the Norfolk
Hosiery company with capital of
$4,000.
In 1860, after the election of Lin
coin, war broke out and business was
temporarily paralyzed. The Morrell
tariff bill was then passed which OPP
ened the way to the manufacture of
hosiery and underwear in the Uunit-
ed States and, in 1863, the Norfolk
Hosiery Mills purchased and organic
ed the Norfolk & New Brunswick
Hosiery company with which he was
connected for many successful and
prosperous years.
Establishes Hosiery
In establishing the Norfolk & New
Brunswick Hosiery company. he per
sonally organized the machine shop
and superintendent the building of all
of the machinery and instructed the
hands in how to operate them, as not
a single one of them had ever before
seen a machine for making hosiery
and underwear. The business of the
Norfolk & New Brunswick Hosiery
company became so large that it
found great difficulty in getting its
product scanned. The goods of the
company were distributed along the
main line of the Pennsylvania Rail
road from Newark to Bristol and be-
cause of the capital thus invested
and the delay in process, disaster
threatened the company. At this
point, Mr.. Kilbourn came forward
with one of his greatest inventions
the looper-a machine for scanning
goods, the first of its kind ever devils
ed and on which he obtained the bas-
ic patents. This is now used in every
hosiery and underwear mill in the
world.
Refused 100000 for Patents
In the spring of 1871, while work
ing on a new type of spinning ma
chine, for the patents on which he
had refused 100000, his health broke