1837 Mason's Patent Model of a Loom Temple
date: label: model constructed
content: before 1837-07-22
label: patent date
content: 1837-07-22
name: label: inventor
content: Mason, Samuel P.
notes: label: Description
content: Self-Adjusting Loom Temple Patent Model
label: Description
content: Patent No. 291, issued July 22, 1837
label: Description
content: Samuel P. Mason of Newport, Rhode Island
label: Description
content: Temples are attachments on looms designed to keep the cloth at a uniform width during weaving. Self-acting temples required no adjustment as the cloth was woven, for they automatically adjusted their position. The greater speed obtained with power weaving made the use of self-acting temples a necessity.
label: Description
content: The basic construction of Mason’s temples was similar to others of the period. The patented feature of his temple concerned the arrangement of the parts by which the jaws or forceps were forced open and released their hold on the cloth.
label: Description
content: Mason patented other useful textile machinery. Notable were an 1830 speeder for roving cotton (a speeder is a machine used in cotton yarn spinning that inserts a twist to the yarn and winds it on the bobbin) and a cotton whipper (a machine that separates clumps of cotton) in 1834. James Montgomery, in his 1840 edition of “Cotton manufacture of the United States Contrasted with that of Great Britain,” wrote that he considered the whipper the best, cheapest, and simplest that he had seen in factory use over a span of thirty years.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: associated place
content: United States: Rhode Island, Rhode Island, Newport
topic: label: classified
content: Patent Models
label: classified
content: Invention
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Textiles
label: See more items in
content: Patent Models, Textile Machinery
label: See more items in
content: Textiles
label: See more items in
content: Patent Models
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Janssen, Barbara Suit. Patent Models Index
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TE.T11414.073
label: patent number
content: 291
label: catalog number
content: T11414.073
label: patent number
content: 001838
label: accession number
content: 89797
objectType: label: Object Name
content: loom temple patent model
label: Object Type
content: Patent Model
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)