Bigelow, Erastus Brigham (1814-1879)

US inventor and industrialist. He devised power looms for weaving various patterned fabrics and carpets, such as Wilton and Brussels carpets, using the Jacquard principle devised by French textile manufacturer Joseph Jacquard. Carpets could now be made of virtually any colour, to virtually any pattern.

Bigelow was born in West Boylston, Massachusetts, and forced to go out to work at the age of ten. Nonetheless he invented a loom for weaving lace to trim stagecoach upholstery 1837, and in 1843 set up the Clinton Company to manufacture ginghams. His power loom for weaving Brussels and Wilton carpets was developed between 1845 and 1851. Together with his other looms, this made the company so successful that the town of Clinton, Massachusetts, grew up around the plant. Bigelow helped found the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1861.