FORTUNE IN SOAPSUDS. LORD MASHAM'S STORIES OF HIS INVENTIONS. EVOLUTION OF THE WOOLCOMBS.

Progress, Volume I, Issue 6, 2 April 1906, Page 152

FORTUNE IN SOAPSUDS. LORD MASHAM'S STORIES OF HIS INVENTIONS. EVOLUTION OF THE WOOLCOMBS.

Lord Masham, one of the greatest inventors of the last century, has written the story of his struggles and his triumphs. Wool-combmg and silk-combing were the special studies of Lord Masham, who, with his brother, commenced business in 1838 as worsted spinners and manufacturers under the name of J. and S. C. Lister. The inventive genius of the man speedily asserted itself, and in 1844 he took out his first patent for fringing shawls. Many disappointments attended his early efforts to improve wool-combing He took out patents for washing and preparing long and short wool, and in 1857 he finished his research m this direction by patenting a process of treating the soap suds. " For many years," he said, " I used to boast that I kept my house out of my dram, as it made me several thousands a year. In ten years, from 1843 to 1853, * nad l eft nothing much for anyone else to do except to improve upon what I had done." The silk comb was the result of purchasing silk waste — " It looked to me to be nothing but rubbish — at a halfpenny per pound. Experiments with it meant great expenditure. Disaster followed, and the year 1857 ended in a loss to Mr. Lister of £150,000. In 1864, at the age of fifty, he had to begin to fight life's battle over again. Then fortune smiled again. " A special comb proved a godsend." There was immense value in the level, regular sliver that the comb produced, and " one memorable year we had orders for all the yarn we could make at 235. per pound. We were only paying for the ' rubbish ' fiom sixpence to a shilling." The celebrated Manningham plush loom was the result of the joint labours of Lord Masham and Mr. Reixach Mainly through its use the profits of the business for several years were a year