The First Silk Loom on Puget Sound Starts Spinning
Entrepreneurs in Whatcom bring machinery from New Jersey to test the viability of a local silk manufacturing industry.
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The silk loom of Messrs. Butterworth and Smethurst, brought from Paterson, New Jersey, began operations in Whatcom on Monday night. It is likely the first loom of its kind ever operated on Puget Sound. The machine is currently producing souvenir handkerchiefs featuring the Whatcom Normal School, but the owners hope this demonstration will secure the capital needed to establish a full-scale silk factory. The promoters believe being on the Sound offers a freight advantage for raw silk imported from the Orient.
“They say that a factory on the Sound has a great advantage over the Eastern factories in the matter of freight rates on the raw silk.”
This is a quintessential example of 'booster' industry promotion in early Washington, attempting to turn the state into a global manufacturing hub by leveraging trans-Pacific trade routes.
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