Bigelow, Erastus

Bigelow, Erastus (Brigham)

(1814–79) inventor, engineer; born in West Boylston, Mass. He worked in a cotton mill as a boy and invented a hand loom for weaving webbing. He founded several companies to produce quilts and other items. In the 1840s he developed looms for weaving carpets, the basis for the company long synonymous with American quality carpeting.