Greg Biggs

Mrs Cooper, if it is the Copp Family Textiles report, findings are on one of the collections at the Smithsonian, still interesting, but not what I was referring to. She keep her research reports on the collection she was studying. No flags or method of sewing flags is in that report. The research on sewing machine thread in America along with textile report on the Star Spangled Banner is enlightening.

On the research that you quote of the sewing machine’s, that I sent you several months back, the dates of 1840 and 1850 don’t appear in your response. 1850 C. E. Bennett of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, received a gold medal for superior six-cord, or six-ply, spool cotton at the fair of the American Institute. By 1860 cotton thread was manufactured in Newark New Jersey. Prior to 1840, three-ply cotton thread was very popular in America, and after, the import of six-ply cotton thread from Paisley, Scotland began to replace the three-ply in popularity.

The Civl War did not seem to be an important factor in the number of sewing machine and thread manufacturing in the North, but one manufacture in the South did close, in Richmond, it was Yankee owned. $61,000 was the dollar value of exports from the U. S. in 1861, not much by todays standards but a good chunk of change in 1861. By 1861, 111,000 machines were made per year.

The rest of your response on the distribution of the cotton thread is speculation.

The twist of thread is not, as it stands alone, a bases for dating textiles.

Happy Trails!
Tom Martin
www.Piedmontflag.com
www.Confederate-flags.org