Gigging Mill Patent No. 4189

Gigging (also known as raising or napping) is the process of raising the surface of cloth to create the nap (in other words to make it fluffier). The resulting nap can be uneven so the cloth has to be trimmed to produce a consistent and smooth surface.

In pre-industrial times, gigging and shearing were done by hand but it was a slow and laborious process. The invention of mechanical cross cutters and gigging mills meant that these two vital processes could be done more quickly and with fewer people so that more cloth could be treated each day.

This patent, No. 4189 and dated 19 December 1817, is for wire gig-mills for dressing woollen and other cloths. It was registered by John and William Lewis with William Davis. John Lewis had registered a patent for a mechanical cross cutter in 1815, just two years before, and this meant that he held patents in two significant mechanical innovations for the cloth making industry.

The wire gigging mill basic design incorporates wire teasels (similar to small wire brushes) mounted on frames. The cloth was passed over the frame and the teasels gently raised the nap. The use of wire was a significant step forward: before, the nap was raised using natural teasel heads either by hand or, later, mounted on basic machines. Wire is more durable so teasels lasted longer which meant they did not need to be replaced as often. Managing the length of the individual filaments during manufacture of the teasels and adjusting the gigging mill would have made it possible to control the gigging process more accurately.

Information about the Ferrabee family and their blacksmithing, loom construction, and millwright work in the early 19th century is rather scarce. The Lewis and Davies families were far more influential and prominent than the Ferrabees (or Budding) during this period. They took out many patents on textile machinery improvements, including the cross cutter and the wire gig mill. However, some of these were made in conjunction with John Ferrabee.

The close working of these local entrepreneurs led in the 1830s to Lewis and Davis acting as John Ferrabee's agents in London for receiving order for Budding's patent lawnmower.