Westbrook Historical Society

Description

Woodbury K. Dana (1840-1924), founded the Dana Warp Mill in Westbrook in 1866. As a textile manufacturer he had a keen interest in machinery and was always looking for ways to improve upon his equipment and encouraged his employees to do so as well.

He saw the possibilities of picking cotton in the fields by machine and set out to invent a harvester, which he did. For over 25 years he worked on this. He produced and patented a harvester that was able to do the work of several men.

He sent the harvesters south on trials in the fields and then returned home to improve them. He always felt he could make a more perfect machine that would serve as a model for a large scale manufacturing of the machine.

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