Spy Stories about Silk

If  anyone thought industrial espionage was only for the recent times, since industry actually started in the 18th century, heed the story of John and Thomas Lombe, two english men, an engineer, John, and his  half brother Thomas, an apprentice weaver, capable of turning their life upside-down by stealing ideas for their silk mill from the Sardinia Kingdom, the biggest and stongest italian realm,  economically flourishing at the time, mostly thanks to the silky production.

Also the proto-industrial story of the Piedmontese silk is a great tale. It all starts in the 1662 in Bologna, where the production of silk was already quite advanced and blooming; it is just Bologna that the kingdom sent its emissaries to to convince someone to bring his technological knowledge to Turin to help start a new industry based on hydraulic energy. The mission was completed with succes with the arrive of a "master spinner": Gian Francesco Gall
eani.

Central element of the Bolognese Spinner

Between the 1664 and the 1665, Galleani Organize and direct the building of the first hydrauilic spinner in Piedmont,  and five years later the constsuction of the second one, creating new machines more evoluted with respect to their bolognese correspondant, since these were improved with some features thanks also to Leonardo Da Vinci sketches.

For the Sardinia Realm the silky production was really a form of industry given that a census from 30 years later documents 27 active spinner in the city for a total of 2525 workers, and hal of a century later 33 spinner and 4000  workers  and a record production at European level.

Piedmontese silk spinner building

in Racconigi 

The extraordinary evolution and efficiency of the mill was so incredible that Diderot and D'Alembert couldn't help but include it in their Encyclopédie.

But before that, the echoes of the incredible Piedmontese silk mill had already reached the coasts of England, and John Lombe, which knew that the only way to keep up with them an to smite the competition was to get the projects of that mill, decided to travelled to Piedmont in Italy. He arrived to Racconigi, got hired, studied how the Italians managed to make exquisite silkand, secretly made drawings of their machines and  then smuggled them back to Derby.

Silk mill of the Lobe's brothers in Derby

Based on the drawings, machines were set up throughout Derby and half-brother Thomas applied for a patent on the machines, ensuring they could only used at a factory in Derby that was set up where the present day Silk Mill stands and houses Derby's industrial museum.

The original mill took three years and £30,000 to build and stood five storeys high, making it the first factory in the world with a complete process on one site. It was rebuilt following a fire in 1910.
John Lombe remained in Derby and died in 1722, it is rumoured as a the result of a slow poison administered by the Italians he stole the plans from originally.
A bas relief sculpture may be found of John Lombe on Exeter Bridge in Derwent Street.

This is actually a case of industrial espionage...but since Thomas Lombe received public akwnoledgement for his brother robbery (lord title, money for the patents and the production and state recognition for the employement created )...it kinda becomes a state and international matter


If you wanna dig deeper into the silky world you can check these links
http://stec-172318.blogspot.it/ (italian version)


Here you can fnd a very peculiar way to produce paintings...by sewing silk...
http://www.artofsilk.com/
http://machine-history.blogspot.it/2013/05/some-silk-machine-patents.html
http://machine-history.blogspot.it/2013/05/the-silk-encyclopedie.html
http://machine-history.blogspot.it/2013/05/the-silkworm-life-cycle.html
http://machine-history.blogspot.it/2013/05/silk-natural-industry.html


Sources:
http://www.visitderby.co.uk/things-to-do/wayfinding/stories/the-lombe-brothers
http://www.cis.unibo.it/bslc/tesori/canali/home.html
http://www.visitterredeisavoia.it/it/guida/?IDR=1719
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lombe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lombe%27s_Mill