Background
Samuel Lister was born on January 1, 1815, in Calverley Old Hall, England, the son of Ellis Cunliffe Lister, the first Member of Parliament elected for Bradford after the Reform Act of 1832, and Mary Cunliffe-Lister (Kay).
Samuel Lister was born on January 1, 1815, in Calverley Old Hall, England, the son of Ellis Cunliffe Lister, the first Member of Parliament elected for Bradford after the Reform Act of 1832, and Mary Cunliffe-Lister (Kay).
Lister was educated at a private school at Balham Hill, Clapham Common.
Then he was placed, at his own request, in the employ of Sands, Turner and Co. , merchants, of Liverpool, for whom while still young he made repeated visits to America, gaining an insist into American business methods. In 1837 his father built for him and his elder brother, John, a worsted mill at Manningham, opened in 1838 under the style J. and S. C. Lister. The partnership lasted till 1845, when John retired, becoming his father's heir by the death of the eldest brother. From 1845 to 1864 Samuel was successively in partnership with J. Ambler and J. Warburton. He carried on the business alone from 1864 till 1889, when the Manningham Mills became a limited company, of which he remained the chief shareholder and chairman.
Lister devoted great part of his long career to invention, taking out over 150 patents, apart from early inventions not patented. His first invention, in 1841, was a swivel shuttle for inserting a silk figure on a plain ground; his earliest patent, in 1844, a method for fringing shawls. In 1841 also he first turned his attention to mechanical wool-combing, the object of which is to separate the long hairs from the short, the long making better cloth, the short being used for blankets and rough material. Previously such work was done by hand in conditions harmful to the workers. Lister in 1842 bought from George Edmund Donnisthorpe a wool-combing machine, which, like earher machines patented by Edmund Cartwright in 1790, a French inventor named Heilmann, and others, proved nsatisfactory. Unable to resell it, he determined to improve it, and evolved by 1845 the Lister-Cartwright machine, with which he combed the first pound of Australian wool combed in England. Improvements in the machine itself and subsidiary processes led in 1846 to the 'square-motion' machine, a type to the invention of which Sir Isaac Holden had rival claims, and in 1850 to the "square-nip" machine. Involved in legal proceedings with the French inventor, Heilmann, who claimed that his patent rights had been infringed. Lister assured his position by purchasing the Heilmann machine, though he made little use of it, and in 1853 he acquired the Noble machine, an improved type invented by one of his own mechanics. For some years he commanded the wool-combing industry. His inventions in this connection made clothing permanently cheaper, brought prosperity to Bradford, and helped to create the Australian wool trade. Ultimately Sir Isaac Holden took Lister's place as chief controller of the industry.
About 1853 Lister devoted himself to further inventions with what seemed to be reckless zeal. In that year he took out nine patents, in 1855 twelve, all for textile processes. In 1855 he began to direct his efforts toward the utilization of waste silk. After 10 years and great expense, he developed a machine for making silk waste into goods that could compete with those manufactured from the perfect cocoon; moreover, the products could be sold at many times the cost of production. His velvet loom for making piled fabrics was another important textile machine.
In old age Lister retained all his activity, and in 1905 he published "Lord Masham's Inventions, " an account of his main labours.
Samuel Cunliffe Lister died on February 2, 1906, at Swinton Park, England.
Samuel Lister was a member of the Altcar Club from 1857.
On September 6, 1854, Samuel Lister married Anne Dearden, daughter of John Dearden; they had two sons and five daughters.