The Lloyd Loom

Lloyd Marshall Burns, inventor and manufacturer, was born in St. Paul, Minn., Mar. 10, 1881 [1858], son of John and Margaret (Commee [Conmee]) Lloyd. He was obliged to contribute to the support of the family at an early age and when only fifteen invented a clothes hamper and a spring bed which he traded to farmers for food and clothing. He was employed in various occupations in Toronto and Winnipeg, Canada. As a real estate dealer, he earned enough money to buy a farm near Grafton, N. Dak., on which his family settled. Soon tiring of farm life, he engaged in the insurance business at St. Thomas, N. Dak., and while there invented a scale and bag holder with which one man could do the work of two in filling a bag with grain. Next he invented a machine for weaving wire door and table mats and sold the rights to the C. O. White Manufacturing Co. of Minneapolis, for a part interest in the business. Then followed a new form of steel wheel for children's vehicles and a wire weaving machine. The latter invention (1900) revolutionized the bed spring industry and enabled him to buy out his partners in the C. O. White Manufacturing Co., the name of which was then changed to the Lloyd Manufacturing Co. He moved his plant to Menominee, Mich., in 1906 and manufactured principally children's vehicles. In 1910 he invented what is called the Lloyd-oxyacetylene method of making thin gauged steel tubing and a machine for manufacturing it. Solid strips of steel fed into this machine are automatically shaped, rolled, pressed and welded into the strongest seamless tubing made. With a constant forward motion, the machine automatically polishes and cuts the tubes at any desired length. In 1912 he began to manufacture seamless tubing in his own plant. Steel beds, first introduced in 1914, were one result of his invention. In 1914 he sold the American Patent rights in the inventions to an automobile manufacturing company for $300,000. His third most important invention was a loom for weaving reed or wicker articles, patented in 1917. From the earliest times articles made of reed were woven by hand. Unsuccessful attempts had been made to devise a machine to replace hand labor until the advent of the Lloyd loom which weaves the irregular shapes of wicker articles more smoothly and evenly and more rapidly. It is employed chiefly in the manufacture of baby carriages and wicker furniture. Three years after this invention the Lloyd plant had become the largest producer of baby carriages in the world, and now practically all manufacturers in that line are using the Lloyd looms under license. In 1921 he disposed of the American rights in the loom and his interest in the Lloyd Manufacturing Co. which was merged with the Heywood-Wakefield Co. of Boston. Lloyd was mayor of Menominee during 1913-17. He was president of the Lumberman's bank of Menominee, vice-president of the Automatic Seamless Tubing Co. and a director of the Heywood-Wakefield Manufacturing Co. and the Hoskin-Morainville Paper Co. In politics he was a Republican. He was a liberal contributor to charities and other benevolent purposes. Motoring, ice skating and golf were his chief outdoor recreations. He was married in New York city, Apr. 11, 1922, to Mrs. Henrietta (Hammer) Pollen, daughter of Neals Hammer, of Orange, N.J., and died, without issue, at Menominee, Mich., Aug. 10, 1927.