Sanford Lockwood Cluett (June 6, 1874 – May 17, 1968) was an American engineer, inventor, and businessman who invented

Sanforization Sanforization is a treatment for fabrics to reduce shrinkage from washing. The process was patented by Sanford Lockwood Cluett (1874–1968) in 1930. It works by stretching, shrinking, and fixing the woven cloth in both length and width before c ...

(1928), a process to pre-shrink woven fabrics, and Clupak paper (1957) used for stretchable shopping bags and wrapping paper. Cluett held about 200 patents covering a variety of techniques. Cluett was vice president and a director of Cluett, Peabody and Company, Inc. of

Troy, New York Troy is a city in and the county seat of Rensselaer County, New York, United States. It is located on the western edge of the county, on the eastern bank of the Hudson River just northeast of the capital city of Albany, New York, Albany. At the ...

. During 1904–1917, Cluett had served in the

New York National Guard New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 19 ...

, reaching the rank of major.

Life and work

Sanford Lockwood Cluett was born on June 6, 1874, in Troy, NY, as son of Edmund Cluett and Mary Alice Stone Cluett. He attended the local Troy Academy, graduating in 1894. Cluett received a

civil engineering Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...

degree from

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (; RPI) is a private university, private research university in Troy, New York, United States. It is the oldest technological university in the English-speaking world and the Western Hemisphere. It was establishe ...

(RPI) in 1898. In 1897, Cluett had joined the

, in the rank of

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

. He was active in the New York Volunteer Infantry during the

Spanish–American War The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...

. By July 1898, he was transferred to the First U.S. Volunteer Engineers, along with serving in the Puerto Rican campaign. Eventually he was promoted to

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

. During 1904–1917, he served in the

, where he achieved the rank of major prior to retirement. Cluett was known for several inventions, including a

sextant A sextant is a doubly reflecting navigation instrument that measures the angular distance between two visible objects. The primary use of a sextant is to measure the angle between an astronomical object and the horizon for the purposes of cel ...

and farm mowers, before patents for Sanforizing. In 1896, he invented the bubble sextant for use in

celestial navigation Celestial navigation, also known as astronavigation, is the practice of position fixing using stars and other celestial bodies that enables a navigator to accurately determine their actual current physical position in space or on the surface ...

. In 1901 he was hired by the Walter A. Wood Company in

Hoosick Falls, New York Hoosick Falls is a village in Rensselaer County, New York, United States. The population was 3,501 at the 2010 census. During its peak, in 1900, the village had a population of approximately 7,000. The village of Hoosick Falls is near the center ...

, for the manufacturing of mowers,

reaper A reaper is a farm implement that reaps (cuts and often also gathers) crops at harvest when they are ripe. Usually the crop involved is a cereal grass, especially wheat. The first documented reaping machines were Gallic reapers that were used ...

s and other

farm machinery Agricultural machinery relates to the machine (mechanical), mechanical structures and devices used in farming or other agriculture. There are list of agricultural machinery, many types of such equipment, from hand tools and power tools to tractor ...

. In developing some horse-drawn mowers operable from the driver's seat, his two-horse and one-horse mowers had a vertical lift at the cutting bar. In 1919, Sanford Cluett joined the company Cluett, Peabody & Co., which had been founded by his uncles as a textile firm which made men's clothing, including Arrow collars and Arrow shirts. He became Research Director, and in 1927 became vice president of the firm. In 1928, he developed the process of Sanforizing (patented in 1930), to pre-shrink cotton or other fabrics by squeezing material against a stretched rubber strip or band and allowing the pair to shrink together in order to offset the stretching of fabrics during prior weaving or finishing. Sanford Cluett also held over 200 patents, for various techniques, including Clupak extensible paper as a stretchable paper (''Investment Reader'', April 15, 1959) used for shopping bags and wrapping paper with magazines, meat, tyres, and furniture. After a period of failing health, Sanford Cluett died on May 17, 1968, at his winter home in

Palm Beach, Florida Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. Located on a barrier island in east-central Palm Beach County, the town is separated from West Palm Beach, Florida, West Palm Beach and Lake Worth Beach, Florida, ...

, at age 93.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cluett, Sanford Lockwood 1874 births 1968 deaths 19th-century American inventors 20th-century American inventors Businesspeople from Troy, New York

Life and work

See also

References