the south of Cotchett's failed Mill to house machines for "doubling" or twisting silk into thread. The machines required large buildings and a power source. An undershot water wheel turned by the mill fleam served the purpose. John Lombe was given a 14-year patent to protect the design of the throwing machines. The King of Sardinia reacted badly to the commercial challenge, placing an embargo on the export of raw silk. John's elder brother, Sir Thomas Lombe, took over the business. When the patents lapsed in 1732, other mills were built in Stockport and Macclesfield. "The original Italian works of five storeys high housed 26 Italian winding engines that spun the raw silk on each of the upper three floors whilst the lower two storeys contained eight spinning mills producing basic thread and four twist mills." The throwing machines were two storeys high and pierced the first floor. The winding machines were situated on the top three floors. All the machines were powered by Sorocold's seven-metre diameter, two-metre wide external undershot waterwheel. That drove a line shaft that ran the length of the mill. The and took their power from the shaft. The mill was heated to process the silk, and this was explained in the 1718 patent: It was reported that Lombe used a fire engine (steam engine) to pump hot air round the mill . The circular spinning machines (also known as 'throwing machines'), were the most significant innovation of the factory. Together with the single source of power (water), and the large size and organisation of the workforce for the period (200-400, according to contemporary sources), the total process of production from raw silk to fine quality thread has led the Lombes' silk mill to be described as the first successful use of the factory system in Britain. United States The history of industrial silk in the United States is largely tied to several smaller urban centres in the Northeast region. Beginning in the 1830s, Manchester, Connecticut emerged as the early centre of the silk industry, when the Cheney Brothers became the first to raise silkworms on an industrial scale. With the mulberry tree craze of that decade, other smaller producers began raising silkworms: this economy gained traction around Northampton, Massachusetts and Williamsburg, where a number of small firms and cooperatives emerged. William Skinner, relocated from there to the then-new city of Holyoke after the 1874 flood.