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 cut ...

(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 the U.S. state of New York and the county seat of Rensselaer County. The city is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany a ...

. During 1904–1917, Cluett had served in the

New York National Guard The New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs (NYS DMNA) is responsible for the state's New York Army National Guard, New York Air National Guard, New York Guard and the New York Naval Militia. It is headed by Adjutant General of New ...

, reaching the rank of major.

Life and work

Sanford Lockwood Cluett was born on June 6, 1874, in

Troy, NY Troy is a city in the U.S. state of New York and the county seat of Rensselaer County. The city is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany an ...

, 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 professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage ...

degree from

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute () (RPI) is a private research university in Troy, New York, with an additional campus in Hartford, Connecticut. A third campus in Groton, Connecticut closed in 2018. RPI was established in 1824 by Stephen Van ...

(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 recorde ...

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

Spanish–American War , partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence , image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg , image_size = 300px , caption = (clock ...

. 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 of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

. 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 celes ...

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 of ...

. 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 agricultural machinery, farm implement or person that wikt:reap#Verb, reaps (cuts and often also gathers) crops at harvest when they are ripe. Usually the crop involved is a cereal grass. The first documented reaping machines were ...

s and other

farm machinery Agricultural machinery relates to the mechanical structures and devices used in farming or other agriculture. There are many types of such equipment, from hand tools and power tools to tractors and the countless kinds of farm implements that the ...

. 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, tires, 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. Located on a barrier island in east-central Palm Beach County, the town is separated from several nearby cities including West Palm Beach and Lake Worth Beach by the Intracoas ...

, 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