Lyall, James
soldier, manufacturer, inventor, was born Sept. 13, 1836, in Scotland. At the beginning of the civil war he served with the twelfth New York infantry in the defences of Washington. In 1863 he invented a simple mixture for enameling cloth, which was approved by the United States government, and led to his receiving large contracts for the manufacture of knapsacks and haversacks. In 1868 he invented the Lyall positive-motion loom, which has since been adopted by the largest mills in the United States, and also in Europe, China and Japan.