Paul Moody (inventor)

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Paul Moody (1779 - July 5, 1831) was a U.S. textile machinery inventor born in Byfield, Massachusetts. He went to work at a Nail Factory in Amesbury, Massachusetts. He partnered with Ezra Worthen, and together they ran a textile mill powered by the Powow River. Moody was head machinist at the Lowell Machine Shop, in what was later called Lowell, Massachusetts, when it was established in 1824. Working with Francis Cabot Lowell, he created America's first functional power loom, a revolutionary device that could turn cotton threads into finished fabric at a fast speed. Lowell and Moody conceived of a new way of manufacturing textiles in America by amassing hundreds of power looms that were connected by water-powered line shafts and leather belts. These looms were operated almost entirely by young female laborers as part of the paternalistic Lowell system of employment. Paul Moody was later honored by having streets in Waltham and Lowell, Massachusetts named after him, although a section of the one in Lowell was later renamed University Avenue.