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Biddeford History & Heritage Project

Sharing the history of a proud city rising where the water falls

Charles A. Shaw

Loom Picker Company, Biddeford, ca. 1873

Loom Picker Company, Biddeford, ca. 1873

Item 31800 info
Biddeford Historical Society

Although best known for his sewing machines, Mr. Shaw developed other inventions, including a patent for photography that made it possible to reduce the amount of time required for taking a photograph from many minutes to fractions of seconds. At one time he owned a factory that made paper collars, the forerunner of the celluloid collar. Shaw married Sophia Priest of Biddeford in 1852, and the couple had one son, Otis.


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