Cobble (Cobble Brothers / Singer-Cobble / Vandewiele)
Company · not yet checked at the source · Image permission pending
- Made by
- Joe C. Cobble and brothers; later Spencer H. Wright
- Date
- 1930s (Cobble brothers); UK subsidiary 1955
- Place
- Chattanooga, Tennessee; Blackburn, England; Dalton, Georgia
- Held by
- Cobble (Cobble Brothers / Singer-Cobble / Vandewiele)
- Themes
- Tools & equipment, Machine tufting & Dalton
Cite this source
Research notes
Card-Monroe's history says the Cobble brothers began making tufting equipment for chenille bedspreads in the 1930s; Joe Cobble and George Muse's multi-needle patent (see pat-us2335487a) is credited locally as the basis of modern tufting machines. Grace's Guide: Cobble Brothers Machinery opened a British subsidiary in 1955; by 1960 the US parent was taken over by Singer, making Singer-Cobble, which also absorbed British Tufting Machinery of Blackburn. Spencer H. Wright led Cobble for 30+ years (Spencer Wright Industries; died 2010), with plants in Blackburn and Dalton. Vandewiele (Belgium) bought Cobble in 2013. Why it matters: the founding machine-maker lineage of tufting, and how it moved from Chattanooga to Britain and then into a Belgian group. Lewis and Roy Card (Tuftco, Card-Monroe) started at Cobble. Dates: Chattanooga location is from Card-Monroe and local history; Grace's Guide does not name the town. 2013 acquisition from Vandewiele's timeline. Other pages with images: https://vandewiele.com/about-vandewiele-group/history-of-vandewiele · https://bandyheritagecenter.pastperfectonline.com/photo/15D19585-9771-4D81-93B8-316203478586 Independent sources: https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Singer-Cobble · https://www.texdata.com/news/Associations/5514.Death-of-tufting-machinery-poineer-Spencer-H--Whright.html · https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=171571 Research note (Oct 2026): facts taken from search-result summaries; the pages themselves weren't opened. Check the cited pages before quoting.