1973: Tai Ping motorises the tufting gun
Research finding · not yet checked at the source
- Date
- 1973
- Collection
- Tuft the World research brief: The Non-English Record
- Publisher
- Hong Kong Heritage Project
- Themes
- Global diffusion of tufting, Hand-tufting tools & the gun
Cite this source
Research notes
Confirmed on the Hong Kong Heritage Project page. Date conflict: a 2021 trade article (BJI) credits Yeh with a pneumatic tufting gun in 1960, and Hong Kong heritage articles call Tai Ping's 1973 gun 全球首枝 ("the world's first"). The US patents in this database (motor-driven hand tools from 1932; "tufting gun" in print by 1964) contradict any "world's first" claim. The handheld tufting gun, powered and lightened. Citation check (Oct 2026, from search results; pages not opened): confirmed. HKHP says that in 1973 Tai Ping fitted the tufting gun with a motor and reduced its weight. The English version says a lightweight motorised tufting gun was invented that year. The exact Chinese string did not match in search, but a close paraphrase was shown. Conflicting dates exist elsewhere: a 2021 BJI trade article credits Yeh with a PNEUMATIC tufting gun in 1960, another source says Yeh's 'first electrical tufting gun' was patented in 1960, and HK articles say Yeh 'invented the tufting gun' in 1973. No Yeh patent was found. Source: Tai Ping Carpets: A Humble Beginning in Hong Kong 篳路藍縷：太平地氈, Hong Kong Heritage Project, 1973 (event). Found at: https://www.hongkongheritage.org/nodes/view/25832 Also: https://bji.mydigitalpublication.co.uk/september-2021/page-42 · https://www.hkrch.org/heritagethewayforward-stories/%E7%AC%AC%E4%B8%80%E9%96%93%E5%A4%A7%E5%9F%94%E7%8F%BE%E4%BB%A3%E5%8C%96%E5%B7%A5%E5%BB%A0-%E2%80%94%E2%80%94%E5%A4%AA%E5%B9%B3%E5%9C%B0%E6%B0%88