Aug. 10, 2015 – The Blackstone River’s connection to lobstering is little known, even here in Worcester County. Thousands pass every day through Northbridge on Route 122 driving obliviously right by Riverdale Street. A very short ride down that inconspicuously marked road takes you to the river and a beautiful old mill that has played a significant role in our local history, most notably today for lobstermen.

Back in 1852, Sylvanus Holbrook built the granite part of the mill for the first mass production of scythes. A decade later, the mill was expanded with much brick work to forge bayonets for the Union Army in the Civil War. The Whitin family, for whom Whitinsville is named, made woolen cloth there until 1910, when the Kupfer Brothers manufactured special coated papers. The historical mill fell on hard times with a shift in manufacturing and was much run down until 1979. Then along came James Knott, a Harvard graduate with an economics degree and a successful background running Sudbury’s Coatings Engineering Corporation, the largest custom plastic coater in the world.

Knott began producing a new, first-of-its-kind, marine-grade mesh wire specifically engineered for ocean use. He called it Aquamesh, and it quickly spread into the world of commercial fishing, farming, industry and aquaculture. To make this wire capable of withstanding the harshest sub-sea conditions, he developed a proprietary galvanized after-welding and PVC coating process. The superior advantages of Knott’s product were soon clear.

Read the entire Telegram Article: Outdoors: There’s a local, inland touch to lobstering