Comfort Thorp, the younger brother of textile machinery inventor John Thorp, worked for Thomas and William Fletcher in their mill near North Providence. His patent improved the method of securing and holding the cop, or yarn cylinder, on the common power loom shuttle, preventing slips that would waste yarn and cause imperfections in the woven cloth.
The patent model he submitted contained two types of tongues. One used a common round tongue with wire spiraled around it. The other consisted of a tongue with ridges or notches similar to the teeth of a saw blade. The two loom shuttle tongues were neatly exhibited in a box, probably to keep them from being separated or lost in the cases at the Patent Office.