Clarence M. Asbill, Jr. 1902-1987
Machine Design, School of Textiles, NC State
Machine Design, School of Textiles, NC State
Clarence M. Asbill, Jr. Born April 21, 1902 and died April 12, 1987
Years of Service NCSU Textiles 1946-1967
Asbill was born April 21, 1902 in Columbia, S.C. to Clarence M. and Beatrice Watson Asbill.
He graduated from Clemson College in 1925 with a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering and was initiated into
Tau Beta Pi, the national engineering honor society. He had some studies at Cornell but times were tough and
he left for industry.
He went to work for Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co., Broad River Power Company of South
Carolina from 1925-1927. Following the request of his father, he joined the family Asbill Motor Co., dealer for
Dodge and Plymouth automobiles in Columbia. Teaching people how to drive their new cars was not his cup
of tea, so he joined the faculty of Clemson as Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering from 1929- 1935.
He married Benet Katherine Godfrey of Columbia on June 8, 1929. They raised two children, Betty and C.M.A. III
(Buddy).
Following the lead of a good friend he met at Clemson, Malcolm Campbell, he became assistant textile
engineer with the Bureau of Agricultural Economics of the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 1935-1941. He
joined the Southern Regional Research Laboratory, New Orleans, Louisiana, as a cotton technologist from
1941-43. One of his projects resulted in US patent 2,365,793, for a Cotton Working Machine. He then left to join
the Callaway Institute, Inc., LaGrange, Georgia, the research arm of the famous Callaway textile group. There
he was research Engineer and instructed in engineering from 1943-1946. He was in charge of improvement
and design of textile machinery for the mills. (5) One of his projects there resulted in US Patent 2,432,270, for a
Loom Beam.
In 1946, he was pursued to leave industrial research and join with Dean Malcolm Campbell at North Carolina
State College. Clarence sincerely enjoyed working with students and missed his years at Clemson. Campbell
was assembling a group of faculty to meet the onslaught of returning GIs who flooded onto campus after WWII.
He was appointed to head up machine development. It was obvious his fit would be perfect. Campbell had a
pile of inherited laboratory and production scale equipment that he described as “new, used, and junk.” Asbill
got to work improving machines for opening and cleaning cotton and assigned him to simplify knitting
machinery and to apply electronic devices to textile processes and equipment. (5)
Asbill worked with Professor Jack Bogdan to study cotton carding and waste reduction. Improved quality in
industrial production led to national publicity in Textile World magazine. They collaborated on the development
of a Nepotometer in 1954 that allowed companies to sample and determine cotton quality in four minutes. (3,
page 89-90)
Clarence was professor of Machine Design and aided many researchers in creating the equipment needed to
further their students’ research. (1) He also stood by to assist the dean in whatever was needed. “What could
television do to promote on-campus programs to the people back home?” This was the question in the early
1950s. In 1953, the State of North Carolina was assigned eight channels for educational television – UNC-TV
was formed. (3)
Dean Malcolm Campbell and the UNC-TV producers decided to produce a 15-minute show that would answer
the question, “What is a spindle?” For many years the number of spindles in place or operating in textile mills
was the measure of textile progress. You could not haul a full-size spinning frame to the TV studio in Chapel
Hill or move a recording studio to a plant floor or to the labs in the School of Textiles. The producers decided to
ask resident engineering genius and inventor, Clarence Asbill, to build a one-spindle, portable spinning frame –
in three days. Campbell wrote, “He is one of those people who can do the impossible in three days; and we
were not surprised when out of his shop came a perfect little machine, painted a beautiful green.” (2)
Included in his inventions, was a knit weaving machine used to dramatically speed up the production of
dishcloths. In support of other researchers including Charles Livengood, he developed a “shed-tester” to test
the efficiency of new sizing materials. One of the faculty who later became dean was Dame S. Hamby, who was
quoted: “He was a strong member of our research team. If we needed a machine built or manufactured, he
was the one who did it.” He also said: “Asbill left private industry because he liked students and because he
preferred the freedom of academia more than building machines to a company’s specifications." (4)
A Peru Project was begun in 1955 to interact with the Peruvian textile industry. Asbill departed for Peru in early
May and set up a textile instrumentation laboratory and gave lectures on instrumentation. (3, page 109-110)
In 1968, Dr. Robert W. Work, Director of Textile Research, and Asbill, now a retired textile machine design
professor, designed and constructed the only university-built dry fiber-spinning machine in the country.
Professors John A. Cuculo and T. Waller George used this equipment to develop a very successful graduate
research program to develop high strength fibers. (3, page 128)
He was a member of Tau Beta Pi, Sigma Xi and others.
Following retirement, he was elected professor emeritus. Asbill died Palm Sunday April 12, 1987 in Raleigh.
Selected US patents:
1. 2,365,793 issued December 26, 1944 “Cotton Working Machine” assigned to USDA.
2. 2,432,270 issued December 9, 1947 "Loom Beam" assigned to Callaway Mills, LaGrange, Georgia
3. 2,471,055 issued May 24, 1949 "Dispensing Apparatus" assigned to NC State College
4. 2 698 538, issued Jan 4 1955 “Nep Potential Meter,” John F. Bogdan and Clarence M. Asbill, Jr. , Filed
Dec 29, 1953.
Sources:
1. Anderson, Betty Asbill, Personal communication, December 31, 2011.
2. Campbell, Malcolm, “From the Dean’s Desk,” Textile Forum, Vol. 10, No. 1, Feb. 1953, p25-26.
3. Mock, Gary N., A Century of Progress: The Textile Program North Carolina State University 1899-
1999, North Carolina Textile Foundation, Raleigh, 2001.
4. Obituary “Funeral set for Clarence Asbill, Raleigh News & Observer, April 14, 1987.
5. “New Textile School Faculty Members,” Textile Forum, Fall 1946, page 35-36.
6. Asbill, C.F., “What Does Automation Mean?,” Textile Forum, February 1956, pages 8-9, 35.
7. C.M. Asbill, Jr., "A Logical Approach to Textile Automation," Textile Forum, October 1961, pages 12-14, 19-
21.
Page Copyright Gary N. Mock 2012
If you can add information: mock.gary@yahoo.com
Years of Service NCSU Textiles 1946-1967
Asbill was born April 21, 1902 in Columbia, S.C. to Clarence M. and Beatrice Watson Asbill.
He graduated from Clemson College in 1925 with a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering and was initiated into
Tau Beta Pi, the national engineering honor society. He had some studies at Cornell but times were tough and
he left for industry.
He went to work for Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co., Broad River Power Company of South
Carolina from 1925-1927. Following the request of his father, he joined the family Asbill Motor Co., dealer for
Dodge and Plymouth automobiles in Columbia. Teaching people how to drive their new cars was not his cup
of tea, so he joined the faculty of Clemson as Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering from 1929- 1935.
He married Benet Katherine Godfrey of Columbia on June 8, 1929. They raised two children, Betty and C.M.A. III
(Buddy).
Following the lead of a good friend he met at Clemson, Malcolm Campbell, he became assistant textile
engineer with the Bureau of Agricultural Economics of the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 1935-1941. He
joined the Southern Regional Research Laboratory, New Orleans, Louisiana, as a cotton technologist from
1941-43. One of his projects resulted in US patent 2,365,793, for a Cotton Working Machine. He then left to join
the Callaway Institute, Inc., LaGrange, Georgia, the research arm of the famous Callaway textile group. There
he was research Engineer and instructed in engineering from 1943-1946. He was in charge of improvement
and design of textile machinery for the mills. (5) One of his projects there resulted in US Patent 2,432,270, for a
Loom Beam.
In 1946, he was pursued to leave industrial research and join with Dean Malcolm Campbell at North Carolina
State College. Clarence sincerely enjoyed working with students and missed his years at Clemson. Campbell
was assembling a group of faculty to meet the onslaught of returning GIs who flooded onto campus after WWII.
He was appointed to head up machine development. It was obvious his fit would be perfect. Campbell had a
pile of inherited laboratory and production scale equipment that he described as “new, used, and junk.” Asbill
got to work improving machines for opening and cleaning cotton and assigned him to simplify knitting
machinery and to apply electronic devices to textile processes and equipment. (5)
Asbill worked with Professor Jack Bogdan to study cotton carding and waste reduction. Improved quality in
industrial production led to national publicity in Textile World magazine. They collaborated on the development
of a Nepotometer in 1954 that allowed companies to sample and determine cotton quality in four minutes. (3,
page 89-90)
Clarence was professor of Machine Design and aided many researchers in creating the equipment needed to
further their students’ research. (1) He also stood by to assist the dean in whatever was needed. “What could
television do to promote on-campus programs to the people back home?” This was the question in the early
1950s. In 1953, the State of North Carolina was assigned eight channels for educational television – UNC-TV
was formed. (3)
Dean Malcolm Campbell and the UNC-TV producers decided to produce a 15-minute show that would answer
the question, “What is a spindle?” For many years the number of spindles in place or operating in textile mills
was the measure of textile progress. You could not haul a full-size spinning frame to the TV studio in Chapel
Hill or move a recording studio to a plant floor or to the labs in the School of Textiles. The producers decided to
ask resident engineering genius and inventor, Clarence Asbill, to build a one-spindle, portable spinning frame –
in three days. Campbell wrote, “He is one of those people who can do the impossible in three days; and we
were not surprised when out of his shop came a perfect little machine, painted a beautiful green.” (2)
Included in his inventions, was a knit weaving machine used to dramatically speed up the production of
dishcloths. In support of other researchers including Charles Livengood, he developed a “shed-tester” to test
the efficiency of new sizing materials. One of the faculty who later became dean was Dame S. Hamby, who was
quoted: “He was a strong member of our research team. If we needed a machine built or manufactured, he
was the one who did it.” He also said: “Asbill left private industry because he liked students and because he
preferred the freedom of academia more than building machines to a company’s specifications." (4)
A Peru Project was begun in 1955 to interact with the Peruvian textile industry. Asbill departed for Peru in early
May and set up a textile instrumentation laboratory and gave lectures on instrumentation. (3, page 109-110)
In 1968, Dr. Robert W. Work, Director of Textile Research, and Asbill, now a retired textile machine design
professor, designed and constructed the only university-built dry fiber-spinning machine in the country.
Professors John A. Cuculo and T. Waller George used this equipment to develop a very successful graduate
research program to develop high strength fibers. (3, page 128)
He was a member of Tau Beta Pi, Sigma Xi and others.
Following retirement, he was elected professor emeritus. Asbill died Palm Sunday April 12, 1987 in Raleigh.
Selected US patents:
1. 2,365,793 issued December 26, 1944 “Cotton Working Machine” assigned to USDA.
2. 2,432,270 issued December 9, 1947 "Loom Beam" assigned to Callaway Mills, LaGrange, Georgia
3. 2,471,055 issued May 24, 1949 "Dispensing Apparatus" assigned to NC State College
4. 2 698 538, issued Jan 4 1955 “Nep Potential Meter,” John F. Bogdan and Clarence M. Asbill, Jr. , Filed
Dec 29, 1953.
Sources:
1. Anderson, Betty Asbill, Personal communication, December 31, 2011.
2. Campbell, Malcolm, “From the Dean’s Desk,” Textile Forum, Vol. 10, No. 1, Feb. 1953, p25-26.
3. Mock, Gary N., A Century of Progress: The Textile Program North Carolina State University 1899-
1999, North Carolina Textile Foundation, Raleigh, 2001.
4. Obituary “Funeral set for Clarence Asbill, Raleigh News & Observer, April 14, 1987.
5. “New Textile School Faculty Members,” Textile Forum, Fall 1946, page 35-36.
6. Asbill, C.F., “What Does Automation Mean?,” Textile Forum, February 1956, pages 8-9, 35.
7. C.M. Asbill, Jr., "A Logical Approach to Textile Automation," Textile Forum, October 1961, pages 12-14, 19-
21.
Page Copyright Gary N. Mock 2012
If you can add information: mock.gary@yahoo.com
Clarence M. Asbill, Jr. 1946
Courtesy Textile Forum (5)
Click images to enlarge
Courtesy Textile Forum (5)
Click images to enlarge
Left: Knit/weaving machine
Right: Machine shop
Right: Machine shop
Instrumentation
classroom
classroom
Both: Carding research
Right: Asbill on far right
Right: Asbill on far right
Asbill with the Nepotometer he designed
working with Jack Bogdan.
working with Jack Bogdan.
Right: Shedtester used to evaluate the
quality of the warp protection given by size
quality of the warp protection given by size
Above: Dishcloth Fabrics made on Knit
Weaving machine
Weaving machine
