Erastus Brigham Bigelow (April 2, 1814 - December 6, 1879) was an American inventor of weaving machines. He showed an inventive genius at the early age of 14, when he invented a machine to manufacture piping cord. He then devised a hand loom for suspender webbing. His work on Stenography (1832), a short manual on shorthand writing, was written and published about this time. In 1838, he invented a power loom for weaving knotted counterpanes, and later a power loom to weave coach lace. In 1839 he was contracted to produce a power loom capable of weaving two-ply ingrain carpets. With his first loom he succeeded in obtaining ten or twelve yards daily, which he increased by improvements until a product of twenty-five yards was regularly obtained. Afterward he invented a power loom for weaving "Brussels" (pictorial tapestry) and velvet tapestry carpets, his most important invention, which attracted much attention at the World's Fair in London in 1851. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1866. He died in 1879 at the age of 65.