In 1778, Robert Knox, the son of a farmer, set up a small unit for bleaching linen fabrics.  Robert decided to become a flax spinner, using the local crop and water power from the River Garnock.  Soon he was manufacturing sewing thread for the tailoring trade and flax twine for hand-made fish netting.  His two sons, William and James, built a five storied building to house flax machinery in 1840 and the business expanded rapidly from there on.

Around 1900 semi-automatic machines became available for the manufacture of fishing nets. They were assisted by workers operating wooden pedals, to produce single knotted herring drift nets.

With foresight, Knox conceived the idea of double knot flax netting for the Canadian Salmon fishery.  Along with a French engineer,  they developed a fully automatic machine ("Bonamie“) and for years only double knot nets were acceptable in BC, a major market at that time. With their partners, the Knox family became equipped with more "Bonamie" machines than all the other netting manufacturers in the world put together.