William Mills (inventor) William Mills (inventor) Sir William Mills (24 April 1856 - 1932) of Sunderland was an English engineer, who invented the Mills bomb which was developed and manufactured at his factory in Birmingham, England. The Mills bomb was the hand grenade most widely used by British and Imperial forces during the First World War. He was knighted in 1922. William Mills was born on 26 April 1856 in Wear Street, Southwick, Sunderland. He was the son of David Mills, a shipbuilder, and his wife Sarah Ann Kirkaldy. The Sunderland historian James Watson Corder recorded that David Mills had an interest in
Durfee Mills 3 in 1881, raising the capacity to 109,360 spindles. It produced 23 million yards of cotton cloth annually. The company was liquidated in 1935. In 1968, the site was photographed by Jack E. Boucher as part of the Historic American Buildings Survey. Durfee Mills Durfee Mills is an historic textile mill complex located at 359-479 Pleasant Street in Fall River, Massachusetts. Developed between 1866 and 1904, it was during its period of development the city's largest and architecturally finest mill complex. Along with the adjacent Union Mills, it is occupied by numerous retail businesses and a restaurant, and is known