In this connection, he was able to enlist the interest of two men, who both had connections in the insurance industry. The first of was Major Hesketh, a cotton spinner in a large business in Bolton who was also Chairman of the Bolton Cotton Trades Mutual Insurance Company. The Directors of this Company and its Secretary, Peter Kevan, took an interest in Parmalee’s early experiments. Hesketh got Parmalee his first order for sprinkler installations in the cotton spinning mills of John Stones & Company, at Astley Bridge, Bolton. This was followed soon afterwards by an order from the Alexandra Mills, owned by John Butler of the same town.