The Textile Machine Works began as a braiding machines repair and replacement company for German imported equipment, but they began building their own braiding machines in late 1892. The Textile Machine Works was founded by Henry Janssen (1866-1948) and Ferdinand Thun (1866-1949) on July 5, 1892, in Reading, Pennsylvania.

Both Thun and Janssen were born in Barmen, Germany, in 1866. Thun came to America in 1886 and worked as a bookkeeper. He returned to Germany in 1889 to study the making of braids and trimmings. In 1889, he returned to America as superintendent of the Sutro Brothers' braid manufacturing plant in New York. He again met Henry Janssen, who had joined the Castle Braid Company in Brooklyn the previous year. The two men moved to Reading, Pennsylvania, and organized the Textile Machine Works in 1892.

Initially, the company did repair and replacement work for braiding machines, which were then almost exclusively imported from Germany. However, the imposition of the McKinley tariff of 1890 created a protected niche that Thun and Janssen were able to occupy. The company built its first braiding machine in late 1892, and in 1896, Thun and Janssen moved their operation to a larger suburban site in nearby Wyomissing. The growing electrical industry was consuming ever greater quantities of braided coverings for wire and cable. Thun and Janssen set up their own battery of braiding machines and organized the Narrow Fabric Company on January 2, 1900.

Soon afterward, the Textile Machine Works assembled the first American full-fashioned knitting machine (full-fashioned is a knitted garment shaped or seamed to fit close to the body). Production increased from about 100 per year in 1912 to more than 1,000 per year by 1926, as the market for full-fashioned hosiery expanded. However, because sales of the machines had initially been weak, Thun and Janssen set up an experimental hosiery factory to further test and perfect their product. In 1906, it was incorporated separately as the Berkshire Knitting Mills under the management of one of their associates, Gustav Oberlaender (1867-1936). The plant became the largest full-fashioned knitting mill in the world.

Labor relations at the Textile Machine Works were characterized by paternalism, as Thun and Janssen constructed company housing and a company store for their employees. To train mechanics, they established a separate educational department in 1927 known as the Wyomissing Trade School. Its scope widened, and it was incorporated in March 1933 as the Wyomissing Polytechnic Institute, eventually becoming a fully-accredited junior engineering college. Other community services included a dispensary, library, insurance, health and benefit associations.

With the growing substitution of artificial natural fibers after World War II, the Textile Machine Works began a long decline. It continued to produce machinery for a shrinking cotton and silk market. It finally closed its doors in 1982.

In 1926, Thun and his wife, Anna Grebe Thun (1873-1948), established the Wyomissing Foundation, a charitable organization for the greater Reading community that is still active today.