 When the cotton firm of Thomas Ainsworth's father went bankrupt, Thomas and his brother, Edward Ainsworth, moved with their families to France and later on to Belgium to work in the cotton industry.Later, in Belgium, Thomas worked in the blast furnace of John Cockerill in Seraing.When the Belgian Revolution started Thomas moved to the Netherlands and lived for more than a year in the Zaanstreek before he got the idea to go to Elberfeld, Germany to work with chemical aspects of the textile industry which he was very much interested in as later found in a book that he worked for Van Gelder, Schouten & Co where they made bleached and colored paper.