The commissioning in 1847 of Savva Vasilyevich Morozov's Nikolskoye mill at Orekhovo-Zuyevo, Knoop's sixth, was seen as a landmark in the industry's development in Russia.

In 1852, he founded L Knoop & Co, in association with De Jersey and the machinery manufacturer Platt Brothers of Oldham, Lancashire.

In 1857, he built the largest cotton spinning mill in Europe on the island of Kreenholm at Narva, Estonia, which employed 4,500 people.

It paid low wages, but took its responsibilities to its workforce seriously, introducing a health insurance scheme and supplying workers with dwellings, kindergartens, and schools.

They had 3 sons and 3 daughters:[1] He died on 16 August 1894 at St Magnus, Bremen, German empire, where a city park created from his estate is named after him.