Cotton millA cotton mill is a factory that houses spin-ning and weaving machinery. Typically builtbetween 1775 and 1930, mills spun cottonwhich was an important product during theIndustrial Revolution.

Cotton mills, and the mechanisation of thespinning process, was instrumental in thegrowth of the machine tool industry, enablingthe construction of larger cotton mills. Therequirement for water helped stimulate theconstruction of the canal system, and theneed for power the development of steam en-gines. limited companies were developed toconstruct the mills. This led to the tradingfloors of the cotton exchange of Manchester,which in its turn created a vast commercialcity. The mills also created extra employ-ment, leading to the expansion of local popu-lations and the need for extra housing. In re-sponse, mill towns with municipal govern-ments were created. The mills provided inde-pendent incomes for girls and women. Childlabour was used in the mills, and the factorysystem led to organised labour. Poor condi-tions in cotton mills became the subject of ex-poses and the Factory Acts were written toregulate them. The cotton mill was originallya Lancashire phenomenon that then wascopied in New England and later in thesouthern states of America. In the twentiethcentury, North West England lost its suprem-acy to the United States, then India and thenChina. In the twenty-first century redundantmills have been accepted as part of a coun-try’s heritage and re-developed for otheruses.

Cotton processingCotton Manufacturing Processes (after Murray 1911)

Bale Breaker Blowing Room

Willowing

Breaker Scutcher Batting

Finishing Scutcher Lapping

Carding Carding Room

Silver Lap

Combing

Drawing

Slubbing

Intermediate

Roving Fine Roving

Mule Spinning - Ring Spinning Spinning

Reeling Doubling

Winding Bundling Bleaching

Winding

Warping Cabling

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Sizing/Slashing/Dressing Gassing

Weaving Spooling

Cloth Yarn (Cheese)- - Bundle Sewing Thread

HistoryThe English cotton mill, which emerged as aentity in 1771, went though many changesbefore the last one was constructed in 1929.It had a world-wide influence on the designof mills, and changed over time. The architec-tural development of the cotton mill waslinked to the development of the machinerywhich it contained, the power unit that droveit, and the financial instruments used for itsconstruction. In Lancashire England the in-dustry was horizontally integrated, with card-ing and spinning only in south east Lan-cashire, while weaving was more evenlyspread but more concentrated to the northand west of the county. In the USA inPennsylvania, the process was mostly vertic-ally integrated and led to combined millswhere carding, spinning and weaving tookplace in the same mill. Mills were also usedfor finishing such as bleaching and printing.

First millsWater power (1760-1800)

Masson Mill

The early mills were narrow and low inheight, of light construction, powered by wa-ter wheels and containing small machines.Interior lighting was by daylight, and ceilingheight was only 6-8 ft. Masson Mill in Derby-shire is a good example of an early mill. Mills

were made by millwrights, builders and ironfounders. These Arkwright type mills areabout 9 feet (2.7 m) wide. [1] Spinning wasdone with a spinning mule, which was not re-stricted by patent, so many engineers experi-mented with improvements which they thentested in their own establishments. Thesemen became the successful mill owners.[2]

Though the first textile mill in the UnitedStates was built in 1787 at Beverly, Mas-sachusetts by entrepreneur John Cabot, thefirst commercially successful cotton-spinningmill with a fully mechanized water power sys-tem, Slater Mill, was built in 1790 on theBlackstone River in Pawtucket, Rhode Islandby Samuel Slater (an immigrant and trainedtextile worker from England). Slater man-aged to evade restrictions on emigrationwhich were put in place to allow England tomaintain its monopoly on cotton mills. SlaterMill resembled a mill in Derbyshire that hehad worked in.[3]

Atmospheric engines (1800-1815)

North Mill, Belper (1803), with the later EastMill (1913) behind. This is a fireproof, metalframed water mill.

Old Mill and Decker Mill (1901), Murrays’Mills, Ancoats

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Water powered mills were common. The firststeam mills used the engine to drive a pumpto raise water in order to run a water wheel.Though water continued to be used to drivemills in the country, the next developmentwas the small town mills, driven by steam,situated alongside a canal which providedwater for its engine. Murrays’ Mills alongsidethe Rochdale Canal, in Ancoats werepowered by 40 hp Boulton and Watt beam en-gines.[4] Some were built as room andpower mills which let space to entrepren-eurs. These mills, often ’L’ or ’U’ shaped,were narrow and multi-storied. The enginehouse, warehousing and the office were inthe mill, though stair towers were external.Windows were square and smaller than inlatter mills. The walls were of unadornedrough brick. Construction was to fireproofdesigns. They are distinguished from ware-houses in that warehouses had taking-indoors on each storey with an external hoistbeam.[5] Only the larger mills have survived.

Mills of this period were from 25 to 56 mlong and 11.5 m to 15 m wide. They could be8 storeys high and have basements and at-tics. Floor height went from 3.3 to 2.75 m onthe upper storeys.

Boilers were of the wagon type; chimneyswere square or rectangular, attached to themill, and in some cases part of the staircolumn. The steam engines were typicallylow-pressure single-cylinder condensingbeam engines. [6] The average power in 1835was 48 hp.[7] Power was transmitted by amain vertical shaft with bevel gears to thehorizontal shafts. The later mills had gaslighting using gas produced on site. [8] Themules with 250-350 spindles were placedtransversely to get as much light as possible.

Remodelling and expansion (therise of the factory) 1815-1855

McConnel & Company mills, about 1820

William Fairbairn’s Lancashire boiler

From 1825 the steam engine was able topower larger machines which were construc-ted from iron using improved machine tools.Mills from 1825-1865 were generally con-structed with wooden beamed floors and lathand plaster ceilings. William Fairbairn exper-imented with cast iron beams and concretefloors. Mills were of red brick or sometimeslocal stone, but there was a greater attentionto decoration, with pilasters, and the maingate was often highlighted with stone decora-tion. The stair columns were still exterior tothe main floors.[9] During this period themules got wider and the width of the bays in-creased. Specialised mill architects ap-peared. In rural areas the mill and its associ-ated village were often built together, but inthe city the mill was built separately.

Mills of this period were still tall, narrow,and wide. They were commonly built withone or two wings to form an ’L’ or ’U’ shape.Brunswick Mill was a twenty eight bay mill, 6storeys of 16 m by 92 m. Each self-actingspinning mule had 500 spindles.[9] Singlestorey north light weaving sheds were some-times added to these mills. The looms oftencaused vibrations that would damage thestructure of multi-storey buildings,[10] so spe-cialised weaving mills became common.There would be a single storey weaving shedwith the steam engine and offices, and pre-paration and warehousing in a two storey an-cillary building.

This was a period when there were majoradvances in steam engine technology. TheLancashire boiler was patented in in 1844,and the Economiser in 1845. This can beenseen as a square brick structure between theboiler house and the chimney. The enginewould be a double compound upright beamengine of the type patented by Mc Naught in1845. Each room would have a line shaftssuitable for the type of frame, connected bybelt drives or gearing.[11]

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The Cotton Famine of 1861-1865, whenAmerican long staple cotton became unavail-able due to an American Civil War marked aend to this phase of mill construction.

New EnglandIn New England, 1814, the Boston Manufac-turing Company’s established a "fully-integ-rated" mill on the Charles River at Waltham,Massachusetts. In spite of the UK ban on ex-porting technology, one of its proprietors,Francis Cabot Lowell, had travelled toManchester to study the mill system andmemorised its details. Simultaneously, PaulMoody built the first successful power loomin America. Paul Moody used a system ofoverhead pulleys and leather belting insteadof bevel gearing, to power his machines.[12]The group devised the Waltham System ofworking, which was duplicated at Lowell,Massachusetts and several other new citiesthroughout New England. Here the mill girls,some as young as 10, were paid less than themen but received a fixed wage for their73 hour week and lived in company boarding-houses and attended churches supported bythe companies.[13][14]

In the 1840s George Henry Corliss ofProvidence, Rhode Island worked on improv-ing the reliability of the Stationary steam en-gines. He replaced the slide valves withvalves using cams. These Corliss valves weremore reliable. At first steam engines wereused to pump water into the mills reservoirso it could drive the water wheel, then theybecame the mills main power unit. The valvewas adopted too in the UK where in 1868,more than 60 mill engines were using Corlissvalves. [15]

Later generations 1855-1898(the Golden Age)Just before 1870, a mill was built by a joint-stock spinning company and this financialstructure led to a new wave of mill construc-tion. The phrase Oldham Limiteds describesthese companies. The family run firms contin-ued to build, but grouped into associationssuch as the Fine Spinners’ and Doublers’ As-sociation. Joseph Stott of Oldham perfected anew method of fireproof floor constructionusing steel beams supporting brick vaultsthat in turn supported a concrete floors thatwould support heavier equipment. Ringframes replaced mule frames, they were

Central office and warehouse block,Houldsworth Mill, Reddish

heavier and larger and must be placed trans-versely, the floors became larger (up to130 feet (40 m) wide) and higher to providethe light. The bay size in a mill was import-ant, as it defined the positioning of machines.In an 1870 mill the bay was 10 feet 6 inches(3.2 m), and the brick vaults 5 feet 3 inches(1.6 m). though there were variations. [16]

Engines were run at higher pressures andfrom 1875, powered the horizontal shafts oneach floor by means of ropes. This was aprominent change as a rope race had to builtrunning the whole height of the mill. The en-gine needed more space and the enginehouse, boiler house and economiser werebuilt external to the main mill.[17] Mills con-tinued to get bigger, and were often paired;two mills being driven by one engine. Anoth-er prominent change was the trend of havingall the carding done on one floor. To achievethis, the ground floor was extended outwardsbehind the mill often a full mill width.[18] In asingle mill, the crosswall was used to dividethe blowing room from the rest, as it washere that there was greatest risk of fire.

Mills of this period became very muchwider, Houldsworth Mill, Reddish (1865) was35m wide and would accommodate 1200spindle mules. It was 4 storeys and had six-teen wider bays on each side of a central en-gine house. In fact a double mill. The centralblock provided for office and warehousing. Amill was accompanied by a complete range ofancillary building.[18] Stair columns were fea-tured, often extending above the mill andhousing a water tank for the sprinkler sys-tem. The floors became higher allowing for

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taller windows. Accrington brick was usedfrom 1890, decorated with yellow sandstonewith moulded brick and terracotta features.Etched and stained glass was used in the of-fices. Mills were designed by specialist archi-tects and architectural quality became a ma-jor consideration.[19]

The power needed and provided to drivethese mills was increasing. Beam engineswere still installed until the 1870s when hori-zontal engines took over. Abbey Mill Oldham(1876) needed 700 hp, Nile Mill (1896)needed 2500 hp. By the 1890, boilers wereproducing 160 psi, and the triple expansionhorizontals became standard. Chimneys wereoctagonal. [20]

American contextFollowing the American Civil War mills grewlarger. They started to be built in the south-ern states of South Carolina, Alabama, andMississippi, where cheap labour and plentifulwater power made operations profitable. Cot-ton could be processed into fabric where itgrew, saving transportation costs. Thesewere usually combination mills, (spinningand weaving) that were water powered andused a slow burn design technique. Theyused a belt and pulley drive system, and theheavier ring frames rather than mules. Atthis point they only spun and wove coarsecounts. The mills were mainly in open coun-try and milltowns were formed to supportthem.New England mills found it increasinglydifficult to compete, and as in Lancashire,went into gradual decline until finally bank-rupted during the Great Depression. Cottonmills and their owners dominated the eco-nomy and politics of the Piedmont well intothe twentieth century.

Edwardian mills (Indian Sum-mer) 1898-1914Production peaked in 1912. The war of1914-1918 put the Lancashire industry intoreverse. The British government, starved ofraw cotton established mills in south Asia ex-porting the spinning technology- which wascopied, and became a low labour cost com-petitor. In Germany, Flanders and Brazilmills were built to the designs of the Oldhamarchitects. The only new mills were verylarge to benefit from the economies of scale.Older mills were re-equipt with rings, and

Kent mill, in Chadderton, in GreaterManchester.

machines were powered by individual elec-tric motors.

Mills of this period were large, their dec-oration was lavish reflecting Edwardian tasteand prosperity. [21]. Most mills were built formules. Kent Mill Chadderton (1908) was afive storey, 11 bay mill, 84.6m x 43.9m. Ithad 90,000 spindles. Ring frames were smal-ler and heavier than mules so the mills werenarrower with fewer storeys. Pear Mill Bred-bury (1912) was planned to be a 210,000spindle double mill.[22] Only the first mill wascompleted, it had 137,000 spindles. They hadmore stair columns than earlier mills, it haddust flues often built into the rope race.There were two or three windows per bay.Decoration was often in terracotta and themill name displayed in white brick on the stirtower or chimney[23].Stott and Sons em-ployed Byzantine styling in Broadstone Mill,Reddish. Specialist architects built new millsand then created extensions. The last steampowered mill, Elk Mill, was built by ArthurTurner

Mules were built with 1300 spindles, butwere gradually replaced by rings

The increasingly powerful engines re-quired more boilers with economisers and su-perheaters.[24] Mills needed reservoirs tosupply the boilers and condense the steam.

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The chimneys were round and taller. Threetypes of engines were used: triple expansionhorizontal cross compound engines, Invertedmarine type compounds which were morecompact, and Manhattans with vertical andhorizontal cylinders such as the 3500hp en-gine at New Pear Mill. Rope drives were usedexclusively. Electricity was gradually intro-duced firstly on group drives driving a shaft(Little Mill, 1908), and then later on individu-al machines.[25]

American context

Ware Shoals Mill, South Carolina

Mill constructed in South Carolina, in-creased in size. For example, at RutledgeFord, on the Saluda River, the river wasdammed and a power plant constructed. Thiswas completed in 1904, as a prelude to theconstruction of a state-of-the-art textile millin 1906. That power plant originally providedfor 4,800 horse power. The mill contained30,000 spindles. By 1916 a new mill was con-structed, containing 70,200 spindles and1,300 looms. The town was named WareShoals. Between 1904 and 1916, the popula-tion of Ware Shoals had grown from 2 menemployed to maintain the newly constructedpower plant, to 2,000. By the 1960s the millwas employing 5,000 people. It closed 1985.

Consolidation (boom and bust)1918-1950For more details on this topic, see LancashireCotton Corporation.The last mills were completed in 1926,Holden Mill. Elk Mill. In 1929, for the firsttime there were more spindles in the USAthan in The UK. In 1972, India had greaterspindleage than the USA and it in its turnwas surpasses by China in 1977.[26] The Lan-cashire Cotton Corporation was a companyset up by the Bank of England in 1929, to

Elk

rescue the Lancashire spinning industry bymeans of consolidation. In merged 105 com-panies, ending up in 1950 with 53 operatingmills. It was bought up by Courtaulds inAugust 1964.

The long decline in England(1950-2000)End of spinning 1950-1960Final days 1960-2000

Regeneration

Cotton mill designThe following had to be considered:1. The cotton count (the coarseness of the

yarn)2. The type of machinery chosen3. The site4. The water supply5. Transport6. Building materials available7. Fireproofing and sprinklers8. Prime motor9. Class of gearing

Cotton mill and waterThe earliest cotton mills were driven by wa-ter, so needed to be situated on fast flowingstreams. The labour force, in the main hadcarding, spinning and weaving skills acquiredby working with wool. The earliest mills wereadjacent to streams flowing off the open westfacing moors where the rainfall was thehighest. As capacity grew, navigable water-ways were needed to bring in the raw materi-als and take away the finished yarn or cloth.Rivers were canalised and a network of

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canals was dug to penetrate further into thehills to service the mills.

From about 1820, the stationary steam en-gine became the normal form of power for acotton mill, water was still needed to producethe steam and to condense it, to maintain thehumidity, for many of the finishing processesand for firefighting. The water was extractedfrom rivers and canals, then later mills re-quiring ever more water, built and main-tained their own reservoirs. Mills were builtaway from the hills, and clustered around wa-tercourses, developing into mill towns. Millswere also used for wet finishing processessuch as bleaching, dyeing and printing- thesewere very water intensive.

ConstructionMills were very prone to fires. The originalfloor structure was one of wooden beams,supporting a double layer wooden floor, theunderside being protected with lathe andplaster, when a fire started the lathsprovided kindling, the void enabled the fire tospread rapidly, and the flooring provided thefuel. The British endeavoured to build a fire-proof mill, and the Americans experimentedwith slow burn techniques, essentially usingmore massive timbers. [27]

In a fireproof mill the wooden frame wasencased in brick or removed entirely and thewooden floor beams replaced with cast iron.An early fireproof mill is Strutt’s North Mill,Belper. Between the cast iron beams one,two, or three layer brick vaults ware con-structed these were smoothed off at the topwith an infill of rubble to form the floor. Likeeverything in the cotton industry, each innov-ation was covered by patents and each archi-tectural practice had its own unique system.As the floor increased in weight, the support-ing walls must become stronger. The castiron beams were supported at each end bythe walls, but need more support mid spanand this was provided by a series of cast ironcolumns. An alternative was to use the ironbeams, and span between then using castconcrete, then the next technological ad-vance was the use of rolled steel beams thathad greater strength and flexibility and couldbe used for longer spans. [28]

Obviously the floor must be constructed soit can take its own weight and the weight ofthe machines that were to be placed on in. Intime the size and weight of the machines

increased but not necessarily the weight perunit area. When a mill was upgraded fromspinning mules to ring frames the floor hadto be strengthened.

The early mills in Europe and Americawere driven by water, so needed a locationadjacent to a flowing stream. Streams werenormally in narrow valleys where land wasscarce, consequently mills (For example Mas-son Mill) were built with many storeys and asmall footprint. Later, when mills werepowered by steam, it was proximity to coaland transport routes that was important. InAmerica where land was relatively plentiful,single storey mills became common, while inLancashire land was still scarce within thetowns, and the multi-storey mill remained thenorm. (For example Murray Mills, Ancoats.)Weaving sheds were built away from thelarge towns and were usually singlestorey.[29]

Power

Boulton&Watt 1784

Further information: Stationary steam en-gine and Water wheelIn the eighteenth century mills were poweredby the use of a Water wheel, but the need fora constant source of water meant that millswere generally built only alongside rivers andstreams. To supply a constant speed, mill ma-chinery required a reliable source of power.Traditionally, speed was governed by using aheavy fly wheel with a governor.

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An animation of a Newcomen engine

In 1712 Thomas Newcomen built a atmo-spheric engine while trying to pump waterfrom Cornish tin mines. The engine workedby heating air so it expanded in a cylinderwhich contained a piston, then spraying incold water so that the air contracted. Heused a valve gear. It was a pump. Savery(1689) tried to use the waste steam (strongair) to force the water higher than New-comen’s vacuum would allow. It failed due tothe higher temperatures needed melted thesolder used, and that the engineer had to op-erate the valves manually,.[30] These menwere working before the laws of thermody-namics had been discovered. A Savery engineoperated at 19 p.s.i,, 4 strokes a minute andraised water 16ft by suction and 42ft by pres-sure. An engine, ’of old construction’ wasused at Shudehill mill in 1783 to raise waterfrom one artificial storage pond to a anotherso it could drive a water wheel and thus themill. Other mills followed. Joshua Wriglymade his Savery engines self acting by usingthe motion of the water wheel to open andclose the steam cocks. By 1795 most ofSavery engines around Manchester had beenreplaced by the Watt’s separate condenser

models manufactured by Boulton and Watt orBateman and Sherratt [31]. Shudehill Millbought a 6h.p. model in 1790.

Single cylinder horizontal engine with slidevalves, with a rope drum.

In 1843 James Joule had measured andshown that 838 ft lbs of work was needed toraise the temperature of water by 1 degree F,and from this, it was deduced that heat andmechanical energy are mutually convertible.Watt measured the heat entering and leavingan engine and showed the heat loss was equi-valent to work the engine was doing.[32]. Asknowledge of thermodynamics increased, en-gines were improved by raising the temperat-ure and operating pressure. At 60 psi(0.41 MPa), exhaust from such a cylinder wasstill at sufficient temperature to work asecond cylinder. This was a compound en-gine. Ultimately four cylinder, quadruplecompounds were produced. Slide valves be-came impractical and were replaced by dropvalves, and later the Corliss valve.

Electricity was introduced into mills in1877. At first a small steam engine woulddrive a generator and the electricity wasused to provide electric lighting. By the1890s this was common.[33] Electricity star-ted to be used to drive the mills machineryaround 1906. It was generated in the enginehouse, and one group-drive electric motorwas placed on each floor to drive the shafts.The were placed exterior to the mill as it wasthought that they were a fire risk. Examplesof this type would be the Welkin Ring Mill(Ark Mill) Bredbury, and the Kearsley Mill,Kearsley. Mains driven mills ( BrunswickMill) started about 1907, but they were re-stricted by the lack of mains. They usedgroup drives. Later mills used individual elec-tric motors to power the machines.

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Number Machines Ratio2 Vertical Openers and scutchers 1 : 43,4344 Intermediate Scutchers 1 :21,7174 Intermediate Scutchers 1 :21,71793 Carding Engines 1 :93463 finishing deliveries of drawing 1 :1,380792 Slubbing spindles 1 :109.71716 Intemediate spindles 1 :50.66680 Roving spindles 1 :1386,868 Mule spindles 1 :1

Transmission methodsThe early mills, used a vertical shaft to takethe power from the flywheel. On each floorhorizontal shafts engaged with the main shaftusing bevel gearing. American mills rejectedthis approach and used thick leather bandsinstead of shafts. There was a lot of frictionand power wasted. A new approach was touse thick cotton ropes. A rope drum was at-tached to the flywheel with a channel cut foreach rope. The profile was such to give max-imum adherence.[34]. The rope race went theheight of the mill, and it can be seen as anvertical section of end wall with no windows.It is often decorated with pillasters and usedas an architectural feature.

Other factorsCotton is sensitive to both temperature andhumidity. To heat the mill a heating system isprovided, wrought iron pipes are suspendedat a height of 7 feet (2.1 m) and carry steamunder pressure, heating to 100 °F (38 °C).Rules of thumb suggest that 1 square foot(0.093 m2)of heating surface was needed toheat 100 cubic feet (2.8 m3). In summer thesystem was barely used but in winter theboilers would be fired up two hours beforethe shift started so the mill would have timeto warm up. As heat was applied the humiditydropped so a system of humidifiers. Therewere two types atomisers; which played anair jet against a jet of water in the room andthe type that injects a stream/air mixture intothe room.[35]

The other service that is required in a millis a fire fighting system. Many methods wereused to drive a sprinkler system throughoutthe mill, in later mills the roof would be flatand waterproofed to form a shallow tank.

Other later mills used the top of each stairtower as a spot to locate enclosed tanks andsupplemented the supply with water from thetown mains. Water for the sprinkles had to beprotected from freezing and evaporation. Asa rule of thumb the water pressure needed tobe above 7 psi, and the header tank at least15 feet (4.6 m) above the highest sprink-ler.[36]

The provision of light, water tanks andheating system defined the structure andshape of the mill.

EquipmentFurther information: Textile manufacturing

SpinningA spinning mill took raw cotton bales andopened them and cleaned the cotton in theblowing room. The cotton staples are thencarded into lap. This is straightened anddrawn into roving. The roving is now spun us-ing one of two technologies: a mule or ringframe. The yarn can be doubled and pro-cessed into thread, or prepared for weaving.Machines for this are often located in thespinning mill. Minerva Mill was designed byP. S. Stott and equipped by John Hethering-ton and Son, it produced 40’s twists and 65wefts. It was typical of a mill of the 1890s.Nasmith 1894, p. 113

Self acting mule frame (Roberts 1830) wasan improvement on Crompton’s Mule (1779)which derived from earlier inventions. [37]Mules were used in the nineteenth centurymills for the finest counts, these neededskilled workers to operate them.

Ring frame (1929) developed out of theThrostle frame (1800’s) an improvement onthe Arkwright’s Water frame. Originally rings

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Number of Power Looms in Britain 1803-57, and 1926[39]

Year 1803 1820 1829 1833 1857 - 1926No. of PowerLooms in UK

2,400 14,650 55,500 100,000 250,000 767,500

Comparison of output of 24 yard shirtings 1823-1833[39]

Year 1823 1823 1826 1833good hand loomweaver

power weaver power weaver power weaver

Aged 25 Aged 15 Aged 15 Aged 15 with12yr old helper

Looms 1 2 2 4Pieces woven perweek

2 7 12 18

were only suitable for coarse counts, theywere lower and heavier than mules soneeded stronger floors but lower rooms. Overtime, rings became suitable for finer countsand because of cheaper labour costs they re-placed mules. By 1950 all mills converted tothe Ring frame.[38]

WeavingA weaving mill needed yarn suitable for thewarp and the weft. The warp had to deliveredon the beam, or was wound on the beam fromcheeses by a beamer. To obtain the extrastrength needed, the yarn was sized on asizer. The weft was wound onto the pirns forthe shuttle on a pirner. These preparatoryprocesses completed the yarn was woven ona loom. One weaver would operate 4 or sixlooms. A self-acting loom would stop whenany thread broke, and the thread had to beretied or pieced. The process required great-er levels of light than spinning, and weavingsheds would often be single storey, with over-head north facing lights. Placing a loom ontothe ground also reduced the problems causedby the vibrations of operation.

The Cartwright’s powerloom (1785) wasmade reliable by Robert’s cast iron powerloom (1822) and became perfected by theKenworthy and Bullough Lancashire Loom(1854). The Northrop or Draper Loom (1895)replaced these older designs.[10]

MilltownsDuring this time, the success of cotton millsgave birth to Mill towns, which became signi-ficant settlements, following the foundation

of mills in them. First constructed in Eng-land, cotton mills facilitated huge and rapideconomic expansion for many parts of Bri-tain, particularly in North West England, forexample Manchester, Oldham, Bolton, Bury,Preston, Blackburn, Burnley, Ashton, Roch-dale and in Stockport, and other towns andcities. The model of the milltown was also ex-ported to the United States where it can befound both in New England and the southernstates. [40]

Labour conditionsThe mills were notable in employing women,giving them an independent income. In Lan-cashire and Piedmont, South Carolina childlabour is well documented.

Child LabourThe Lancashire and Derbyshire mills neededa pool of cheap labour. Pauper children wereboys and girls between the ages of 7 and 21,who were dependent on the Poor Law Guard-ians. Mill owners made contracts with theguardians in London and the southerncounties to supply them paupers, in batchesof 50 or more, to be apprenticed. Living con-dition were poor in ’Prentice Houses’, andthe children who were paid 2d a day worked15 hour shifts, hot bedding with children onthe other shift.

Robert Owen, the millowner, New Lanarknever employed children under the age often, and opposed physical punishment inschools and Factories, he lobbied for parlia-mentary action. This resulted in

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The Health and Morals of ApprenticesAct 1802• Limited hours of work to twelve a day.• Boysand girls to sleep in separate

dormitoires with no more than two toeach bed

• Compulsory education to be providedin the arts of reading writing andarithmetic

• Each apprentice to be provided withtwo suits of clothes

• On Sunday children to be instructedin Christian worship

• Sanitation to be improved

Regulation was ineffective until the millswere subject to inspection in 1833. In 1851 asizeable number of children were workingthe mills. For Example, In Glossop, therewere 931 children (out of 3562) between 5and thirteen working in cotton mills. In onemill in 1859, 50.2% of the workforce werewomen, 24.2% were girls, 19% were men and6.6% were boys. [41]

A little spinner in the Mollahan Mills, New-berry, S.C. She was tending her ’sides’ like aveteran, but after I took the photo, the over-seer came up and said in an apologetic tonethat was pathetic, ’She just happened in.’Then a moment later he repeated the inform-ation. The mills appear to be full of young-sters that ’just happened in,’ or ’are helpingsister.’ Dec. 3, 1908. Witness Sara R. Hine.Location: Newberry, South Carolina"

The Carolinas mills developed from 1880,and would employ children in preference toadults. At Newton Mill, North Carolina, in1909, twenty of the 150 workers observed,appeared to be twelve years old or less. Aswell as the usual report of hands and fingersgetting severed by the machinery, and insuf-ferable heat- the dust inhaled caused a fatal

condition known as brown lung.[42] Lawswere rarely enforced, and the presence ofsmall children in the factory was explainedaway to the inspectors saying they were visit-ing the mill to bring meals to their parents(meal totters), or helping but not on thepayroll (helpers). [43] Wages were good forthe workers who could earn 2$ a day in themill agains 0.75$ on a farm.In the segregatedsouth, ’Blacks’ were not allowed to work in-side a mill; had they been the need for childlabour would have been eliminated.[44] Childlabour stopped here not only because of newlaws but the change in the type of machinerycaused by the Great Depression, which re-quired greater height and skill.[45]

WomenIn 1926,the Lancashire cotton industryworked 57.3 million spindles and 767,500looms. It imported 3.3 million bales and ex-ported 80% of its production. This was thepeak. 61% of the 575,000 cotton operativesin Lancashire were women, of which 61%were unionised in 167 different Unions [46]

UnionsThe eighteen century woollen industry ofsmall producers in southern England was fardifferent from the Yorkshire based worstedindustry where the clothier imported andowned the raw material and sold the cloth.He put out work to small weavers, in effect,employing them. Worsted was more capitalintensive. The small weavers banded togeth-er to form self help guilds. When Lancashireadopted cotton, the same process occurred.But in Lancashire cotton mills, spinning be-came a male occupation, and the tradition ofunions passed into the factory. As spinnerswere ’assisted’ by several ’piecers’ there wasa pool of trained labour to replace any spin-ner the owner cared to dismiss. The well paidmule spinners were the ’barefoot aristocrats’of labour and became organised in the 1800s.They paid union dues, and were well placedto finance themselves should a strike beneeded. The Yorkshire worsted industry, ad-opted the ring frame which required lessskill. Worsted spinning was an occupation foryoung girls. Unionism did not develop inYorkshire until 1914. In, 1913 figures show50% of cotton operatives were unionisedwhile only 10% of wool and worsted workers.

In Lancashire there were:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Cotton mill

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Occupation Union membersWeavers 182,000Cardroom Operatives 55,000Spinners 23,000Piecers 25,000

The spinners union, the Amalgamated Associ-ation of Operative Cotton Spinners had a fed-eral structure with strong central leadershipwhere control was in the hands of a smallgroup of paid officials. Their dues were high,so the fighting fund was large and the offi-cials were skilled in defending the complexwage structures. [47]

Health of the workersA cotton mill was not a healthy place to work.The air in the mill had to be hot and humid toprevent the thread breaking. 65 F to 80 Fand 85% humidity was normal. The air in themill was thick with cotton dust and this couldlead to byssinosis - a lung disease.

Although protective masks were intro-duced after the war, few workers wore themas they made them uncomfortable in thestifling conditions. The same applied to earprotectors. The air led to skin infections, eyeinfections, bronchitus and tuberculosis. Thenoise levels in a weaving shop, where theshuttles in 500 plus looms were beingthumped 200 times a minute lead to levels ofdeafness in all who worked there. The lubric-ation was carcinogenic and led to cancers ofthe mouth and cancer of the scrotum; knownas mule-spinners cancer.[48]

A mill worker could expect to work a thir-teen hour day, six days a week with twoweeks off for the wakes week holidays insummer. Unsurprisingly, a series of FactoryActs were passed to attempt to amelioratethese conditions.

In addition, in the early days when the cot-ton towns were expanding rapidly, living con-ditions for the workers were poor. Badlyplanned housing, poorly built slums, wereseriously overcrowded. Open sewers andshared privies led to diseases such as chol-era. In 1831, Manchester was hit by a chol-era epidemic which claimed hundreds oflives.[48]

Art and literature• L. S. Lowry• Charles Sheeler• William Blake Jerusalem- dark satanic

mills.• Mrs Gaskell North and South (1854)

Notes

Print Works in c. 1906 at the Amoskeag Man-ufacturing Company, Manchester, NewHampshire

• Some early attempts at building cottonmills had been made in the 1740 but allwere unsuccessful and had no influenceon the Cotton mills as we know them. Pauland Wyatt had a patent for a spinningdevice in 1738, and built a mill to testit.[49] Three other mills were set up usingthe Paul-Wyatt machinery in the followingyears. Edward Cave in 1742 had set up250 spindles in a watermill inNorthampton. This was the first cottonmill to be driven by water power. One wasset up in Birmingham and one mill wasestablished by Daniel Bourn inLeominster. It is first mentioned in 1748,when both Bourn and Paul patentedmachinery for carding cotton. It burntdown in 1754.[50]

See also• Textile manufacturing• Stott• Mill town

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Cotton mill

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• Cottonopolis• Cotton famine• Like a Family: The Making of a Southern

Cotton Mill World

References[1] Williams & Farnie 1992, p. 49.[2] Williams & Farnie 1992, p. 51[3] Quayle 2006, p. 38[4] Miller & Wild 2007, p. 69[5] Williams & Farnie 1992, p. 56[6] Williams & Farnie 1992, p. 69[7] Hills 1989, p. 116[8] Williams & Farnie 1992, p. 73[9] ^ Williams & Farnie 1992, p. 74[10]^ Williams & Farnie 1992, p. 11[11]Williams & Farnie 1992, p. 89[12]Suffolk Mills Turbine Exhibit[13]Dublin, Thomas (1975). "Women, Work,

and Protest in the Early Lowell Mills:’The Oppressing Hand of Avarice WouldEnslave Us’". Labor History. Online atWhole Cloth: Discovering Science andTechnology through American History.Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved onAugust 27, 2007.

[14]Hamilton Manufacturing Company(1848). "Factory Rules" in The Handbookto Lowell. Online at the Illinois LaborHistory Society. Retrieved on March 12,2009.

[15]Hills 1989, pp. 178-189[16]Williams & Farnie 1992, p. 104[17]Hills1989, p. 211[18]^ Williams & Farnie 1992, p. 94[19]Williams & Farnie 1992, p. 101[20]Williams & Farnie 1992, p. 114[21]Williams & Farnie 1992, p. 120[22]Williams & Farnie 1992, p. 121[23]Williams & Farnie 1992, p. 124[24]Williams & Farnie 1992, p. 131[25]Williams & Farnie 1992, p. 135[26]Williams & Farnie 1992, p. 18[27]Nasmith 1895, p. 35[28]Nasmith 1895, pp. 22-33[29]Nasmith 1895, p. 38[30]Hills 1989, pp. 13 30.[31]Hills 1989, pp. 42-45,61[32]Hills 1989, p. 169[33]Williams & Farnie 1992, p. 119[34]Nasmith 1895, pp. 233-254[35]Nasmith 1895, pp. 87-95[36]Nasmith 1895, pp. 58-75[37]Williams & Farnie 1992, p. 9[38]Williams & Farnie 1992, p. 8

[39]^ Hills 1989, p. 117.[40]SIMPSON, WILLIAM HAYS (1941).

[lifeinmillcommun00simprich_djvu.txt.htmlLife in Mill Communities]. PoliticalScience Department Duke University.Clinton, South Carolina: P.C.Press.lifeinmillcommun00simprich_djvu.txt.html.Retrieved on March 2009.

[41]Quayle 2006, pp. 42-46,53[42] "Child Labor: The Mills". Universitry of

North Carolina. http://www.lib.unc.edu/stories/cotton/about/mills4.html.Retrieved on 2009-03-09.

[43] "Child Labor: The Workers". Universitryof North Carolina.http://www.lib.unc.edu/stories/cotton/about/workers2.html. Retrieved on2009-03-09.

[44]Hindman 2002, p. 181[45]Hindman 2002, p. 183[46]Williams & Farnie 1992, p. 16[47]Fowler, Alan (2004). "[www.iisg.nl/

research/britain.doc British TextileWorkers in the Lancashire Cotton andYorkshire Wool industries]". NationalOverview Great Britain, TextileConference HSH. www.iisg.nl/research/britain.doc. Retrieved on March 2009.

[48]^ "A FACTORY WORKER’S LOT -CONDITIONS IN THE MILL". BBCTelevision. http://www.bbc.co.uk/nationonfilm/topics/textiles/background_conditions.shtml. Retrievedon 2009-05-13.

[49]Mantoux, Paul (2006) [1928]."Machinery in the Textile Industry". TheIndustrial Revolution in the EighteenthCentury: An Outline of the Beginnings ofthe Modern Factory System in England.tr. Vernon, Marjorie. London: Taylor &Francis. p. 212. ISBN 0415378397.

[50] "The Mills of Leominster - Pinsley Mill orEtnam Street Mill". Herefordshire Sitesand Monuments Record. HerefordshireCouncil.http://www.smr.herefordshire.gov.uk/agriculture%20_industry/mills_leominster.htm. Retrieved on2009-01-04.

Bibliography• The mills and organisaion of the

Lancashire Cotton Corporation Limited, apromotional book, pub LCC, BlackfriarsHouse Manchester, January 1951 .

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Cotton mill

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• Gurr, Duncan; Hunt, Julian (1998). TheCotton Mills of Oldham. OldhamEducation & Leisure. ISBN 0-902809-46-6.http://www.spinningtheweb.org.uk/a_results.php?x=5&y=7&QueryName=KeyWord&KeyWords=The+Cotton+Mills+of+Oldham%2C+brief+history+and+gazetteer.

• Hills, Richard Leslie (1993). Power fromSteam: A History of the Stationary SteamEngine. Cambridge University Press,.pp. 244. ISBN ISBN 052145834X,9780521458344. http://books.google.com/books?id=t6TLOQBhd0YC. Retrieved onJanuary 2009.

• Hindman, Hugh (2002). Child Labor : anAmerican History. M. E. Sharpe. pp. 431.ISBN 0765609363, 9780765609366.http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=GQcV11ayCngC&printsec=frontcover&dq=child+labor+cotton+massachusetts#PPA185,M1.

• Marsden, Richard (1884) (in English).Cotton Spinning: its development,principles an practice.. George Bell andSons 1903. http://www.archive.org/details/cottonspinningit00mars. Retrieved on2009-04-26.

• Nasmith, Joseph (1895). Recent CottonMill Construction and Engineering.London: John Heywood. pp. 284. ISBN

1-4021-4558-6. http://www.archive.org/stream/recentcottonmill00nasm/recentcottonmill00nasm_djvu.txt.Retrieved on March 2009.

• Quayle, Tom (2006). The Cotton Industryin Longdendale and Glossopdale.Stroud,Gloucestershire: Tempus. pp. 126.ISBN 0-7524-3883-2.

• Roberts, A S (1921). Arthur Robert’sEngine List. One guy from Barlick-BookTranscription.http://oneguyfrombarlick.co.uk/forum_topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7926&FORUM_ID=99&CAT_ID=3&Forum_Title=Rare+Text+(Book+Transcriptions)&Topic_Title=ARTHUR+ROBERTS+ENGINE+LIST&whichpage=1&tmp=1#pid81483.Retrieved on 2009-01-11.

• Williams, Mike; Farnie (1992). CottonMills of Greater Manchester. CarnegiePublishing. ISBN 0-984789-89-1.

External links• A complete spinning website - Describes

the blow room, carding, spinning, fibretesting, textile calculations etc

• www.cottontown.org• www.spinningtheweb.org.uk

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_mill"

Categories: Industrial Revolution, Industrial buildings, Spinning, Weaving, History of the tex-tile industry

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Cotton mill

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