Hanging Out with MOSI

Today in class we participated in a Google Hangout with Jamie from MOSI in Manchester England. We learned about the process of spinning and making cloth, the machines used, and the dangers of working in a mill. We also got to ask our own question during the live chat.

As we watched on the screen, Jamie led us around the museum and showed us real machines that were used in mills in the 1800s. He showed us the machines that families use in their homes before spinning was industrialized. We learned that the whole family contributed to making cloth. The children carded the wool, the mother spun the cleaned wool to make thread, and the father did the spinning on their loom. This was a risky job to have because it took weeks to make just one piece of cloth, and then the family had to live off that money for the next couple of weeks. If anything happened to the cloth while it was in transport to be sold or in the house, the family would have no income.

Once these machines were mechanized, the process became much faster and a piece of cloth could be made in under an hour. The machines that were used in the mills were much larger and quicker than the ones used in homes. For example, a carding machine would be used to clean large amounts of wool, while back in the homes children would have to do individual pieces by hand. Another example is the industrialized spinning wheel that twists and winds thread onto hundreds of bobbins at once, instead of just one at a time on a home spinning wheel. 

Another thing we learned about was the dangers of working in a mill. It was extremely often that workers would be injured, crippled, and even killed from working on these machines. One example of when machines needed to be cleaned or fixed, children we have to go into the machine while it was still running. Sometime they would repair parts with metal studs, and they would get stuck on the studs and pulled up into the machine. They would be mangled and their bones would be crushed. Another example is the spinning machine. When the threads snapped, children would climb under the machine as the carriage rolled out and crashed back in. They had just over 10 seconds to get in and out or they would be crushed to death. 

This live chat with MOSI taught me a lot about the history of spinning, and the mills. We learned about all of the machines and the dangers of working with them. I realized that working in the mills was a lot more dangerous than I once believed.