(7/27 - Tuesday)
Yesterday was for visiting, but I stopped by Starbucks to download a new electronic novel. This morning I started reading.
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| Giant Bobbin of CottonRoving, Outside Mill Workers Dormitory. |
My new eBook is Work Song by Ivan Doig, who is my favorite Montana writer (Yes, there are writers from Montana). The good-looking , literate hero, Morgan, of this story previously appeared in Doig’s novel of homesteading in eastern Montana, The Whistling Season, where Morrie Llewellyn (as he was known then) is teaching 6th grade while he hides from the Chicago gamblers whom he had swindled.
In Work Song, Morgan, still running from the mob, finds himself in Butte where he takes up lodging in the boarding house of miner’s widow. Anaconda Copper is at the height of its power and runs Butte with an iron hand, but then there is the United Mine Workers union demanding better work conditions, which could affect company profits. You can guess that Morgan ends up siding with the UMW and will find that the Anaconda toughs are as bad as the mob. This will be a great read; I’m sure.
But this is vacation—I can’t sit and read all day. Today Wayne is driving Charlotte and us to the Lowell National Historic Park to visit Boott Mill Museum. Of course, we will program the UPS just for luck. If you read my blog, “7/21. Women At Work”, you will already know that Kirk Boott was Henry Cabot Lowell’s agent and that Boott built in 1835 the very mill we are going to visit. At its peak production the mill employed about 100 men, 250 women and 150 children (all over the age of 12).
The NPS website gives a very detailed exposition of the mill and textile industry:
http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/21boott/21boott.htm
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| Cut-away drawing of Boott Textile Mill. |
The New England textile market began to decline after WW I when textile production moved to the South. The mills closed and were abandoned after WW II. The former mill is now restored as a multi-use campus with offices, condominiums, and education facilities. It is under the protection of the NPS which operates the museum and education center.
The cut-away drawing at the right shows the Boott Mill as it was configured in 1850. The water wheel under the 1st floor provided power to all floors. Floor 1 was weaving, Floor 2 Spinning, Floor 3 was preparation of cotton for spinning (carding, drawing and roving), and the 4th floor was the loom warping operation. David Macaulay's book Mill is fascinating and describes the milling operations in detail.
The main floor of the mill museum is set up with belt driven 1929 Baxter mechanical looms; 60 looms are located in 4 long rows on the ground floor. The Baxter looms were the state-of-the-art in 1929, featuring automatic shuttle changing. An operator would monitor up to 16 machines with weavers replacing broken warp threads and a mechanic making repairs, adjustments and solving problems.
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| Weaving Room, Boott Textile Mill Museum |
When the machines were running, the noise was incredible and cotton lint and dust was everywhere. Today, with only a half-dozen machines going the noise is above the comfort level. Imagine the factory girls, some 12-14 years old, working 60 hours a week, 10 hours/day in two 5-hour shifts. The workers life was ruled by the factory bell as shown in the photo of the Time Table. This being Protestant New England, there was no work on Sunday and the factory bells were silent.
The second floor of the museum features a pictorial history of New England factory weaving, weaving equipment and the textile workers. One leaves with a new feeling for the complexity of the industrial revolution that began in England and led to the industrialization of New England. I was especially moved by the descriptions of the working conditions and by the fact that as hard as the conditions were in the Lowell Mills the conditions were better than those in England and for many of the ‘mill girls’ factory work with good food and a wage to spend was better than living at home.
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| Time Table for Work in Mill. |
A park dedicated to the working girls of the Boott mill is located in front of the mill. Alongside the park is a restored boarding house that houses a museum, exhibit hall and leased office space. In the museum is a restored dormitory room: four girls lived in the room (sharing two smallish beds). Another display describes the dormitory food, which was simple but ample, rich but repetitive. After supper the girls returned to the mill and worked another 5 hours before quitting time.
The GPS was set for our return to Marlborough and came in handy when we found ourselves in blocked traffic on the interstate. The Garmin located a detour and gave us a new route, which was more scenic.
Another great dinner on the screen porch completed the day, leaving some time to read my electronic book.
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