Report to the Local Government Board on proposed changes in hours and ages of employment in textile factories / by J.H. Bridges and T. Holmes.

  • John Henry Bridges
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report to the Local Government Board on proposed changes in hours and ages of employment in textile factories / by J.H. Bridges and T. Holmes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/66 (page 10)
    Cotton spinning. We were informed that the wages commonly paid in the card-room are as follows:— $. d. Strippers and grinders, about - - 21 0 Lap-carriers ,, - - 13 0 Can-minders ,, - - 6 3 Sweepers, half-timers ,, - -30 Drawing-frame minders „ - - 11 0 Sluhhing-frame minders, 135., 14$., 15$., or 16$., according to work done. We pass now to the spinning department. Cotton is spun hy two kinds of machine, the mule and the throstle. The funda¬ mental principle is the same in either case. In both cases the loose soft slightly twisted roving is drawn out hy rollers, and the elongated thread is twisted rapidly hy revolving spindles, and converted into yarn. In the throstle-frame a row of spindles armed with flyers (metal tubes carrying the thread joined to the spindle at a right angle, and at the distance of an inch bent parallel to it) pass through bobbins. The spindle with its flyer revolves with great rapidity, twists the thread delivered hy the rollers, and winds it upon the bobbin, which is carried round with the spindle, hut is prevented, hy a certain degree of friction, purposely given to it, from revolving with the same velocity. In the mule the row of spindles is mounted on a carriage which recedes from the rollers, to a distance of about five feet, at a somewhat greater speed than that at which they deliver the roving, the spindles at the same time revolving rapidly, and thus converting the stretched roving into yarn. The return motion of the carriage to the rollers winds upon the spindles the yarn that has been spun. This to and fro movement is commonly called a <c stretch ” or “ draw.” At the time of the Factory Commission of 1833 the great majority of mules were worked hy hand, and required considerable physical exertion on the part of the spinner. But even then the self-acting mule was in course of introduction,* and its employment is now all hut universal, except for the finest kind of spinning. Even for counts so high as 120s (a hundred and twenty hanks, of 840 yards each, to the pound of cotton) we found it in some instances, though rarely, employed. Another change of great importance has taken place in the mule, whether worked hy hand or self-acting. The number of spindles placed in the mule carriage has enormously increased. As used hy its inventor, Crompton, in 1786, the mule had at first no more than 30 spindles. At the beginning of the present century mules of 200 spindles were common. In 1833 it would appear from the reports of the Factory Commission of that date, that the numbers most frequently found were from 300 to 350, though mules of 500 and 600 spindles were gradually coming into use.f We took notes of the number of spindles in several of the mule spinning rooms that we visited, and the average of 24 such observations, ranging from mules with 400 to mules with 1,284 spindles, gives 738 spindles to each mule, a number at least double that which prevailed in 1833. The self-acting mule is managed hy a spinner or minder who directs the operations of the machine and “ pieces ” the broken threads of a certain number of the spindles ; the rest being looked after hy full-time lads called piecers, usually from 14 to 17 years of age. The employment of young women as piecers, though not unfrequent in Manchester, Bolton, Ashton, Staleybridge, and some other places, appeared to us to be exceptional in the northern and eastern parts of the cotton district. The members of a deputation of Burnley mill workers whom we questioned on the subject, while observing that no female piecers were employed in that district, remarked that strong objections would he entertained to their employment on the ground of decency, owing to the postures frequently rendered necessary hy the work, and the scanty clothing commonly worn in consequence of the high temperature. The number of hands employed in piecing threads at the mule has not increased in proportion to the number of spindles. On this point the records of the Factory Commission of 1833 supply information as to the prevailing practice at that period. Mr. Cowell (D. 1., pp. 119, i., j., and k.) gives details of three fine-spinning mills, in which the aggregate number Of spindles was - 94,032 Of spinners - - 148 Of piecers - 595 * In 1836 the self-acting mule was already used in more than 100 factories. f [See on this subject the very interesting remarks of Mr. Cowell (one of the Factory Commissioners), 1833, Supplementary Report, D. 1, p. 119 i.]