Would You Let Your Child Work in the Factories?

We did a lot to prepare for the MOSI Live Google Hangout chat. One day we watched a video of Jamie giving us a brief tour of the factory and  explaining some of the tools they used back then. During the video we made a list words that he used that we have never heard of before. After the video, we looked up all the words so that that when we would actually do the live chat we would know what he was talking about. Then the next day, in our groups we thought of some questions that we would want to ask him when we had the choice.

I learned a lot from the live chat with Jamie. I learned a lot about the hand loom and how it was used. It was used to weave cloth and it was operated by using petals which was very hard physical work. Since you would do this constantly all day many people ended up developing arthritis. Most children would comb fiber strands and get all the dirt out, since it did not require a lot of experience. The children would try to find the longest strands of fiber because they are better for spinning, the short fibers were called trash. The hand looms would be passed down from father to son and it is very valuable in the families. I also learned that Arkwright did not actually invent the water frame, he just improved it but he was the one who made the money. The water frame thins out fibers, then twists the fibers and puts it on a bobbin.

This is a picture of what the bobbins look like from the live video chat with Jamie:

I learned that there were also there were many risks and dangers to working in these factories. The working conditions were horrible, it was very unsanitary, there were many diseases spreading and you would breathe in a lot of the cotton fibers. People were working in the factories for 12 hours eventually your lungs would just stop working because of all the cotton fibers you would inhale and soon you would die, most people did not live past 30. The machines were also very dangerous. The oils they used were also very dangerous, it caused mouth, throat and lung cancer. Your clothing could get caught in the machines, they could damage your hearing because they were so loud. Children had to clean the machines while they were running, their hair would get caught and be ripped out.

Children would have to clean this machine above while it was running. Children’s hands would have to in between them while they are spinning very fast, many hands would get caught in these machines. If someone was injured they would be put on the street with whatever money they had and they got no support. Children would mainly clean machines because they were small enough to fit under them and it didn’t require any skills. Many orphans were sold to work in the factories instead of children with parents because the parents would not let them work there.

I think I did learn more from a discussion with and outside export because you can actually see the real machines that the factory workers used. I thought it was cool how we were talking with someone who lives on the other side of the world in a different country and it actually worked. I would do this again with different experts on different topics throughout the year.