"Mill Times" rare 2001 David Macauley PBS TV Special

[Music] there was a time before automobiles and shopping malls and cell phones when you had to work pretty hard to get the things you needed just to live a reasonable life in fact most of life's essentials like the clothing on your back the food on your table even the house in which you lived with the product of muscle human as well as animal and individual skill because you had to grow or make the things you needed it took a lot longer to get want fast food for Debbie no drive-in chicken joints here a new house a bigger barn start with the trees at the edge of the forest but about 200 years ago all that began to change with the help of Mills [Music] these early factories turned out machine-made products that could be bought in stores and they offered a new way of working to change the way people lived societies that once responded to the rhythm of the Sun and seasons now move to the beating of the clock we this Industrial Revolution would bring giant factories and working classes entrepreneurs and inventors [Music] and an era we called milton's major funding for mill Times has been provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities for 30 years expanding our understanding of the world and by the National Science Foundation America's investment in the future funding is also provided by the Arthur vining Davis foundations and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you thank you [Music] so what did people do 200 years ago if they needed a necessity of life like clothing say you need a new pair of pants or shirt there's no mall nearby so you have to make them and the first thing you must do is gather the raw material now in some regions you turn to cotton or flax but here at New England's Old Sturbridge Village you turn to sheep for their wool of course it wasn't that easy sheep shearing was a laborious process for the Shearer and the Sheep and then you had to have someone with enough skill to turn all this raw wool into cloth after cleaning the roll it had to be carded this took strong fingers and prickly brushes like pet brushes to untangle and separate the fibers and to create wispy tubes of wool called slivers you then stretch the slivers into yarn on a spinning room notice how the yarn gets twisted as it winds onto the spindle this makes it strong enough to leave without breaking [Music] you turn yarn into fabric on a loom and this is a typical hand loom now weaving was done by both men and women so I should probably do ok at this first of all we have to set up the loom by drawing threads from the warp beam behind the loom across the top to another beam near my feet the warp threads passed through harnesses which I can raise or lower by pressing down on these foot pedals and when I do that it creates a space between alternating sets of warp threads I'm going to take the shuttle which is this wooden contraption with a spool of yarn and it called a bobbin and I'm going to push it across through that space perpendicular to the warp threads I then press it down change pedals to raise the other harness to create that over-and-under pattern that you get used to seeing and weezing I send the shuttle back through pull it snug tamp it down and repeat this process over and over again until there's something else I'm supposed to do or my arms fall off you can see just how much time is going to go into this to produce enough fabric to make clothes I mean there's the carding and the spinning and the weaving then there's the cutting and the stitching and so on which sort of explains why people back then would have had relatively few clothes but by the middle of the 1700s help is on the way [Music] and it began with water powered machines for centuries people had used the turning force of waterwheels to help the tough jobs like driving blades for sawing wood and rotating for stones for grinding grain into flour but eventually waterwheels began to power more complicated devices that would revolutionize cloth making like this carding machine what an improvement over the pet brushes and by rolling out wispy slivers all day long it was a great labor saving device but this was even better I'm standing next to a machine called a water friend it was created by the famous English inventor Richard Arkwright this models from the 1780s to spin cotton into yarn so it looks fairly complex it really isn't it runs on water power just like the carding machine and saw blades we saw earlier the cotton in the top spools is drawn out by the action of the machine which twists it nice and tight and then gathers the yarn onto these bottom screws it works just like a hand spinning 96 of them actually so it's little wonder but spinning by machine would eventually make spinning by hand pop see in no time spinning mills began springing up all over by the late 1700s these mills were putting whole villages to work making yarn inside the new factories or weaving it into cloth in their homes [Music] the spinning industry was so successful it quickly spread to the rest of Europe and it was only a matter of time before it reached England's former colonies in America as well [Music] but under the where the Lodi Godric Lewis my name and you at try and Huntington I'm going to America to stop my own mill a thread making mill you already in America a mechanic like myself hope to go into business with him could such an English spinning mill be built in this rough land there are many who would have the skill but if anyone could do it that would be me now I need only find some person of means to invest in my vision well shatter we've still got many more appointments today please God one will show some interest you'll never make money out of that in America mr. Huntington good day to you suppose our best be waiting my brother loving that job after all well they say America is a land of opportunity for a man with a vision and I'm sure I am that man [Music] and this breast wheel design mr. question is ideally suited to the rivers hereabouts and and this spot on the Blackstone River would be perfect perhaps I know little of these thread making mills I am certain a mill such as this will be profitable in no time I'd like a man with vision evidently so does my daughter Elizabeth it seems that you've gained both our interest you will dine with us tonight I will be honored sir good news very good news we have an investor hmm I hope you'll not be disappointed ah I'm certain we'll succeed [Music] and I now call upon my son-in-law whose vision inspired me in this noble enterprise to inaugurate Huntington Mills friends and neighbors on this day our community is entering a new era such as has never been seen before in this land Huntington Mill will bring new jobs new opportunity a new prosperity for all [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] dear father pram has accomplished a great deal with your support the local people are quite taken with the new mill even Mary McEwen who was one of the best hand spinners in the area has come she now runs the boarding house for the men who work in the mill each spinning frame produces as much yarn in a day as fifty hand spinners Priam is already taking orders from Boston all in the community are doing better because of our mill [Music] before they dam the river for the mill we had all the fish we needed now the salmon are blocked from swimming upstream to spawn I say we just chop up the dam and be done with it [Music] one year ago today we opened our doors shut back and you've yet to term the profit ah but close still building our business our time will come did you see this what's this embargo all about no British goods to be sold here [Music] this embargo was your idea I suppose no but with people not able to buy English yarn now thereafter by hours another drink cups are we drums just to warn the adults [Laughter] [Music] all mills need a steady supply of running water and here in New England there's plenty of rain and melting snow to feed powerful rivers that once drove the big wheels of the new textile mills but any rivers flow can be unpredictable sometimes there's too much water sometimes not enough so to control the power of the river mill owners built dams now this old dam on the branch River in Rhode Island is a typical mill dam it doesn't completely block the river but it raises the height of the water to create an elevated Mill Pond now if we dig a channel called a head race from the pond to the mill that pent-up water behind the dam will flow through the head race turn the wheel and then rejoin the river through the tail race so dams and their puns acted like storage tanks for the h2o fuel the waterwheel engines ran on [Music] you can still find scores of mill dams all along New England's rivers of this one in Pawtucket Rhode Island is special because it powered America's very first spinning legend has it that in 1789 a young entrepreneur named Samuel Slater defied the laws of England by supervising the construction of English style cotton spinning machinery at the mill and Pawtucket England had tried to protect its fledgling monopoly on spinning machines with patents but Slater who worked in the mills understood how to make similar machines and came to America to seek his fortune other Rhode Island Mills quickly followed Slater's successful venture including the picturesque Wilkinson mill right next door which houses a beautifully restored waterwheel and gives us a pretty good idea of how a power train actually works at the Wilkinson mill water from the head race flows into a wheelhouse where it steadily turns the big waterwheel the wheel is connected to revolving metal gears and as the gears turn and rhythm with the wheel they rotate a vertical pole called the main shaft the main shaft rises through the ceiling and extends all the way to the top of the building [Music] on each floor the vertical shaft turns horizontal shafts that hang just below the ceiling a leather belt carries the power from those horizontal shafts to a pair of pulleys above each machine now to get the power to the machine itself I'm going to turn the machine on by sliding the belt from one pulley to another and voila the machine works now this is not a spinning machine it's a lathe a lot of Mills like Wilkinson had their own machine shops this is a wood lathe was actually used to produce those humble workhorses of the spinning industry the bobbin join from the spinning machines was schooled onto bobbins and in the beginning that's all the textile mills produced yarn but by the 1820s inventors had finally figured out how to make machines that could take all those schools of yarn and weave them into cloth [Music] this power loom is weaving a plain piece of fabric all the things I had to do on the hand loom are now being performed by this machine only a whole lot faster in fact the wooden shuttle I through by hand which sits thread back and forth so quickly we have to slow down the action for you to see it these looms could be very dangerous if a shuttle like this should break free potentials left like a poet you got your sleeve hot it could cost you an arm but when the power loom was perfected weaving like yarn spinning before it would move from the home many newer mills became huge his owners sought greater profits by bringing carting spinning and weaving all under the same roof [Music] as more and more mills sprang up that was increased competition and the occasional dispute over issues like backwater backwater would occur when one Mills Dam impeded the natural flow of the river to the point where water wheels in upstream Mills couldn't turn papa because water was so valuable as fuel clashes over water rights were common but with the demand for machine made textiles soaring it looked like everyone's profits would just keep flowing [Music] Daniel come back now you're getting cold few more minutes mama so determined just like his father [Applause] [Music] the waterwheel shaft let's just connect ice ah machines don't last forever you know we've all these new alders to fill thing going again will we still have customers and what will these repairs cost dare I ask shouldn't be cheaper they are safe I know it looks great but this actually could be good for us really could be the difference why don't we regard this as an opportunity to increase the size and capacity of the mill we should improve the dam and install a bigger wheel to run even more machines I don't of that kind of sword the shaft in half myself before no Josiah I believe we'd make back the investment many times over you're talking about rebuilding the entire mill investing in new machines it will take years to recover our funds spinning is merely the beginning there are lose now they will actually weave cloth we can be the first in the area to have them there's no end to progress if we only prepare ourselves to meet it [Music] the mill established by my father and grandfather is much larger now for some time I have helped to run in business shadrach has now brought in his nephew Zachary to help him with the machinery the new mechanical looms can be temperamental together as his Shadrach when they don't function as they should zach is doing a fine job in the mill so as Mary math humans young niece Sarah I do believe Zach has taken a fancy to her she came last year after her parents died he started as a bobbin girl and progressed quickly into one of our best Weaver's she even finds time to help Mary at the boarding house in fact everything in our little community has been going splendidly but now I'm up against it now ladies Oh Shadrach you are always gloomy but today there's a real reason for gloom and so I give you Northgate mail [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes Shadrach we're not alone anymore the new mills dam has created backwater the wheel cannot turn freely and none of our machines can operate properly it's intolerable and they've twice the workers we have they've no right people have a right to work Daniel and a right to steal away our business [Music] and what might I do for you esteemed gentlemen we'd like to speak with the owners regrettably they live out of town who are they they prefer to remain discreet prudent business you know last week your dam backed up the water and made it impossible to turn our wheel at speed you're depriving us of our just water rights a matter of opinion I'm sure a matter of fact with respect sir what is a matter of fact if memory serves is that you Dam the river long before my employers did sir well that was a different situation but Germain I should think good day to you gentlemen we shall achieve our desired outcome through the courts but if they don't do anything we could be ruined you've worked too hard for that father [Music] it should be remember that when you built your middle some of the farmers complained about your dam and what it was doing to their fishing but without me brought jobs to this community Northgate mill brings even more you will pay full restitution to the Northgate owners to rebuild their dam but wait a moment this isn't fair after all the work we've done and you two have done enough damage positive and I expect both parties to meet and work out an arrangement to use the river for everyone's benefit I expect to see a report to that effect in 30 days Court is adjourned mr. Zachary mwah yes sir I've heard you're mechanically mounted and get the most out of your workers those are valuable skills young man valuable skills indeed in an industry such as [Music] this huge room would have been fairly typical of weaving floors in the big textile mills of the 19th century as Mills grew larger some of them changed from businesses that could be managed by one or two people and a small workforce to a factory system with hundreds of workers and scores of managers overseers and accountants the biggest problem for the biggest mills like boot mill here in Lowell Massachusetts was finding enough workers to run the machinery in the early 19th century 9 out of 10 Americans still lived on farms and had no experience with mill work without enough skilled hands to run the complex machinery the big Mills of Lowell Massachusetts would have remained a dream it was American textile entrepreneur Francis Cabot Lowell who had the vision in the first place he had witnessed the terrible conditions faced by mill workers in England and decided he could create a wholesome atmosphere that would attract country women to work in his Mills when he offered decent wages to the daughters of cash-strapped farmers flocked to this unique city of mills and became famous as the Lowell girls when they arrived the women found that Lowell was serious about the wholesome atmosphere they were rules and curfews that everyone had to follow even when they weren't working drinking alcohol was strictly prohibited for example and to further protect their reputations and souls employers required all women to attend Sunday church service all other times Belle's called the women to work their day would last 12 to 13 hours or more and when they weren't working they spent most of their time inside one of the hundreds of boarding houses scattered throughout the city the women of Lowell were very well fed by their employers one wrote we had Cod soup baked cod and fish hash we have pie two or three times a day coffee and warm biscuits all the workers got three decent meals a day clean linens and a room to sleep in and all for about a dollar and a quarter a week now that may sound like a bargain but it only left them two or three dollars a week after working for 70 hours or more now that's about the same as a few hundred dollars in today's money not great for all that work but still a lot better than working on the farm where they probably would have gotten nothing excuse me is there any more of that fish hash [Music] the young women lived in cramped rooms with two or three beds to a room sharing beds wasn't too bad considering they often slept in worse conditions back home they love to write letters and keep journals complaints about rodents the communal outhouse and a lack of privacy were common but most women clearly liked the boardinghouse life and the excitement of the city especially on Sundays there one day off after church they would spend their time courting socializing or promenade in the fresh air they might attend a play a lecture or a concert until this brief respite was over and then it was back to the mills for another week of heavy toil [Music] the work at Lowell was fast-paced in strength the noise of the machinery made some workers death and the dust-filled air was unhealthy to breathe most women saved them and left after a few years some returned home others struck out to make their own destiny but while they were here they became highly skilled workers capable of performing the intricate tasks that made these Mills successful I'm so pleased you collected to join us here at Northgate you will be an overseer with many responsibilities and opportunities just sign here mr. moon it was a difficult decision moving over to Northgate mail with uncle Shadrach and old mr. Huntington passed on to their rewards and Daniel unwilling to take on the cost of expanding Fila I have no choice you'll be very happy here I'm sure I know you Daniel thinks I deserted him they smell represents the future far more than his [Music] someday perhaps I could even own my own mills that would be splendid mr. Moore please call me Zachary or even just Zach if you prefer what about you miss Matthew Sarah and of what do you dream I've never found dreaming a particularly productive activity go on tell him Sarah if you must know I'd love to own a small shop someday perhaps sell hats who I shouldn't have told you come over to Northgate Sarah I've told them about you they pay good cash wages you can begin saving for your shop I'd be old before I'd saved enough some of the weavers put away as much as $50 a year but they must work so much harder and faster I hear tell how most country girls who don't know the ways of industry with your experience you'd be fine a top earner in no time I'll consider your offer mr. Moore I hope you will did you hear that cash wages and out of it I could operate a loom just like you and you could get to know mr. Moore even better stop these opportunities don't come along every day I'm sorry Mary but I won't make an exception if Sara no longer works in my mill she no longer lives in my boarding house now Sara you don't have to worry about me North it's a good opportunity and it's not like you're moving far away there are nice families you can live with there and we still see each other on Sundays no buts you have to make your own place in this world just as I came from the farm to the mill when I was about your age [Music] the market is blotted and prices continue to fall we are being forced to sell our cloth for less therefore we must find ways to be more productive and lower costs everyone is working diligently perhaps costs could be cut by having each girl tend 3 machines instead of 2 that may be hard and some of the girls well since each weaver will be producing more cloth at least they can make more money on their piece rate I've already considered that point since each weaver will be producing more cloths we can lower the piece rate and they can still earn the same as before if they can keep up [Music] [Music] it must be nice having a ball who's such a friend workers he's not my boat I hear they're rewarding him for getting more work out of us I'm sure that is it truth isn't like the rest of them he is them then we'll have to fight for ourselves and don't forget to tell them about what nearly happened when your Bob and girls apron got caught she could have been killed Sara it's just not safe we the undersigned considering ourselves wronged and our privileges invaded by our unjust and unreasonable lowering of our wages do hereby mutually and cheerfully engage not to enter the factory after Monday next next for the purpose of work until such time as our grievances are adrift it was not but they do make a case for themselves we speeded up the machines and lured the wages surely you would grumble to what should we do then Zachary you tell me cut profits to our investors if we do that they will close the mill entirely better lower wages are none at all these are tough time that could have been any of us I'm leaving I'll find work somewhere else me too no none of us should have to leave and if one or two of us do they can easily replace us but not if we all stand together [Music] this is Moses brown the Rhode Island businessman who enticed Samuels later to Pawtucket and then helped finance Slater's pioneering Kotwal Moses was a chance taker who was fascinated by inventions like his prized electrostatic generator and by visionary enterprises like spinning mills I'm standing in the beautifully restored home of Moses's brother John Brown who was a fighting Patriot a friend of George Washington's and a very successful financier John owned a world-renowned shipping company and was a prominent investor in the manufacture of rum the smelting of iron and the trading of slaves his businesses made him extremely rich so he built this impressive home in Providence and filled it with famous guests and fine furnishings though they were both successful businessmen the brown brothers did not necessarily see eye-to-eye John was unabashed in his support of the slave trade and Moses a converted and devout Quaker was so opposed to slavery he fought hard to abolish it but like his brother Moses Brown remained an entrepreneur and when he chanced upon textile manufacturing he could hardly have imagined he was helping to transform New England now Moses was basically an investor in the industry other textile pioneers built their mills from the ground up and spent their lives trying to make them successful this bucolic looking place is Harrisville New Hampshire [Music] Harrisville began as a single woollen mill and like similar enterprises grew in size and importance after the American embargo of British textiles in 1809 the mill was started by Beth Ewell Harris and his sons Cyrus and Milan with a few thousand dollars and a dozen workers they began a woollen operation that would last 150 years the Harrises lived in those houses over there not a stone's throw from their mill over time they built more Mills boarding houses for single workers and individual homes for families [Music] mylan harris even built this schoolhouse for the workers children which unfortunately was very cold in the winter rather than repair the drafty schoolhouse he stuffed wool which he had plenty of into the cracks in the floors the result was that the teachers and kids nearly froze and Milam was chastised by state authorities for running one of the worst schools in New Hampshire but the Harrises were not mean or greedy and treated their workers fairly when they could afford to for unlike rich owners the Harris's were completely dependent on the fortunes of their mill they personally fixed machinery fought I see wheels hired and fired workers sweated over accounts and hustled for business if prices fell or labor costs rose or natural disaster struck their enterprise could fail instantly and without the deep pockets of rich mill owners the Harrises were never far from financial ruin [Music] but with equal parts luck and hard work the Harrises made it becoming country comfortable rather than brown family rich and four mill owners like the Harrises that was enough now not all New England textile mills succeeded but the big cotton is generally did very well because the American South was an excellent source of cheap slave grown cotton and an even better market for machine-made cloth abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner railed against the conspiracy between the lords of the lash in the south and the lords of the loom in the north thinking that Sumner had equated them with slaves lolz workers passionately declared themselves the daughters of freemen but mill workers could be treated very unfairly the special and demand fell and prices dropped owners could cut wages increase hours or speed up production all in an effort to maintain profits on rare occasions workers fought back by turning out going on strike but then as now such tactics could be very risky for both sides they actually walked out these girls must be taught a lesson we cannot have them dictating terms next they'll want Saturday's off who was their leader I believe a young woman by the name of Sarah Methuen well get rid of her bio leaf gentlemen perhaps a subtler plan like to be effective with the upturn in the market the Northgate mill owners have authorized the following they will shorten the work day by 1/2 hour and are prepared to pay an extra penny on peace rate well at least they've done something I know how unfairly you've been treated but I hope you feel this is a step in the right direction if the workers wish to consider this a victory that is a fortuitous turn of affairs a happy worker is a productive worker but now I think it would be prudent to deliver a timely message begin training the new girls from the carding room to watch the looms they're not nearly as experienced but more desperate for employment I should think and they can be taught of what the looms far easier than the others could be taught not to be troublesome we must regard our workers as part of a machine if one part of braids the rest can be done what is that Sarah I've been sick you are to leave the premises immediately gather your belongings from the boarding house and be gone by tomorrow morning here's the money orders Sara what happened I'm sure you did it's not the way you think where will you go my aunt is frail she needs help with the boardinghouse mr. daniel has kindly permitted me to return daniel's mill has no future and neither does a boardinghouse you can't be thinking I can be thinking anything I please in this free country mr. Moore it is the one thing I do that cannot be regulated Sara you must believe I knew nothing about this and why should I believe you this time after all because when I found out I quit I've saved some money and I want to go west now here there's a great opportunity out there for a man who's not afraid to be industrious lord knows you're not that Zachary Moore good luck to you it could be a hard life at first until I get my feet planted but it could be a great adventure and it's an adventure I dearly like to share I'm sorry my aunt needs me I won't give up a new Sarah promise you that [Music] Sarah this came for you Sarah all the way from California my dear Sarah perhaps you've heard about the gold strikes in the new state of California my mechanical skills have paid off handsomely the design of mining machinery I'm in San Francisco now where I definitely detect the need for a fine at salt I dearly love to invest and be a partner in that enterprise and make you my partner in all other things as well I know I'm not very good at putting things into words Sarah but if you could see a future in California as my wife you would make me the happiest man in this fortunate [Music] benchley has been on the brink of another disaster the first line I lit candles he sent for his children to come home which they did afterwards he and I had a considerable of a warm debate now the letter was the telephone of its day the primary means of communication over distance and this letter from Samuel Slater shows his annoyance with a parent named Benchley who kept his children from working in the mill even after Slater had lit extra candles so they could see in the dark yes children worked hard at Slater and at other modes throughout New England they also worked on farms and in crafts shops just about everywhere [Music] few children had the luxury of going to school full-time at working in the mills at least meant a decent place to eat and sleep Slater appreciated his younger workers what he complained about where their overly protective parents and the fickle adult workers who were constantly leaving him to work in other mills he was also unhappy about his personal fortune though he ran a successful mill that bore his name he was not the majority only and felt he could do better with his own venture so in 1806 he built a new mill complex and proudly named it Slater's ville over the decades the surrounding community grew along with the milk and by mid-century the Slater family had built two additional mills and installed steam engines to help power the machinery fari Bank mill in England houses an early working model this remarkable contraption is an old steam engine look at the precise movement of the vertical piston it's moved up and down by the rise and fall of steam pressure inside the cylinder and that up-and-down motion is converted into rotary motion which operates all the machines this is a revolutionary device it made it possible to run machines anytime anyplace and in any kind of weather over the years operators used both steam power and water power but eventually the steam engine replaced water wheels is the primary source of power for most rebels [Music] with steam engines to run machinery mills no longer had to be located near rivers and once freed from the river the stage was set for the demise of the new england mill by the middle of the 20th century many New England textile companies had moved south labor was cheap wear cotton grew right outside the door and we're Swift moving rivers no longer mattered in more recent decades the industry has moved to even cheaper labor markets in Asia and the Pacific today the largest textile centers in the world live far beyond the United States and Great Britain leaving places like Slater's Ville abandoned and desert [Music] in England and New England the textile industry is only a shadow of the enterprise at once was and many old mills are now rotting from neglect or completely gone a few communities have restored mill buildings turning them into apartments shopping malls even art studios [Music] but here in New England the industry that supported generation after generation of working families is for the most part over [Music] at their height mills were criticized for bringing a decline in craftsmanship and a machine like regimentation to the workplace but they created enormous benefits as well as anchors for cities as innovators of new technologies they put vast numbers of people to work and brought affordable products to consumers everywhere for better or worse mills have shaped our world and the way we live as surely as any force in history [Music] thanks for watching if you'd like to help us produce more compelling historical content like this please like comment below and share this video with fellow history buffs and of course be sure to subscribe to help keep history happening [Music]

Channel: LionHeart FilmWorks

Views: 4,465

Rating: 4.9344263 out of 5

Keywords: castle, david macaulay, david macaulay castle, david macaulay cathedral, david macaulay mill times, david macaulay pyramid, david macaulay roman city, david macaulay the way things work, david macauley, documentary (tv genre), pbs tv, pbs tv series full episodes, pbs tv shows, pbs tv worth watching, cathedral, mill times, lowell, massachusetts, lowell girls, cotton mill, sweatshops, textile mill, 19th century, new england mill, fabric mill

Id: 7Ch9wqJNJxo

Length: 56min 45sec (3405 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 08 2020