Water Power for America

Yesterday we had a very good day- seeing the canals and waterwheels at Lowell on the Merrimack River- America's premier water power cotton mill town.  And we stopped at the American Textile History Museum at 4:30-just before they closed at 5 pm- and the woman attendant gave us free admission.  When we have a short amount of time for a museum we call it a spin tour- go in circles around each room to catch a glimpse of everything.  So this was a double-spin tour... 

The Lowell mills were about 10 separate cotton processing mills, but each owned by men in a capitalist club from Boston, with cotton from the south and about four major machines- from carting (combing) to spinning threads to rolling the warp threads and then the back and forth weaving machines with shuttles on the top floors.  All run with belts and axels connected to water turbines along the canals that harness the 30-feet drop of the Pawtucket Falls.  The engineer who ran the canals and turbines was James Francis- who invented the Francis Turbine- a major design still used in our largest dams. 

We rode on a wooden trolley car that the town had near 1900 for modern transportation.  

A very interesting part of the visit was seeing how the "mill girls" lived- many from New England farms, with 12 hour days with 30 minute breaks for 3 large meals at their dorms- where about 40 girls lived under the supervision of a dorm mother.  Our American mill owners were trying to give the workers a pleasant life, beginning in 1830, but as the 1800s progressed, the working conditions for immigrant workers became almost slave labor- so it is easier to understand the labor unions and strikes that came in the 20th century. 

 And then the Boston Museum of Fine Arts- because they stay open to 9:45 on Wednesday-Friday (a great idea for tourists and working class people).  The mill girls couldn't go because they would still be working, eating, or sleeping.  The special exhibit was beautiful, nearly perfect condition, American Quilts- so this just fit perfectly with our "Textile Day".  We were thinking that our home, with many hanging quilts, is a beautiful and colorful and comfortable place because of our quilts.  So we have decided to keep them- so the "off the quilt" rule is still in force.

We are off to the Freedom trail for another day of history- and we will stop by our first home-where we were "dorm parents" at the Baker House dorm at MIT.