Curated playlist
History of the textile industry
- Roberts LoomPower looms in Britain grew from around 55,500 to 100,000 after the Roberts loom arrived in 1830.
- Spinning (textiles)The oldest known twisted fiber on Earth was made around 50,000-40,000 BCE in what is now southern France.
- Beverly Cotton ManufactoryGeorge Washington wrote in 1789 that the Beverly Cotton Manufactory in Massachusetts "seemed perfect."
- Cotton-spinning machinerySamuel Crompton named his 1779 spinning mule after a hybrid animal. It combined two earlier machines.
- Lowell, MassachusettsIn 1860, Lowell, Massachusetts held more cotton spindles than the eleven future Confederate states combined.
- Pawtucket, Rhode IslandIn 1824, about one hundred women in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, staged the first factory strike in US history.
- Textile manufacture during the British Industrial RevolutionTextile manufacture during the British Industrial Revolution can be measured in hours. In the 18th century, a worker at a hand-powered spinning wheel needed more than 50,000 hours to spin 100 pounds of cotton. By the 1790s, a spinning mule…
- CromfordCromford is a Derbyshire village that had 1,433 residents at the 2011 Census. Historic England has described its mill complex as "one of the country's 100 irreplaceable sites". That is a heavy label for a place so small. It sits in a…
- Slater MillIn 1824, young women at Slater Mill in Rhode Island led the first factory strike in the United States.
- Berkshire HathawayBerkshire Hathaway has a share price that looks like a typo. In August 2024, a single Class A share reached $700,000, the highest per-share price of any public company in the world. That same month, the company became the first…
- CottonopolisIn 1781, Richard Arkwright opened the world's first steam-driven textile mill in Manchester.
- Uxbridge, MassachusettsIn 1756, Lydia Taft voted at a town meeting in Uxbridge, Massachusetts. It is recorded as a first for colonial women.