04
The great number of children and young workers in 1830, com-pared with the present, is worthy of notice. At that time a greatportion of them were under ten years of age, and for the mostpart were only there to sweep up cotton waste—those poor little“ scavengers ” which Lord Shaftesbury has handed down for thepity of following generations. Those Factory Acts, therefore,which made child-labour more difficult have in no way injured theadvance of the great industry ; it was in no wise, as was frequentlyargued by his opponents, dependent on an increase of child-labour.
After reading the works of Baines and Ure, let us visit such anew fireproof (23) spinning-mill in Oldham, in order to view theadvances since their time. We find ourselves in one of the outerexits of those polypus arms which extend the factory town intothe meadow-lands of Lancashire . As far as the eye reaches, on themeadows there are dispersed five or six storeyed spinning-mills—neat brick buildings, with overtowering chimneys. Certainlythere are 40 to 50 of such chimneys to be counted in one view,until they disappear on the horizon, for the towns dovetail oneinto the other. Add a clouded sky and that damp atmospherethe possession of which an American expert reckons to be, withfine counts, an advantage of 7 per cent. We enter into the fac-tory immediately from the street, without a special yard andgateway, as is customary in Germany .
The foreigner looks about, as soon as he is inside, and askshimself: Where are the operatives? Less human labour thaneven given in the above instances may be required. For mixing,as for opening, I have myself observed only one grown-up maleoperative, and this in a spinning-mill at full work, with 68,000spindles. There is a similar saving of labour at the cardingengines, which are connected by rails with the drawing room forthe easier removal of the revolving cans (24). Whilst the air inthe carding rooms was formerly filled with fibres of cotton flyingabout, the introduction of self-cleaning cards for the saving of
23. At the present time only fireproof mills are built, whereby the insur-ance charges are lessened. —Marsden’s “Cotton Spinning” (London , 1888),p. 04.
24. “ Double carding-machines ” mean a great saving in labour power.The spinners are, however, by no means agreed that double cards are to bepreferred to the old system, by which the cotton is carded twice successively—first by the so-called breaker, and then by the finisher. In the latter case theroller or Wellman card is chosen as the breaker, and the revolving flat asfinisher.