A Google Chat with MOSI

Last week, I was able to speak with the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, England via Google video chat. We spoke with Jamie, a museum curator, who showed us many of the industrial-era machines and described how they were used. To prepare for this, in class we did some looking around on the MOSI website to learn more about the machines they had. We also learned about some of the terms used in the mills, such as carding, slubbing, and roving. We then wrote down some questions that we wanted to ask Jamie in our notes for the chat.
     During the chat, Jamie described to us the textile process in the mills. It was a very dangerous and unsanitary process, but there was no faster way of making cloth at the time. The wool was cleaned, straightened, combined into slivers of cloth, twisted, and finally weaved into usable cloth. The new inventions of machines helped this process. They made producing cloth faster and cheaper. One of these machines was the Arkwright Waterframe, which was a water powered machine that made producing cotton even faster. Another was the carding engine, which sorted and cleaned the fibers into strands that could then be made into cloth. These machines were faster, but dangerous. People could have legs broken, limbs lost, and even killed. One person was chopped in half by a machine.
     Discussing the Industrial Revolution with an outside expert greatly widened my knowledge of this topic. I enjoyed speaking with Jamie about this topic. I think it would be fun to speak with him or another expert on topics throughout the year.

Here is a picture of Jamie from the MOSI: