3-011-509 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Cotton Famine: group of mill operatives at Manchester, 1862. Lancashire Textile workers. 'The Carder's business is to see that machinery is kept in perfect working order...The Jack Tenter is a girl whose duty consists in taking charge of the roving frames...The business of the Hand-mule Spinner is to take the cotton rovings from the Carder and Jack Tenter, and make a thread so fine as scarcely to be seen by the naked eye, as well as threads so coarse it would require a great effort of strength to break them. The Throstle Spinner looks after throstle-frames, which produce warp-threads. She has an assistant, called the Throstle Doffer, a little girl or boy...The duty of Half-timers is to clean the machinery...that of the Power-loom Weaver consists in taking the warp and weft from the spinners and making them into cloth. The Hot-water Woman is one who provides the mill-hands with jugs and hot water for their breakfasts and dinners. The duty of the Knockers-up is to awake the factory operatives in the morning: they receive 2d. a week from each hand they knock up. The Overlooker to Self-acting Mules is one who superintends the machinery of that department...The Power-loom Overlooker superintends the machinery of the power-loom department'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.