Cotton Mills in the Classroom

A few days ago my Honors History 10 class had the pleasure of taking a trip to England, all while sitting in our classroom. What we did was have a live video chat with Jamie, a museum curator at Manchester, England’s Museum of Science and Industry. Since our class is studying the industrial revolution, Jamie focused on machinery invented and used in textile and cotton mills during that era. But before we got to have this talk, we had to get prepared. For the few days leading up to our discussion, we spent our class time searching around on the MOSI textiles gallery site, learning vocab that is used in the textile industry (ie. slubbing: to twist wool in preparation for spinning), and coming up with questions for our chat.
 

Jamie showing us some machinery!

When Jamie just popped up onto our class smart board, it was so cool. We could see all the machinery he pointed out, and ask him all kinds of questions- it was just like he was right there in the room with us. First we got a run down of the evolution of textile making. It all started with the handloom, a machine people used in their homes to create cloth. We got to see one up close from the 1830s! Next came the water loom, and later the steam powered loom. With these inventions, cloth making shifted from in-home work to factory work that took over England's economy. When a question about working and living conditions arose, Jamie laughed at the  thought, exclaiming, “Health and safety didn’t exist in the factory system!” He then proceeded to give us detailed description of the brutal and unhealthy factory conditions, where arthritis and scoliosis were minor ailments compared to the limbs that women and kids lost in machinery.
 

An old drawing of factory workers that Jamie showed the class.

When the class signed out of our chat with Jamie, I felt like I had just visited a real museum where I’d gotten to view the looms up close, and ask all the questions I wanted. It seemed that whatever question we had, Jamie had the answer and was ready to tell it to us. I only wish that we had actually been in the museum with him so I could get a closer, more detailed look at the machines. But, hey, for $1000 and a plane ride less, our video chat worked pretty well. I hope that we get to do more of these chats throughout the year with all kinds of experts around the world, because it was great to learn from someone who specializes in our current curriculum… and hear the British accent!