MACHINERY IN TEXTILES. 141 



inventions and attachments to save labor and perfect 

 work ; the number of looms a weaver is now able to 

 tend having more than doubled. In 1838 two looms 

 to a weaver was the rule, though there were cases of 

 three or more being tended by one person. Now, the 

 practice is for four to six, and even eight looms to be 

 run by one weaver," etc. He further stated that, 

 " Since 1861 all the mills owned by the Boott Cotton 

 Mills have been renovated and enlarged, supplied with 

 additional motive power, new shafting, and an entirely 

 new suit of machinery, of the latest construction, ar- 

 ranged for the greatest economy in operating ; " which 

 means for the least possible employment of manual 

 labor. 



Mr. Edward Atkinson, of Boston, during the dis- 

 cussion at that meeting, said, " A man who owned a 

 mill of the style of 1838 to-day would be a bankrupt. 

 He could not run it. The whole success depends on 

 the constant adoption of new and improved machin- 

 ery. The machines have become more distinctly self 

 operative, requiring only to be kept in order, and kept 

 up by oversight, rather than by the actual work of 

 those who tend them." 



In Fall River the rule is eight looms to the weaver, 

 run at a speed that gives 44 cuts of 45 yards each per 

 week, making 1,980 yards per week for each weaver, 

 or 330 yards a day. Our mothers could weave upon 

 their looms about 3 yards in 10 hours of work. So 

 that in weaving there has been not only a displace- 

 ment of 75 .per cent, of muscle in our mills in the last 

 40 years, mostly within the last 15, but to-day one 

 girl weaver with her improved machine looms stands 



