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Home > New Titles > Development of Power in The Textile Industry
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Development of Power in The Textile Industry

Pre 1700- 1930

Author: Rev Dr Richard L Hills
Price: £ 25.00
Size: 246 x 174 mm
Pages: 256
Binding: Paperback
Published: May 2008
Release Date: May 2008
ISBN: 978 1 84306 366 7


Description: This book is based on the practical experience of collecting, displaying and demonstrating the textile machines and mill engines now housed in the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. It covers the techniques of spinning and weaving primarily in the cotton industry and shows how the demand for power in the ever expanding mills rose from around five horsepower before 1750 to over 3,000 horsepower by 1900.

For the first time, the development of powered textile machinery is linked to the development of sources of power. The book is based on the practical experience of collecting, displaying and demonstrating the textile machines and mill engines now housed in the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. Hand spinning and weaving is described so that the principles of how later power-driven machinery can be understood. The cotton textile industry with its crucial spinning inventions from the later 1700s forms the centre piece of the story throughout. Mechanisation in the wool and silk industries is examined as well. The book is split into five chapters. The first part of each covers important inventions in the textile industries together with the increasing scale of these industries and their mills. The second part of each examines the development of sources of power. Horse, wind and waterpower are described but the main theme is the steam engine. This is linked to the major exhibits in the museum. The difficulty of operating the replica of Thomas Newcomen’s engine of 1712 is contrasted with James Watt’s rotative beam engine in the form of the Haydock beam engine, the type that powered the majority of the early textile mills. Other types of horizontal, vertical and compound engines are explained. The book concludes with the last thermodynamic types, the Uniflow and the turbine, heralding the switch to electricity.

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