In
order to prepare for the MOSI Live Google Hangout, we familiarized ourselves
with the material that we were going to discuss during the chat. We first were instructed to visit the MOSI,or Museum of Science & Industry, website where we read two documents that
were listed beneath “Downloads.” The
first document was titled, Richard Arkwright, and the second document was
called, Manchester Textile Designers.
From these sources, three key facts that I found important were that
Manchester, England was a major town where textiles and mills were located,
breading and weaving were techniques used in the mills, and that Arkwright
built the first water-powered spinning frame in Manchester. After investigating the Museum’s cite, we
then watched a video where Jamie, the curator, who participating with us during
the Live Google Hangout, showed us the main machines used in the mills and
conveyed important terms to further our understanding. We then defined all these machines and terms
including the Hopper Feeder Srutcher, Carding Engine, Draw Frame, Speed Frames,
Flyers, Slubbing, Roving, and Power Loom.
In addition, we further researched these new vocabulary words by using
our Google keyboard search skills. We
typed in the term and other words that would help us find a more exact
definition of the term. After defining
the new terms, we drafted some questions that we might ask Jamie during the
Live Google Hangout. One question that I
posed was, “Would you say that the Industrial Revolution helped poorer families
earn more money (because of all the new available jobs) or just made them even
poorer?”
After
completing the MOSI Live Google Hangout with Jamie, one thing that I learned
about the textile process, as a whole, was that working in the mills was a very
dangerous job and resulted in a variety of health conditions or death. The time of industrialization was also a time
of urbanization; towns and cities were popping up everywhere. The rapid pace of industrialization with too
many cities all being created at once caused England to not be able to could
keep up with the explosive societal changes or deal with all the consequences of
this revolutionary time. This resulted
in poor sanitation and the spread of diseases.
Diseases now spread rapidly because workers were all sharing the same
machines. For example, women shared the
same mouth piece to spin thread. If one
woman used the mouth piece, and had pneumonia, for example, and then the next
woman sat down to use the same mouth piece, she would then catch the illness. There were also many risks that came with
working these machines. Breathing in
cotton fibers for several years was detrimental to the workers lungs. Most people didn't live past the age of
thirty. One particular hazardous job
that young children often were made to do because of its lack of skills they
possessed, was pulling out materials between the spinning tubes. This job was very dangerous and resulted in
broken and mangled fingers. If you were
wearing loose clothing you could be pulled into the machine. If you had long hair and it wasn't pulled
back properly, your hair could get stuck in the machine and your hair would be
pulled out in clumps, or you could be scalped.
Clearly, there were many health and safety hazards.
Overall,
I feel that I learned more from our discussion with an outside expert on Textile
Manufacturing and Industrialization, like Jamie, than reading some of our
handouts. One thing that I especially liked
about this experience was being able to see the machines which made me feel as
if I was actually there. One thing that
was frustrating about this experience was how the hangout would sometimes not
work very well, or we couldn’t hear what Jamie was saying clearly, or see what
he was showing us. However, this Live
Google Hangout really made me psyched up about learning more about the Industrialization
of Great Britain and America. Therefore,
I would love to do it again with experts on other topics throughout the school
year because I think it would make the topics more interesting and exciting.
No comments:
Post a Comment