A bobbin boy was a boy who worked in a
textile mill
Textile manufacturing or textile engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful good ...
in the 18th and early 19th centuries.
Description
In the 18th and early 19th centuries, bobbin boys worked in textile mills. The boys brought
bobbin
A bobbin or spool is a spindle or cylinder, with or without flanges, on which yarn, thread, wire, tape or film is wound. Bobbins are typically found in industrial textile machinery, as well as in sewing machines, fishing reels, tape measures ...
s to the women at the looms when they called for them, and collected the full bobbins of spun
cotton
Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...
or
wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal w ...
thread. They also would be expected to fix minor problems with the machines. Average pay was about $1.00 per week (), with days often beginning at 5:30 am and ending around 7:30 pm six days per week. The job as a bobbin boy was dangerous, and there was always an extreme risk of death.
Notable bobbin boys
The following people once worked as a bobbin boy:
*
Nathaniel Prentice Banks,
Governor of Massachusetts
The governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the head of government of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The governor is the chief executive, head of the state cabinet and the commander-in-chief of the commonw ...
and
Union general
*
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie ( , ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the History of the iron and steel industry in the United States, American steel industry in the late ...
, steel tycoon
*
Robert Frost
Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American Colloquialism, colloquial speech, Frost frequently wrote about settings from rural life in New E ...
, poet
See also
*
Doffer
Notes
Child labor in the United States
Industrial occupations
Obsolete occupations
Textile industry
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