Waltham integrated textile mill (Waltham-Lowell system)
Fábrica textil integrada de Waltham (sistema Waltham-Lowell)
- Date
- 1814 · confidence high
- Place
- Waltham, Massachusetts, United States
- Credited to
- Francis Cabot Lowell and Paul Moody (Boston Manufacturing Company)
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
The first mill to carry out the whole process under one roof, from raw cotton fibre to finished cloth, with its own power looms. It combined mass production with a workforce of young women housed in company boarding houses.
Lowell memorised Lancashire power-loom designs in 1810-1812, a famous case of industrial espionage; his loom design was his own work with Moody, and how much it owes to the British model is disputed.
What it led to
- planned mill towns such as Lowell (1822)
- textile industrialisation of the northeastern United States
- first strikes by women workers (Lowell Mill Girls)