Bradford Industrial Museum
Encyclopedia
Bradford Industrial Museum, established 1974 in Moorside Mills, Eccleshill
, Bradford
, United Kingdom
, specializes in relics of local industry, especially printing and textile machinery, kept in working condition for regular demonstrations to the public. There is a Horse Emporium in the old canteen block plus a cafe and shop in the mill
, and entry is free of charge.
. The original mill was built by John Moore in 1875 for worsted spinning. In 1919 the clock tower was built as a war memorial
to those lost in World War I
, and two floors were added. The mill was later sold to W & J Whitehead, who ran the ring spinning
machine which is still in the spinning gallery. In 1970 Bradford Council
bought the mill
and it opened as a museum on 14 December 1974.Information from the Museums's free Visitor Guide leaflet.
, industry and culture. This has many different small displays, with exhibits which can be touched and examined (but not moved) by the public. The weaving display has several heavy, wooden flying shuttle
s which have metal-bound points. When in operation they flew fast, and could sometimes fly out of machines and injure people. They are, however, prized souvenirs of local history in many West Yorkshire
homes today. On the spinning
display stand is a pair of hand carders
for cleaning vegetable matter from wool from the fleece, and for aligning the threads before spinning. These were later superseded by carding
machines, and then by an acid cleaning process and other methods. Some of the display stands are dedicated to areas of Bradford
which are historically associated with different ethnic groups. One of these displays has some metal bosses
from Little Germany
, named after its 19th-century German
immigrant worker population, whose skills enhanced many local buildings. The bosses
are possibly from a neo-gothic building. On the Local Origins display is a 5000-year old neolithic
beehive quern-stone
; you can take the wooden handle and gently turn the headstone by a few millimetres, although the headstone is locked in place for its own protection. In 2005 the museum shop had a working cash railway
system.
, including waterwheels, steam engine
s, oil engine
s and gas engine
s; plus an engineer's workshop display. There is a demonstration of the working machines several times a week (steam on Wednesdays only): contact the Museum for current demonstration times. The millstone is from Castlefields corn mill near Bingley
; it is a bedstone carved from local millstone grit
. A spindle passes through this and a similar upper runner stone; the grain enters via the spindle hole and is ground by the scissor-action of the grooves when the runner stone rotates against the bedstone. The grain is forced out at the outer edges as flour, then flows into a sack.Information from museum exhibit label The prime exhibit, a uniflow steam engine rescued from Linton mill and known as the Linton engine, was one of the last Bradford-made steam engine
s. There is a display explaining the history of steam power
.
s and light commercial vans built by the Jowett
company of Bradford, Scott
motor bikes and Baines bicycles. A Wallis & Steevens
Advance type Steam Roller no. 7986 built in 1928 that was owned by Bradford City Council roads department and carries the council crest on the water tanks.
The Biggest exhibit is a locomotive
named Nellie, after Nellie Crane the vicar's wife. Nellie is an 0-4-0 saddle tank
industrial locomotive 1435, one of two built by Hudswell Clarke
in Leeds
in 1922 for the Esholt
sewage works
. When the works were being built, she carried excavated material, and thereafter coal and construction material, then coal and other materials until 1970 when she was loaned to the Yorkshire Dales Railway Society at Skipton
. Her size is ca.23 x 8 x 11 ft, and she weighs 28 tons. The boiler
works at 160psi, and she carries 700 gallons in the saddle water tank. The cylinders are 40-inch diameter 20-inch stroke operated by Stephenson's open link valve gear
.
In the tram shed is the only tramcar left in Bradford, and a Bradford trolleybus
. The first horse-drawn trams were introduced in 1882, followed by steam trams in 1883 and electric trams in 1898. Trolleybuses ran in Bradford from 1911 to 1972. There are various models of tram
s, including no. 237, built in Shipley
in 1904, but shown as it was in 1912 with top deck extended and covered to accommodate 38 passengers. From 1904 to 1908 this tram travelled between Baildon bridge and Greengates
. After that it was transferred to the Great Horton
system, then went between Saltaire
and Undercliffe. However its routes were limited as it was too tall to pass under the railway bridge at Eccleshill
station.
Print
Here are different types of old machines
in working condition; plus printing
equipment. There is a demonstration of the working machines on Wednesdays: contact the museum for current demonstration times.
This gallery holds machinery from the last of the hot metal typesetting
printshops as used in the newspaper industry. The monotype
keyboard produces punched 31-level tape for casting on the monotype caster. The keyboard comprises seven QWERTY arrangements (Roman upper and lower case, bold upper and lower case, italic upper and lower case and SMALL CAPITALS). It is operated by compressed air and produces a wide paper tape which contains perforations which when transferred to the caster give full instructions to each character to be cast. The monotype system was widely used in the commercial printing sector. There is a forme (text lines produced on a Linotype
typesetting machine) made up into the front page of the last edition of the Yorkshire Sports, 2 May 1981. The assembled forme is ready to be moulded and cast into a curved printing plate.
There is a display of lead glyph
s for typesetting
. These would be set into a forme so that the text read backwards and upside down, then inked and pressed against paper using a platen
in a printing press
. The display includes various kinds of printing presses, including a Wharfedale stop cylinder press
.
cloth, although life was hard for the workers. The displays show how a fleece was transformed through various stages into a suit. There is a demonstration of the working machines several times a week: contact the Museum for current demonstration times.
for long wools and hairs which would break on the card and therefore greatly reduce the quality of the worsted yarn produced. The maker-up or double-screw sheeting preparer is the first machine. This passes the fibre to and from delivery sheets via rollers, and ends with a lap of wool from six to eight feet long. The single screw can preparer is the most important machine of these, as it is here that the laps of wool or hair taken from the preceding boxes are prepared into a continuous sliver
. The lap is placed on the feed sheet and carried forward to the back rollers. From the back rollers the fibres are delivered to the fallers, which with the aid of the front rollers, draw out the material into a continuous sliver. From the front rollers the sliver of fibres passes through a funnel, through the calender
rollers and into a can which is placed directly underneath them. The material is now ready for the combing
machine.
straightens the fibres, isolates the long ones (tops
) for spinning and discards the short ones (noil
). There are various types of combing machines here, including the French comb, the Lister
comb and the Holden comb. The Noble comb was the most popular as it would comb long, medium and fairly short staple wool, but the slivers needed special preparation in a punching machine beforehand.
In the French comb the slivers
of wool are fed forward by ratchet
-operated rollers and a pinned feed grid, the leading end of the fibres being pushed beyond the nipper
jaws which open and shut to receive and hold them, leaving a fringe of fibres protruding through which the pins of the revolving cylinder comb pass, removing the short fibres or noil and any impurities. These are carried round to the underside and deposited in a box for removal. Whilst the above initial combing is taking place the drawing-off rollers, mounted on a carriage, move towards the nipper jaws and grip the fringe of fibres as soon as the last row of pins on the comb cylinder has passed through the fringe projecting from the nipper jaws. As the drawing-off rollers grip the projecting fringe, the intersector comb descends, piercing the fringe of fibres, the nipper jaws open and the fibres are given their second combing by the rotation and recession of the drawing-off rollers pulling the fibres through the pins of the intersector comb and the pins of the feed grid. The combed fibres are then conveyed by the leather apron of the drawing-off rollers to the front rollers of the carriage, down a funnel and through the calender rollers, into a can placed directly underneath.
This was used when the best results were wanted from long fibred wools and hairs such as mohair, alpaca, long English and crossbred wools. In the Lister
comb, the slivers of wool or hair are fed into the machine over the back plate, through the fluted feed rollers, under the spreader roller and onto the pins of the fallers which disentangle and transport the fibres to the nip jaw. The nip jaw, with its swinging motion, closes in upon the fringe of fibres, grasping them and pulling them out from the faller pins; thus partially combing the fibres which are received by the carrier comb and conveyed to the pins of the large combing circle into which they are pressed by the dabbing brush. As the large circle rotates, the unique feature of the machine, the side circle comb gives the fibres a secondary combing, removing not the short fibres, but any excessively long ones. The large comb circle carries the remaining fibres to the drawing-off rollers which give the fibres their final combing by removing the long fibres from the circle pins, the short ones being left behind. The long fibres or top
pass through a revolving funnel to the crimping
box and into a can directly underneath. The short fibres or noils are removed from the pins of the large comb circle by lifting knives, and deposited into a can ready for removal.
The Holden comb was suited for the combing of short staple wools. The slivers
of wool are fed into the machine through the feed guides to the filing head rollers and transferred to the pins of the comb circle by the lashing action of the filling heads. As the comb circle rotates, the fallers of the square motion rise, their pins piercing the fringe of fibres held in the comb circle by the keeper plate, and by drawing away give the fibres their initial combing. This removes any short fibres or noil and some long fibres termed robbings which are deposited in a box at the back of the square motion. As the comb circle carries the remaining fibres to the drawing-off head the fringe is penetrated by the pins of the intersecting or nacteur combs, the drawing-off rollers giving the fibres their final combing by removing the long fibres from the pins of the nacteur comb and the comb circle; the short ones being left behind. The long fibres or top pass through a revolving funnel to the coiler mechanism and into a can directly underneath. The short fibres or noils remaining in the nacteur combs are transferred to the comb circle by a small comb and removed with the noil in the comb circle pins by brushes and lifting knives and deposited into a box ready for removal.
tops
from thick slivers
to thinner roving
ready for spinning
. This is done by drafting them between slow back rollers to faster front rollers, and controlling the fibres between these rollers. The first boxes where the ends are thickest are the double head can gill box (where the wool ends up in a can) and the 2-spindle gill box (where the wool ends up twisted and on spindles
). On these machines the rollers are heavily fluted to control the sliver, and the front rollers padded with leather to cushion the wool. Between the front and back rollers are fallers or bars which control the roving
by holding it with fine pins. The roving is now called slubbing
which needs twist for strength, and is dealt with by a second set of boxes: a 2-spindle draw-box, 4-spindle weigh box, 8-spindle finisher/reducer and 8-spindle rover. In these boxes the principle of two sets of rollers with controlled fibre in between is the same, but the yarn is now twisted onto a bobbin
via a flyer.
The combed slivers produced on any type of combing machine are passed through a process known as finishing. This process takes place in a series of gill boxes in which the fibres are redistributed, the slivers made uniform in thickness and moisture added in order to give the wool its natural suppleness and condition. Blending is done where necessary to keep the top up to a given standard of quality and, if dyed, consistency of colour. The top ball produced is suitable for packing for transport and unwinding. The top represents the wool comber's finished product, and it is in this form that the wool is bought and sold as the spinner's raw material.
is the final stage in converting wool to worsted yarns, the roving being drawn out to its final thickness and twist added for strength. There are three types of spinning machine or frame in common use in the United Kingdom
, namely flyer, cap and ring. Another machine used for spinning worsted yarns is the worsted mule. All three types of machine or frame are similar in their method of drawing out or drafting the roving to make the required count or thickness, but differ in the way in which twist is imparted and the yarn wound onto the bobbin
. Drafting takes place between the back and front rollers. The front rollers revolve faster than the back ones, drawing out the roving to the fineness of yarn required. Between the rollers are carriers which support and help to control the fibres as they are being drafted.
The flyer is the original type of mechanical spinning frame and is believed to be a direct development of the Saxony wheel
used in hand spinning
. It is suitable for producing thick smooth yarns from coarse quality wools and hairs, but is falling into disuse because of the low speed at which the spindles
have to run. As the yarn leaves the front rollers it is guided through a porcelain
ring to the top of a revolving spindle, around and down one of the arms of the flyer and onto the bobbin. The bobbin is carried on a lifter plate and moves up and down the spindle. As the flyer revolves, imparting twist to the yarn, the bobbin which is free to rotate on the spindle is pulled round by the spun yarn. A felt or cloth washer is placed between the lifter plate and bobbin to retard the revolving bobbin and create adequate yarn tension for the flyer to wind the yarn evenly on the bobbin. When the bobbins are full they are removed and replaced by empty ones. This action is termed doffing and is done manually on this machine.
Twisting is the process in which two or more single-spun yarns are united to produce a yarn of greater strength for use as warp
threads in the weaving process and for normal knitting purposes. This is done by rollers delivering the yarns to a revolving spindle which twists or folds the single yarns around one another. The machines used are similar to spinning
frames in their method of applying twist, but differ in that they have only one set of delivery rollers instead of the usual complement of drafting rollers. This machine is an early example of a flyer twisting frame. On the flyer twister, twist imparted to the yarn in a similar manner as on the flyer spinner. A weighted band, running in a groove at the base of the bobbin, retards the revolving bobbin creating enough tension for the flyer to wind the yarn evenly onto the bobbin. The machine is hand doffed.
The introduction of the cap frame ca.1828 was a step forward in attaining higher production and finer yarn spinning. It is suitable for producing yarns made from botany and fine crossbred quality wools. Unlike the flyer frame where the spindle and flyer rotate, on the cap frame the spindle is stationary and carries a steel cap. Moving up and down the spindle is a lifter plate which carries the spinning tube on which the bobbin
fits. The revolving tube and bobbin impart twist to the yarn until it becomes strong enough to wind onto the bobbin. The speed of the bobbin causes the thread to balloon, and the air resistance to this balloon, combined with friction on the cap edge, is sufficient to give enough tension for winding on at the line of the cap edge as the bobbin moves up and down inside the cap. This machine is hand doffed.
This is a later development of the ring spinning frame. The passage of the yarn from the front rollers to the paper tube - used in place of a bobbin - is different from other types of spinning frames. When the yarn leaves the rollers it passes direct to the top of an elongated spindle and coils round it two or three times before forming a balloon to the ring traveller. This enables the twist to be imparted between the spindle top and roller nip, thus helping to produce a smoother yarn.
weaving machinery
gave rise to technological jargon
in places such as Yorkshire
with a strong local dialect. The resultant inscrutability of linguistic terms has given rise to such jokes as the one from Monty Python
's Trouble at Mill sketch: One on't cross beams gone owt askew on treadle. This nonsense may have been written so on the script as a joke, but what Graham Chapman
could have said correctly in dialect is, "One o't crossbeams 'as gone out o' skew on't treadle", meaning "One of the crossbeams has gone askew on the treadle". The treadle
was a rocking pedal, powered by the worker's foot. The treadle in turn powered a reciprocating beam
, and the power from that was transferred to the machinery. On a loom, these reciprocating beams were called lams, and were connected with the treadles by strings which were also connected with jacks to work the yelds. In big factories, power could be transferred from one large drive wheel to another across a wide room via a reciprocating beam, called in that situation a crossbeam. Out of skew is a dialect expression meaning in incorrect position. Whether a foot-driven treadle could power a mighty crossbeam is a moot point, and may be a joke in itself, but the explanation of the above phrase and its humour is tightly connected with the mechanism of the weaving machinery described below.
with the witch is typical of many that were used in the mills by cloth designers to develop new fabric designs and patterns. They are still used in the textile departments of universities and colleges for training students in weaving and the designing of fabrics. The shafts are lifted by a witch, an early form of dobby
, with weights underneath to pull the shafts down, and can work up to 50 shafts to produce very complicated patterns. The weft is put in by hand using the flying shuttle method invented in 1733 by John Kay
, and up to four colours can be woven in the weft using Robert Kay's (son of John Kay
) 1760 invention of the multiple shuttle box. On this simple-to-operate loom the designer is able to explore the application of new design ideas before beginning production trials on a wider loom. Many of the designs for woven fabrics made today were developed and created long ago on similar narrow-width pattern looms.
The hand loom with jacquard
is a wooden hand loom typical of the many thousands of looms that were used in the domestic cottage industry throughout the British Isles
. They were gradually replaced by all-metal looms (see the Hattersley domestic loom) and new methods of working practice, such as the factory system
, during the Industrial Revolution
. The loom has a four-shuttle drop box to weave up to four colours of weft, and has John Kay's
flying shuttle
method of inserting the weft. Most of the handlooms used in the home were ordinary shaft looms. These do not require roof space and would be weaving standard cloths, unlike this loom which is fitted with a 360 hook de Vogue jacquard
and can weave very complex fabrics.
The plain Hattersley domestic loom
was specially developed for cottage or home use and designed to replace the wooden handloom; the Domestic is similar in construction to a power loom
. It was introduced ca.1900 and the makers claimed that a speed of 160 picks per minute could be easily attained with from 2 to 8 shafts weaving a variety of fabrics. Because foot pedals, or treadle
s, operate the loom it is still classed as a handloom, but it is much easier and faster to weave as all the motions of the loom are connected via crankshaft
and gear
wheels. Because the loom is designed to use only one shuttle
when weaving
, giving a solid colour in the weft
, it is termed a plain loom. The cast metal chair, manufactured along with the loom, can be raised or lowered to suit, and the seat rocks forward and back as the weaver treadle
s the loom.
of suiting fabrics etc., is fitted with a negative V or angle dobby, a development of the original invented by Hattersley's in 1867. Known throughout the textile industry
as the Keighley
dobby, it has since been copied, modified and manufactured in a variety of different forms. Hattersley also invented, in 1868, the skip box: a development of the circular or revolving box. This allowed the shuttle
box to bypass or skip the next compartment along and pick out the shuttle of the following one.
The Dobcross H.K. box loom was manufactured in ca.1950 by Hutchinson, Hollingworth & Co. Ltd of Dobcross Oldham
. This loom was claimed by its makers to be one of the most widely used power looms in the woollen and worsted
industries. It was used, with minor adaptations, for weaving goods as varied as light tropical suiting, costume cloths, overcoatings, army and police uniform cloths and heavy blankets. The main feature of this loom is the dobby (located top right of the loom with the hand wheel) which is known as the Knowles, American or positive wheel dobby. This device lifts and lowers the wooden shafts through which the warp
ends are threaded, separating the warp threads to produce the shed. The loom has four rising or drop boxes at each side, which can be moved independently, and can weave up to seven shuttles
, each with a different colour.
The Sowden worsted
coating loom: as in all mechanical devices, there is drive to improve efficiency, and this loom has several patent
innovations. For example the 28 shaft negative square dobby is similar in construction to Hattersley's Keighley
dobby. However, to allow the shuttle more time to pass through the shed the dobby has special curved slots that allow the shafts to dwell or remain open for longer. In addition, the pattern chain or lags controlling the shafts can be set to control all 28 shafts, or set to operate the first sixteen shafts to weave the cloth and the remaining twelve shafts to produce a name list or selvedge
. The word selvedge is derived from self-edge, the edge of the cloth where the weft
is turned back as it returns through the shed. The selvedge would often have a brand name or the country of origin woven into it. On the left side of the loom
is the patent four-shuttle drop box motion incorporating a foot pedal. This is part of an escape mechanism in case the shuttle becomes trapped.
's first owner, John Moore, lived at Moorside House with his family until 1887, followed by the later owners of Moorside Mills. The house interior is now a museum display, furnished as if the 19th century mill
-owners were still living there. Gaythorne Row is a row of Victorian back-to-backs
. It was rebuilt here in 1986, and is now furnished as for mill
workers of the 1870s
, 1940s
and 1950s
.
The Horse Emporium was once the mill's
canteen block. The displays are arranged on the theme of horse power
. Among other exhibits there is a heavy-duty British Rail
ways dray
, a decorative chaff cutter and a horse fodder measure. There is a saddle
r-at-work display, plus horse brass
es, horseshoe
s and other harness
. In a stable there is a blacksmith's workshop
and farriery display,complete with many horseshoe
s, anvil
s, and metalworking
tools.
s. There is a reproduction of an 1890 garden seat omnibus
, with wooden, slatted seats on top, like garden seats. These vehicles have not been used in the UK since 1931. This reproduction has hydraulic disc brakes for safety. There is a brougham
, a 19th-century gentleman's light one-horse carriage. This design is said to have been named after Lord Chancellor Brougham in the early 19th century. There is also a steamer, or Shand-Manson steam
fire pump
of ca.1880. A team of horses pulled it, and steam
powered it, at 250 gallons per minute. Firemen could get it ready in 7 minutes. It was successful enough for the manufacturers to export it worldwide - for example to the Warsaw Fire Guard
- but it was expensive in coal and horses, and was superseded by motor pumps in ca.1900.
The working horses
live at the other end. There is a horse-drawn ride for the public several times a week: contact the Museum for current demonstration times.
events, family activity days, and a yearly Victorian-style Christmas craft market. There are regular temporary exhibitions; in 2003, for example, there was a motorcycle exhibition, and in 2009 there was a rag-rug display. There are educational workshops for school and other groups, including Victorian classroom, World War II
classroom and washday
sessions. See the website for further information on the activities and education programmes.
Eccleshill
Eccleshill is a Ward in the City of Bradford Metropolitan District in the county of West Yorkshire, England....
, Bradford
Bradford
Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, specializes in relics of local industry, especially printing and textile machinery, kept in working condition for regular demonstrations to the public. There is a Horse Emporium in the old canteen block plus a cafe and shop in the mill
Factory
A factory or manufacturing plant is an industrial building where laborers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another. Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production...
, and entry is free of charge.
History of the site
In Yorkshire, a mill is a textile factoryFactory
A factory or manufacturing plant is an industrial building where laborers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another. Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production...
. The original mill was built by John Moore in 1875 for worsted spinning. In 1919 the clock tower was built as a war memorial
War memorial
A war memorial is a building, monument, statue or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or to commemorate those who died or were injured in war.-Historic usage:...
to those lost in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, and two floors were added. The mill was later sold to W & J Whitehead, who ran the ring spinning
Ring spinning
Ring spinning is a method of spinning fibres, such as cotton, flax or wool, to make a yarn. The ring frame developed from the throstle frame, which in its turn was a descendant of Arkwright's water frame. Ring spinning is a continuous process, unlike mule spinning which uses an intermittent action...
machine which is still in the spinning gallery. In 1970 Bradford Council
City of Bradford
The City of Bradford is a local government district of West Yorkshire, England with the status of a city and metropolitan borough. It is named after its largest settlement, Bradford, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Keighley, Shipley, Bingley, Ilkley, Haworth, Silsden and...
bought the mill
Factory
A factory or manufacturing plant is an industrial building where laborers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another. Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production...
and it opened as a museum on 14 December 1974.Information from the Museums's free Visitor Guide leaflet.
You are here exhibition
Here is the You Are Here exhibition celebrating the multicultural history of the area, and its effect on architectureArchitecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
, industry and culture. This has many different small displays, with exhibits which can be touched and examined (but not moved) by the public. The weaving display has several heavy, wooden flying shuttle
Flying shuttle
The flying shuttle was one of the key developments in weaving that helped fuel the Industrial Revolution. It was patented by John Kay in 1733. Only one weaver was needed to control its lever-driven motion. Before the shuttle, a single weaver could not weave a fabric wider than arms length. Beyond...
s which have metal-bound points. When in operation they flew fast, and could sometimes fly out of machines and injure people. They are, however, prized souvenirs of local history in many West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
homes today. On the spinning
Spinning (textiles)
Spinning is a major industry. It is part of the textile manufacturing process where three types of fibre are converted into yarn, then fabric, then textiles. The textiles are then fabricated into clothes or other artifacts. There are three industrial processes available to spin yarn, and a...
display stand is a pair of hand carders
Carding
Carding is a mechanical process that breaks up locks and unorganised clumps of fibre and then aligns the individual fibres so that they are more or less parallel with each other. The word is derived from the Latin carduus meaning teasel, as dried vegetable teasels were first used to comb the raw wool...
for cleaning vegetable matter from wool from the fleece, and for aligning the threads before spinning. These were later superseded by carding
Carding
Carding is a mechanical process that breaks up locks and unorganised clumps of fibre and then aligns the individual fibres so that they are more or less parallel with each other. The word is derived from the Latin carduus meaning teasel, as dried vegetable teasels were first used to comb the raw wool...
machines, and then by an acid cleaning process and other methods. Some of the display stands are dedicated to areas of Bradford
Bradford
Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...
which are historically associated with different ethnic groups. One of these displays has some metal bosses
Boss (architecture)
In architecture, a boss is a knob or protrusion of stone or wood.Bosses can often be found in the ceilings of buildings, particularly at the intersection of a vault. In Gothic architecture, such roof bosses are often intricately carved with foliage, heraldic devices or other decorations...
from Little Germany
Little Germany, Bradford
Little Germany, Bradford is an area of particular historical and architectural interest in central Bradford, West Yorkshire, England.- History and information :The buildings within Little Germany date back to the 19th century....
, named after its 19th-century German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
immigrant worker population, whose skills enhanced many local buildings. The bosses
Boss (architecture)
In architecture, a boss is a knob or protrusion of stone or wood.Bosses can often be found in the ceilings of buildings, particularly at the intersection of a vault. In Gothic architecture, such roof bosses are often intricately carved with foliage, heraldic devices or other decorations...
are possibly from a neo-gothic building. On the Local Origins display is a 5000-year old neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
beehive quern-stone
Quern-stone
Quern-stones are stone tools for hand grinding a wide variety of materials. They were used in pairs. The lower, stationary, stone is called a quern, whilst the upper, mobile, stone is called a handstone...
; you can take the wooden handle and gently turn the headstone by a few millimetres, although the headstone is locked in place for its own protection. In 2005 the museum shop had a working cash railway
Cash carrier
Cash carriers were used in shops and department stores to carry customers' payments from the sales assistant to the cashier and to carry the change and receipt back again.-Cash balls:...
system.
Motive power
Here is machinery from the 19th century Industrial RevolutionIndustrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
, including waterwheels, steam engine
Steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
s, oil engine
Oil engine
Oil engine may refer to:* Hornsby-Akroyd oil engine* Hot bulb engine* Hesselman engine...
s and gas engine
Gas engine
A gas engine means an engine running on a gas, such as coal gas, producer gas biogas, landfill gas, or natural gas. In the UK, the term is unambiguous...
s; plus an engineer's workshop display. There is a demonstration of the working machines several times a week (steam on Wednesdays only): contact the Museum for current demonstration times. The millstone is from Castlefields corn mill near Bingley
Bingley
Bingley is a market town in the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford, in West Yorkshire, England. It is situated on the River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal...
; it is a bedstone carved from local millstone grit
Gritstone
Gritstone or Grit is a hard, coarse-grained, siliceous sandstone. This term is especially applied to such sandstones that are quarried for building material. British gritstone was used for millstones to mill flour, to grind wood into pulp for paper and for grindstones to sharpen blades. "Grit" is...
. A spindle passes through this and a similar upper runner stone; the grain enters via the spindle hole and is ground by the scissor-action of the grooves when the runner stone rotates against the bedstone. The grain is forced out at the outer edges as flour, then flows into a sack.Information from museum exhibit label The prime exhibit, a uniflow steam engine rescued from Linton mill and known as the Linton engine, was one of the last Bradford-made steam engine
Steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
s. There is a display explaining the history of steam power
Steam power during the Industrial Revolution
During the Industrial Revolution, steam power began to replace water power and muscle power as the primary source of power in use in industry. Its first use was to pump water from mines...
.
Transport
Most of the space is taken up with several examples of carClassic car
A classic car is an older car; the exact meaning is variable. The Classic Car Club of America maintains that a car must be between 20 and 40 years old to be a classic, while cars over 45 years fall into the Antique Class.- Classic Car Club of America :...
s and light commercial vans built by the Jowett
Jowett
Jowett was a manufacturer of light cars and light commercial vehicles in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England from 1906 to 1954.-Early history:Jowett was founded in 1901 by brothers Benjamin and William Jowett with Arthur V Lamb. They started in the cycle business and went on to make V-twin engines...
company of Bradford, Scott
The Scott Motorcycle Company
The Scott Motorcycle Company was owned by Scott Motors Limited, Shipley, West Yorkshire, England and was a well known producer of motorcycles and light engines for industry...
motor bikes and Baines bicycles. A Wallis & Steevens
Wallis & Steevens
Wallis & Steevens of Basingstoke, Hampshire, England produced agricultural equipment, traction engines and steam and diesel road rollers.-History:...
Advance type Steam Roller no. 7986 built in 1928 that was owned by Bradford City Council roads department and carries the council crest on the water tanks.
The Biggest exhibit is a locomotive
Locomotive
A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...
named Nellie, after Nellie Crane the vicar's wife. Nellie is an 0-4-0 saddle tank
Tank locomotive
A tank locomotive or tank engine is a steam locomotive that carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of pulling it behind it in a tender. It will most likely also have some kind of bunker to hold the fuel. There are several different types of tank locomotive dependent upon...
industrial locomotive 1435, one of two built by Hudswell Clarke
Hudswell Clarke
Hudswell, Clarke and Company Limited was an engineering and locomotive building company in Jack Lane, Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.-History:...
in Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
in 1922 for the Esholt
Esholt
Esholt is a village between Shipley and Guiseley, in the metropolitan district of the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England.- Derivation of name :The name "Esholt" indicates that the village was first established in a heavily wooded area of ash trees....
sewage works
Sewage treatment
Sewage treatment, or domestic wastewater treatment, is the process of removing contaminants from wastewater and household sewage, both runoff and domestic. It includes physical, chemical, and biological processes to remove physical, chemical and biological contaminants...
. When the works were being built, she carried excavated material, and thereafter coal and construction material, then coal and other materials until 1970 when she was loaned to the Yorkshire Dales Railway Society at Skipton
Skipton
Skipton is a market town and civil parish within the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. It is located along the course of both the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the River Aire, on the south side of the Yorkshire Dales, northwest of Bradford and west of York...
. Her size is ca.23 x 8 x 11 ft, and she weighs 28 tons. The boiler
Boiler (steam generator)
A boiler or steam generator is a device used to create steam by applying heat energy to water. Although the definitions are somewhat flexible, it can be said that older steam generators were commonly termed boilers and worked at low to medium pressure but, at pressures above this, it is more...
works at 160psi, and she carries 700 gallons in the saddle water tank. The cylinders are 40-inch diameter 20-inch stroke operated by Stephenson's open link valve gear
Valve gear
The valve gear of a steam engine is the mechanism that operates the inlet and exhaust valves to admit steam into the cylinder and allow exhaust steam to escape, respectively, at the correct points in the cycle...
.
In the tram shed is the only tramcar left in Bradford, and a Bradford trolleybus
Trolleybuses in Bradford
The Bradford trolleybus system served the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England for much of the 20th century. It was one of the first two trolleybus systems to be opened in the United Kingdom, along with the Leeds system....
. The first horse-drawn trams were introduced in 1882, followed by steam trams in 1883 and electric trams in 1898. Trolleybuses ran in Bradford from 1911 to 1972. There are various models of tram
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
s, including no. 237, built in Shipley
Shipley, West Yorkshire
Shipley is a town in West Yorkshire, England, by the River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, north of Bradford and north-west of Leeds....
in 1904, but shown as it was in 1912 with top deck extended and covered to accommodate 38 passengers. From 1904 to 1908 this tram travelled between Baildon bridge and Greengates
Greengates
Greengates is a small suburban area in the north-east of the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, in England. The area is bordered by Idle and Thackley to the north west, and the large council estate known as Thorpe Edge to the west. To the south of Greengates is Ravenscliffe with the village of...
. After that it was transferred to the Great Horton
Great Horton
Great Horton is a Ward in Bradford Metropolitan District in the county of West Yorkshire, England.The ward covers the area west of Bradford ring road and east of the village of Clayton. The areas covered include Great Horton, Scholemore, Paradise Green, Lidget Green and Pickles Hill...
system, then went between Saltaire
Saltaire
Saltaire is a Victorian model village within the City of Bradford Metropolitan District, West Yorkshire, England, by the River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal...
and Undercliffe. However its routes were limited as it was too tall to pass under the railway bridge at Eccleshill
Eccleshill
Eccleshill is a Ward in the City of Bradford Metropolitan District in the county of West Yorkshire, England....
station.
Printing press
A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium , thereby transferring the ink...
in working condition; plus printing
Printing
Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing....
equipment. There is a demonstration of the working machines on Wednesdays: contact the museum for current demonstration times.
This gallery holds machinery from the last of the hot metal typesetting
Hot metal typesetting
In printing and typography, hot metal typesetting refers to 19th-century technologies for typesetting text in letterpress printing. This method injects molten type metal into a mold that has the shape of one or more glyphs...
printshops as used in the newspaper industry. The monotype
Monotyping
Monotyping is a type of printmaking made by drawing or painting on a smooth, non-absorbent surface. The surface, or matrix, was historically a copper etching plate, but in contemporary work it can vary from zinc or glass to acrylic glass. The image is then transferred onto a sheet of paper by...
keyboard produces punched 31-level tape for casting on the monotype caster. The keyboard comprises seven QWERTY arrangements (Roman upper and lower case, bold upper and lower case, italic upper and lower case and SMALL CAPITALS). It is operated by compressed air and produces a wide paper tape which contains perforations which when transferred to the caster give full instructions to each character to be cast. The monotype system was widely used in the commercial printing sector. There is a forme (text lines produced on a Linotype
Linotype machine
The Linotype typesetting machine is a "line casting" machine used in printing. The name of the machine comes from the fact that it produces an entire line of metal type at once, hence a line-o'-type, a significant improvement over manual typesetting....
typesetting machine) made up into the front page of the last edition of the Yorkshire Sports, 2 May 1981. The assembled forme is ready to be moulded and cast into a curved printing plate.
There is a display of lead glyph
Glyph
A glyph is an element of writing: an individual mark on a written medium that contributes to the meaning of what is written. A glyph is made up of one or more graphemes....
s for typesetting
Typesetting
Typesetting is the composition of text by means of types.Typesetting requires the prior process of designing a font and storing it in some manner...
. These would be set into a forme so that the text read backwards and upside down, then inked and pressed against paper using a platen
Platen
A platen is typically a flat metal plate pressed against a medium to cause an impression in letterpress printing...
in a printing press
Printing press
A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium , thereby transferring the ink...
. The display includes various kinds of printing presses, including a Wharfedale stop cylinder press
Rotary printing press
A rotary printing press is a printing press in which the images to be printed are curved around a cylinder. Printing can be done on large number of substrates, including paper, cardboard, and plastic. Substrates can be sheet feed or unwound on a continuous roll through the press to be printed and...
.
First floor textile galleries
In the 19th century, Bradford was famous for its worstedWorsted
Worsted , is the name of a yarn, the cloth made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from the village of Worstead in the English county of Norfolk...
cloth, although life was hard for the workers. The displays show how a fleece was transformed through various stages into a suit. There is a demonstration of the working machines several times a week: contact the Museum for current demonstration times.
Preparing
Preparing is the process used in place of cardingCarding
Carding is a mechanical process that breaks up locks and unorganised clumps of fibre and then aligns the individual fibres so that they are more or less parallel with each other. The word is derived from the Latin carduus meaning teasel, as dried vegetable teasels were first used to comb the raw wool...
for long wools and hairs which would break on the card and therefore greatly reduce the quality of the worsted yarn produced. The maker-up or double-screw sheeting preparer is the first machine. This passes the fibre to and from delivery sheets via rollers, and ends with a lap of wool from six to eight feet long. The single screw can preparer is the most important machine of these, as it is here that the laps of wool or hair taken from the preceding boxes are prepared into a continuous sliver
Sliver (textiles)
A sliver is a long bundle of fibre that is generally used to spin yarn. A sliver is created by carding or combing the fibre, which is then drawn into long strips where the fibre is parallel. When sliver is drawn further and given a slight twist, it becomes roving....
. The lap is placed on the feed sheet and carried forward to the back rollers. From the back rollers the fibres are delivered to the fallers, which with the aid of the front rollers, draw out the material into a continuous sliver. From the front rollers the sliver of fibres passes through a funnel, through the calender
Calender
The calender is a series of hard pressure rollers used to form or smooth a sheet of material. In a principal application, the calender is located at the end of a papermaking process . Those that are used separate from the process are also called supercalenders...
rollers and into a can which is placed directly underneath them. The material is now ready for the combing
Combing
Combing is a method for preparing carded fibre for spinning. It separates out the short fibres by means of a rotating ring of steel pins. The fibres in the 'top' it produces, have been straightened and lie parallel to each other...
machine.
Combing
CombingCombing
Combing is a method for preparing carded fibre for spinning. It separates out the short fibres by means of a rotating ring of steel pins. The fibres in the 'top' it produces, have been straightened and lie parallel to each other...
straightens the fibres, isolates the long ones (tops
Wool top
Topmaking mills make wool top, a semi-processed product from raw wool. The process requires that the wool be scoured and combed and sorted. The longer fibers resulting from the process are called tops, and are in a form ready for spinning. To be closer to customers, much of the industry has moved...
) for spinning and discards the short ones (noil
Noil
Noil is the short fiber left over from combing wool or spinning silk and used as a decorative additive for many spinning projects, like rovings and yarns. Silk noil is also called "raw silk", although that is a misnomer. As noil is a relatively short fiber, fabric made from noil is weaker and...
). There are various types of combing machines here, including the French comb, the Lister
Samuel Lister, 1st Baron Masham
Samuel Cunliffe Lister, 1st Baron Masham, was an English inventor and industrialist, notable for inventing the Lister nip comb.-Early life:...
comb and the Holden comb. The Noble comb was the most popular as it would comb long, medium and fairly short staple wool, but the slivers needed special preparation in a punching machine beforehand.
French comb
In the French comb the slivers
Sliver (textiles)
A sliver is a long bundle of fibre that is generally used to spin yarn. A sliver is created by carding or combing the fibre, which is then drawn into long strips where the fibre is parallel. When sliver is drawn further and given a slight twist, it becomes roving....
of wool are fed forward by ratchet
Ratchet (device)
A ratchet is a device that allows continuous linear or rotary motion in only one direction while preventing motion in the opposite direction. Because most socket wrenches today use ratcheting handles, the term "ratchet" alone is often used to refer to a ratcheting wrench, and the terms "ratchet"...
-operated rollers and a pinned feed grid, the leading end of the fibres being pushed beyond the nipper
Nipper (tool)
A nipper or tile nipper is a tool used to "nip" or remove small amounts of a hard material, such as pieces of a tile which needs to be fitted around an odd or irregular shape....
jaws which open and shut to receive and hold them, leaving a fringe of fibres protruding through which the pins of the revolving cylinder comb pass, removing the short fibres or noil and any impurities. These are carried round to the underside and deposited in a box for removal. Whilst the above initial combing is taking place the drawing-off rollers, mounted on a carriage, move towards the nipper jaws and grip the fringe of fibres as soon as the last row of pins on the comb cylinder has passed through the fringe projecting from the nipper jaws. As the drawing-off rollers grip the projecting fringe, the intersector comb descends, piercing the fringe of fibres, the nipper jaws open and the fibres are given their second combing by the rotation and recession of the drawing-off rollers pulling the fibres through the pins of the intersector comb and the pins of the feed grid. The combed fibres are then conveyed by the leather apron of the drawing-off rollers to the front rollers of the carriage, down a funnel and through the calender rollers, into a can placed directly underneath.
Lister nip comb
Samuel Lister, 1st Baron Masham
Samuel Cunliffe Lister, 1st Baron Masham, was an English inventor and industrialist, notable for inventing the Lister nip comb.-Early life:...
comb, the slivers of wool or hair are fed into the machine over the back plate, through the fluted feed rollers, under the spreader roller and onto the pins of the fallers which disentangle and transport the fibres to the nip jaw. The nip jaw, with its swinging motion, closes in upon the fringe of fibres, grasping them and pulling them out from the faller pins; thus partially combing the fibres which are received by the carrier comb and conveyed to the pins of the large combing circle into which they are pressed by the dabbing brush. As the large circle rotates, the unique feature of the machine, the side circle comb gives the fibres a secondary combing, removing not the short fibres, but any excessively long ones. The large comb circle carries the remaining fibres to the drawing-off rollers which give the fibres their final combing by removing the long fibres from the circle pins, the short ones being left behind. The long fibres or top
Wool top
Topmaking mills make wool top, a semi-processed product from raw wool. The process requires that the wool be scoured and combed and sorted. The longer fibers resulting from the process are called tops, and are in a form ready for spinning. To be closer to customers, much of the industry has moved...
pass through a revolving funnel to the crimping
Heatsetting
Heat setting is a term used in the textile industry to describe a thermal process taking place mostly in either a steam atmosphere or a dry heat environment. The effect of the process gives fibers, yarns or fabric dimensional stability and, very often, other desirable attributes like higher...
box and into a can directly underneath. The short fibres or noils are removed from the pins of the large comb circle by lifting knives, and deposited into a can ready for removal.
Holden comb
The Holden comb was suited for the combing of short staple wools. The slivers
Sliver (textiles)
A sliver is a long bundle of fibre that is generally used to spin yarn. A sliver is created by carding or combing the fibre, which is then drawn into long strips where the fibre is parallel. When sliver is drawn further and given a slight twist, it becomes roving....
of wool are fed into the machine through the feed guides to the filing head rollers and transferred to the pins of the comb circle by the lashing action of the filling heads. As the comb circle rotates, the fallers of the square motion rise, their pins piercing the fringe of fibres held in the comb circle by the keeper plate, and by drawing away give the fibres their initial combing. This removes any short fibres or noil and some long fibres termed robbings which are deposited in a box at the back of the square motion. As the comb circle carries the remaining fibres to the drawing-off head the fringe is penetrated by the pins of the intersecting or nacteur combs, the drawing-off rollers giving the fibres their final combing by removing the long fibres from the pins of the nacteur comb and the comb circle; the short ones being left behind. The long fibres or top pass through a revolving funnel to the coiler mechanism and into a can directly underneath. The short fibres or noils remaining in the nacteur combs are transferred to the comb circle by a small comb and removed with the noil in the comb circle pins by brushes and lifting knives and deposited into a box ready for removal.
Drawing
The machines, known as boxes, in the drawing section reduce the combedCombing
Combing is a method for preparing carded fibre for spinning. It separates out the short fibres by means of a rotating ring of steel pins. The fibres in the 'top' it produces, have been straightened and lie parallel to each other...
tops
Wool top
Topmaking mills make wool top, a semi-processed product from raw wool. The process requires that the wool be scoured and combed and sorted. The longer fibers resulting from the process are called tops, and are in a form ready for spinning. To be closer to customers, much of the industry has moved...
from thick slivers
Sliver (textiles)
A sliver is a long bundle of fibre that is generally used to spin yarn. A sliver is created by carding or combing the fibre, which is then drawn into long strips where the fibre is parallel. When sliver is drawn further and given a slight twist, it becomes roving....
to thinner roving
Roving
A roving is a long and narrow bundle of fibre. It is usually used to spin woollen yarn. A roving can be created by carding the fibre, and it is then drawn into long strips. Because it is carded, the fibres are not parallel, though drawing it into strips may line the fibres up a bit...
ready for spinning
Spinning (textiles)
Spinning is a major industry. It is part of the textile manufacturing process where three types of fibre are converted into yarn, then fabric, then textiles. The textiles are then fabricated into clothes or other artifacts. There are three industrial processes available to spin yarn, and a...
. This is done by drafting them between slow back rollers to faster front rollers, and controlling the fibres between these rollers. The first boxes where the ends are thickest are the double head can gill box (where the wool ends up in a can) and the 2-spindle gill box (where the wool ends up twisted and on spindles
Spindle (textiles)
A spindle is a wooden spike used for spinning wool, flax, hemp, cotton, and other fibres into thread. It is commonly weighted at either the bottom middle or top, most commonly by a circular or spherical object called a whorl, and may also have a hook, groove or notch, though spindles without...
). On these machines the rollers are heavily fluted to control the sliver, and the front rollers padded with leather to cushion the wool. Between the front and back rollers are fallers or bars which control the roving
Roving
A roving is a long and narrow bundle of fibre. It is usually used to spin woollen yarn. A roving can be created by carding the fibre, and it is then drawn into long strips. Because it is carded, the fibres are not parallel, though drawing it into strips may line the fibres up a bit...
by holding it with fine pins. The roving is now called slubbing
Textile manufacturing
Textile manufacturing is a major industry. It is based in the conversion of three types of fibre into yarn, then fabric, then textiles. These are then fabricated into clothes or other artifacts. Cotton remains the most important natural fibre, so is treated in depth...
which needs twist for strength, and is dealt with by a second set of boxes: a 2-spindle draw-box, 4-spindle weigh box, 8-spindle finisher/reducer and 8-spindle rover. In these boxes the principle of two sets of rollers with controlled fibre in between is the same, but the yarn is now twisted onto a bobbin
Bobbin
A bobbin is a spindle or cylinder, with or without flanges, on which wire, yarn, thread or film is wound. Bobbins are typically found in sewing machines, cameras, and within electronic equipment....
via a flyer.
Finishing
The combed slivers produced on any type of combing machine are passed through a process known as finishing. This process takes place in a series of gill boxes in which the fibres are redistributed, the slivers made uniform in thickness and moisture added in order to give the wool its natural suppleness and condition. Blending is done where necessary to keep the top up to a given standard of quality and, if dyed, consistency of colour. The top ball produced is suitable for packing for transport and unwinding. The top represents the wool comber's finished product, and it is in this form that the wool is bought and sold as the spinner's raw material.
Spinning
SpinningSpinning (textiles)
Spinning is a major industry. It is part of the textile manufacturing process where three types of fibre are converted into yarn, then fabric, then textiles. The textiles are then fabricated into clothes or other artifacts. There are three industrial processes available to spin yarn, and a...
is the final stage in converting wool to worsted yarns, the roving being drawn out to its final thickness and twist added for strength. There are three types of spinning machine or frame in common use in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, namely flyer, cap and ring. Another machine used for spinning worsted yarns is the worsted mule. All three types of machine or frame are similar in their method of drawing out or drafting the roving to make the required count or thickness, but differ in the way in which twist is imparted and the yarn wound onto the bobbin
Bobbin
A bobbin is a spindle or cylinder, with or without flanges, on which wire, yarn, thread or film is wound. Bobbins are typically found in sewing machines, cameras, and within electronic equipment....
. Drafting takes place between the back and front rollers. The front rollers revolve faster than the back ones, drawing out the roving to the fineness of yarn required. Between the rollers are carriers which support and help to control the fibres as they are being drafted.
120-spindle flyer spinner
The flyer is the original type of mechanical spinning frame and is believed to be a direct development of the Saxony wheel
Spinning wheel
A spinning wheel is a device for spinning thread or yarn from natural or synthetic fibers. Spinning wheels appeared in Asia, probably in the 11th century, and very gradually replaced hand spinning with spindle and distaff...
used in hand spinning
Hand spinning
Spinning is an ancient textile art in which plant, animal or synthetic fibers are twisted together to form yarn. For thousands of years, fiber was spun by hand using simple tools, the spindle and distaff...
. It is suitable for producing thick smooth yarns from coarse quality wools and hairs, but is falling into disuse because of the low speed at which the spindles
Spindle (tool)
In machine tools, a spindle is a rotating axis of the machine, which often has a shaft at its heart. The shaft itself is called a spindle, but also, in shop-floor practice, the word often is used metonymically to refer to the entire rotary unit, including not only the shaft itself, but its bearings...
have to run. As the yarn leaves the front rollers it is guided through a porcelain
Porcelain
Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...
ring to the top of a revolving spindle, around and down one of the arms of the flyer and onto the bobbin. The bobbin is carried on a lifter plate and moves up and down the spindle. As the flyer revolves, imparting twist to the yarn, the bobbin which is free to rotate on the spindle is pulled round by the spun yarn. A felt or cloth washer is placed between the lifter plate and bobbin to retard the revolving bobbin and create adequate yarn tension for the flyer to wind the yarn evenly on the bobbin. When the bobbins are full they are removed and replaced by empty ones. This action is termed doffing and is done manually on this machine.
122-spindle flyer twister
Twisting is the process in which two or more single-spun yarns are united to produce a yarn of greater strength for use as warp
Warp (weaving)
In weaving cloth, the warp is the set of lengthwise yarns that are held in tension on a frame or loom. The yarn that is inserted over-and-under the warp threads is called the weft, woof, or filler. Each individual warp thread in a fabric is called a warp end or end. Warp means "that which is thrown...
threads in the weaving process and for normal knitting purposes. This is done by rollers delivering the yarns to a revolving spindle which twists or folds the single yarns around one another. The machines used are similar to spinning
Spinning (textiles)
Spinning is a major industry. It is part of the textile manufacturing process where three types of fibre are converted into yarn, then fabric, then textiles. The textiles are then fabricated into clothes or other artifacts. There are three industrial processes available to spin yarn, and a...
frames in their method of applying twist, but differ in that they have only one set of delivery rollers instead of the usual complement of drafting rollers. This machine is an early example of a flyer twisting frame. On the flyer twister, twist imparted to the yarn in a similar manner as on the flyer spinner. A weighted band, running in a groove at the base of the bobbin, retards the revolving bobbin creating enough tension for the flyer to wind the yarn evenly onto the bobbin. The machine is hand doffed.
64-spindle cap spinner
The introduction of the cap frame ca.1828 was a step forward in attaining higher production and finer yarn spinning. It is suitable for producing yarns made from botany and fine crossbred quality wools. Unlike the flyer frame where the spindle and flyer rotate, on the cap frame the spindle is stationary and carries a steel cap. Moving up and down the spindle is a lifter plate which carries the spinning tube on which the bobbin
Bobbin
A bobbin is a spindle or cylinder, with or without flanges, on which wire, yarn, thread or film is wound. Bobbins are typically found in sewing machines, cameras, and within electronic equipment....
fits. The revolving tube and bobbin impart twist to the yarn until it becomes strong enough to wind onto the bobbin. The speed of the bobbin causes the thread to balloon, and the air resistance to this balloon, combined with friction on the cap edge, is sufficient to give enough tension for winding on at the line of the cap edge as the bobbin moves up and down inside the cap. This machine is hand doffed.
24-spindle velox ring spinner
This is a later development of the ring spinning frame. The passage of the yarn from the front rollers to the paper tube - used in place of a bobbin - is different from other types of spinning frames. When the yarn leaves the rollers it passes direct to the top of an elongated spindle and coils round it two or three times before forming a balloon to the ring traveller. This enables the twist to be imparted between the spindle top and roller nip, thus helping to produce a smoother yarn.
Weaving gallery
The era of Industrial RevolutionIndustrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
weaving machinery
Loom
A loom is a device used to weave cloth. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads...
gave rise to technological jargon
Jargon
Jargon is terminology which is especially defined in relationship to a specific activity, profession, group, or event. The philosophe Condillac observed in 1782 that "Every science requires a special language because every science has its own ideas." As a rationalist member of the Enlightenment he...
in places such as Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
with a strong local dialect. The resultant inscrutability of linguistic terms has given rise to such jokes as the one from Monty Python
Monty Python
Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...
's Trouble at Mill sketch: One on't cross beams gone owt askew on treadle. This nonsense may have been written so on the script as a joke, but what Graham Chapman
Graham Chapman
Graham Arthur Chapman was a British comedian, physician, writer, actor, and one of the six members of the Monty Python comedy troupe.-Early life and education:...
could have said correctly in dialect is, "One o't crossbeams 'as gone out o' skew on't treadle", meaning "One of the crossbeams has gone askew on the treadle". The treadle
Treadle
A treadle [from OE tredan = to tread] is a part of a machine which is operated by the foot to produce reciprocating or rotary motion in a machine such as a weaving loom or grinder...
was a rocking pedal, powered by the worker's foot. The treadle in turn powered a reciprocating beam
Reciprocating motion
Reciprocating motion, also called reciprocation, is a repetitive up-and-down or back-and-forth motion. It is found in a wide range of mechanisms, including reciprocating engines and pumps. The two opposite motions that comprise a single reciprocation cycle are called strokes...
, and the power from that was transferred to the machinery. On a loom, these reciprocating beams were called lams, and were connected with the treadles by strings which were also connected with jacks to work the yelds. In big factories, power could be transferred from one large drive wheel to another across a wide room via a reciprocating beam, called in that situation a crossbeam. Out of skew is a dialect expression meaning in incorrect position. Whether a foot-driven treadle could power a mighty crossbeam is a moot point, and may be a joke in itself, but the explanation of the above phrase and its humour is tightly connected with the mechanism of the weaving machinery described below.
Domestic looms
The hand loomLoom
A loom is a device used to weave cloth. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads...
with the witch is typical of many that were used in the mills by cloth designers to develop new fabric designs and patterns. They are still used in the textile departments of universities and colleges for training students in weaving and the designing of fabrics. The shafts are lifted by a witch, an early form of dobby
Dobby loom
A Dobby Loom is a type of floor loom that controls the whole warp threads using a device called a dobby. Dobby is a corruption of "draw boy" which refers to the weaver's helpers who used to control the warp thread by pulling on draw threads....
, with weights underneath to pull the shafts down, and can work up to 50 shafts to produce very complicated patterns. The weft is put in by hand using the flying shuttle method invented in 1733 by John Kay
John Kay (flying shuttle)
John Kay was the inventor of the flying shuttle, which was a key contribution to the Industrial Revolution. He is often confused with his namesake: fellow Lancastrian textile machinery inventor, the unrelated John Kay who built the first "spinning frame".-Life in England:John Kay was born...
, and up to four colours can be woven in the weft using Robert Kay's (son of John Kay
John Kay (flying shuttle)
John Kay was the inventor of the flying shuttle, which was a key contribution to the Industrial Revolution. He is often confused with his namesake: fellow Lancastrian textile machinery inventor, the unrelated John Kay who built the first "spinning frame".-Life in England:John Kay was born...
) 1760 invention of the multiple shuttle box. On this simple-to-operate loom the designer is able to explore the application of new design ideas before beginning production trials on a wider loom. Many of the designs for woven fabrics made today were developed and created long ago on similar narrow-width pattern looms.
The hand loom with jacquard
Jacquard loom
The Jacquard loom is a mechanical loom, invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1801, that simplifies the process of manufacturing textiles with complex patterns such as brocade, damask and matelasse. The loom is controlled by punched cards with punched holes, each row of which corresponds to one row...
is a wooden hand loom typical of the many thousands of looms that were used in the domestic cottage industry throughout the British Isles
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. They were gradually replaced by all-metal looms (see the Hattersley domestic loom) and new methods of working practice, such as the factory system
Factory system
The factory system was a method of manufacturing first adopted in England at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the 1750s and later spread abroad. Fundamentally, each worker created a separate part of the total assembly of a product, thus increasing the efficiency of factories. Workers,...
, during the Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
. The loom has a four-shuttle drop box to weave up to four colours of weft, and has John Kay's
John Kay (flying shuttle)
John Kay was the inventor of the flying shuttle, which was a key contribution to the Industrial Revolution. He is often confused with his namesake: fellow Lancastrian textile machinery inventor, the unrelated John Kay who built the first "spinning frame".-Life in England:John Kay was born...
flying shuttle
Flying shuttle
The flying shuttle was one of the key developments in weaving that helped fuel the Industrial Revolution. It was patented by John Kay in 1733. Only one weaver was needed to control its lever-driven motion. Before the shuttle, a single weaver could not weave a fabric wider than arms length. Beyond...
method of inserting the weft. Most of the handlooms used in the home were ordinary shaft looms. These do not require roof space and would be weaving standard cloths, unlike this loom which is fitted with a 360 hook de Vogue jacquard
Jacquard loom
The Jacquard loom is a mechanical loom, invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1801, that simplifies the process of manufacturing textiles with complex patterns such as brocade, damask and matelasse. The loom is controlled by punched cards with punched holes, each row of which corresponds to one row...
and can weave very complex fabrics.
The plain Hattersley domestic loom
Loom
A loom is a device used to weave cloth. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads...
was specially developed for cottage or home use and designed to replace the wooden handloom; the Domestic is similar in construction to a power loom
Power loom
A power loom is a mechanized loom powered by a line shaft. The first power loom was designed in 1784 by Edmund Cartwright and first built in 1785. It was refined over the next 47 years until a design by Kenworthy and Bullough, made the operation completely automatic. This was known as the...
. It was introduced ca.1900 and the makers claimed that a speed of 160 picks per minute could be easily attained with from 2 to 8 shafts weaving a variety of fabrics. Because foot pedals, or treadle
Treadle
A treadle [from OE tredan = to tread] is a part of a machine which is operated by the foot to produce reciprocating or rotary motion in a machine such as a weaving loom or grinder...
s, operate the loom it is still classed as a handloom, but it is much easier and faster to weave as all the motions of the loom are connected via crankshaft
Crankshaft
The crankshaft, sometimes casually abbreviated to crank, is the part of an engine which translates reciprocating linear piston motion into rotation...
and gear
Gear
A gear is a rotating machine part having cut teeth, or cogs, which mesh with another toothed part in order to transmit torque. Two or more gears working in tandem are called a transmission and can produce a mechanical advantage through a gear ratio and thus may be considered a simple machine....
wheels. Because the loom is designed to use only one shuttle
Shuttle (weaving)
A shuttle is a tool designed to neatly and compactly store weft yarn while weaving. Shuttles are thrown or passed back and forth through the shed, between the yarn threads of the warp in order to weave in the weft....
when weaving
Weaving
Weaving is a method of fabric production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. The other methods are knitting, lace making and felting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling...
, giving a solid colour in the weft
Weft
In weaving, weft or woof is the yarn which is drawn through the warp yarns to create cloth. In North America, it is sometimes referred to as the "fill" or the "filling yarn"....
, it is termed a plain loom. The cast metal chair, manufactured along with the loom, can be raised or lowered to suit, and the seat rocks forward and back as the weaver treadle
Treadle
A treadle [from OE tredan = to tread] is a part of a machine which is operated by the foot to produce reciprocating or rotary motion in a machine such as a weaving loom or grinder...
s the loom.
Power looms
The Hattersley 6 x 1 revolving skip box: this dress goods loom, used for the weavingWeaving
Weaving is a method of fabric production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. The other methods are knitting, lace making and felting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling...
of suiting fabrics etc., is fitted with a negative V or angle dobby, a development of the original invented by Hattersley's in 1867. Known throughout the textile industry
Textile industry
The textile industry is primarily concerned with the production of yarn, and cloth and the subsequent design or manufacture of clothing and their distribution. The raw material may be natural, or synthetic using products of the chemical industry....
as the Keighley
Keighley
Keighley is a town and civil parish within the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. It is situated northwest of Bradford and is at the confluence of the River Aire and the River Worth...
dobby, it has since been copied, modified and manufactured in a variety of different forms. Hattersley also invented, in 1868, the skip box: a development of the circular or revolving box. This allowed the shuttle
Shuttle (weaving)
A shuttle is a tool designed to neatly and compactly store weft yarn while weaving. Shuttles are thrown or passed back and forth through the shed, between the yarn threads of the warp in order to weave in the weft....
box to bypass or skip the next compartment along and pick out the shuttle of the following one.
The Dobcross H.K. box loom was manufactured in ca.1950 by Hutchinson, Hollingworth & Co. Ltd of Dobcross Oldham
Oldham
Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amid the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock, south-southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of the city of Manchester...
. This loom was claimed by its makers to be one of the most widely used power looms in the woollen and worsted
Worsted
Worsted , is the name of a yarn, the cloth made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from the village of Worstead in the English county of Norfolk...
industries. It was used, with minor adaptations, for weaving goods as varied as light tropical suiting, costume cloths, overcoatings, army and police uniform cloths and heavy blankets. The main feature of this loom is the dobby (located top right of the loom with the hand wheel) which is known as the Knowles, American or positive wheel dobby. This device lifts and lowers the wooden shafts through which the warp
Warp (weaving)
In weaving cloth, the warp is the set of lengthwise yarns that are held in tension on a frame or loom. The yarn that is inserted over-and-under the warp threads is called the weft, woof, or filler. Each individual warp thread in a fabric is called a warp end or end. Warp means "that which is thrown...
ends are threaded, separating the warp threads to produce the shed. The loom has four rising or drop boxes at each side, which can be moved independently, and can weave up to seven shuttles
Shuttle (weaving)
A shuttle is a tool designed to neatly and compactly store weft yarn while weaving. Shuttles are thrown or passed back and forth through the shed, between the yarn threads of the warp in order to weave in the weft....
, each with a different colour.
The Sowden worsted
Worsted
Worsted , is the name of a yarn, the cloth made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from the village of Worstead in the English county of Norfolk...
coating loom: as in all mechanical devices, there is drive to improve efficiency, and this loom has several patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
innovations. For example the 28 shaft negative square dobby is similar in construction to Hattersley's Keighley
Keighley
Keighley is a town and civil parish within the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. It is situated northwest of Bradford and is at the confluence of the River Aire and the River Worth...
dobby. However, to allow the shuttle more time to pass through the shed the dobby has special curved slots that allow the shafts to dwell or remain open for longer. In addition, the pattern chain or lags controlling the shafts can be set to control all 28 shafts, or set to operate the first sixteen shafts to weave the cloth and the remaining twelve shafts to produce a name list or selvedge
Selvage
The selvage or selvedge is the term for the self-finished edges of fabric. The selvages keep the fabric from unraveling or fraying. The selvages are a result of how the fabric is created...
. The word selvedge is derived from self-edge, the edge of the cloth where the weft
Weft
In weaving, weft or woof is the yarn which is drawn through the warp yarns to create cloth. In North America, it is sometimes referred to as the "fill" or the "filling yarn"....
is turned back as it returns through the shed. The selvedge would often have a brand name or the country of origin woven into it. On the left side of the loom
Loom
A loom is a device used to weave cloth. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads...
is the patent four-shuttle drop box motion incorporating a foot pedal. This is part of an escape mechanism in case the shuttle becomes trapped.
Outside
The millFactory
A factory or manufacturing plant is an industrial building where laborers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another. Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production...
's first owner, John Moore, lived at Moorside House with his family until 1887, followed by the later owners of Moorside Mills. The house interior is now a museum display, furnished as if the 19th century mill
Factory
A factory or manufacturing plant is an industrial building where laborers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another. Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production...
-owners were still living there. Gaythorne Row is a row of Victorian back-to-backs
Back-to-back houses
Usually of low quality and high density, they were built for working class people and because three of the four walls of the house were shared with other buildings and therefore contained no doors or windows, back-to-back houses were notoriously ill-lit and poorly ventilated and sanitation was of...
. It was rebuilt here in 1986, and is now furnished as for mill
Factory
A factory or manufacturing plant is an industrial building where laborers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another. Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production...
workers of the 1870s
1870s
The 1870s continued the trends of the previous decade, as new empires, imperialism and militarism rose in Europe and Asia. America was recovering from the Civil War. Germany declared independence in 1871 and began its Second Reich. Labor unions and strikes occurred worldwide in the later part of...
, 1940s
1940s
File:1940s decade montage.png|Above title bar: events which happened during World War II : From left to right: Troops in an LCVP landing craft approaching "Omaha" Beach on "D-Day"; Adolf Hitler visits Paris, soon after the Battle of France; The Holocaust occurred during the war as Nazi Germany...
and 1950s
1950s
The 1950s or The Fifties was the decade that began on January 1, 1950 and ended on December 31, 1959. The decade was the sixth decade of the 20th century...
.
The Horse Emporium was once the mill's
Factory
A factory or manufacturing plant is an industrial building where laborers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another. Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production...
canteen block. The displays are arranged on the theme of horse power
Draft horse
A draft horse , draught horse or dray horse , less often called a work horse or heavy horse, is a large horse bred for hard, heavy tasks such as ploughing and farm labour...
. Among other exhibits there is a heavy-duty British Rail
British Rail
British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...
ways dray
Wagon
A wagon is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by draught animals; it was formerly often called a wain, and if low and sideless may be called a dray, trolley or float....
, a decorative chaff cutter and a horse fodder measure. There is a saddle
Saddle
A saddle is a supportive structure for a rider or other load, fastened to an animal's back by a girth. The most common type is the equestrian saddle designed for a horse, but specialized saddles have been created for camels and other creatures...
r-at-work display, plus horse brass
Horse brass
A horse brass is a brass plaque used for the decoration of horse harness gear, especially for shire and parade horses. they became especially popular in England from the mid-19th century until their general decline alongside the use of the heavy horse, and remain a collectors item today.-History:In...
es, horseshoe
Horseshoe
A horseshoe, is a fabricated product, normally made of metal, although sometimes made partially or wholly of modern synthetic materials, designed to protect a horse's hoof from wear and tear. Shoes are attached on the palmar surface of the hooves, usually nailed through the insensitive hoof wall...
s and other harness
Horse harness
A horse harness is a type of horse tack that allows a horse or other equine to pull various horse-drawn vehicles such as a carriage, wagon or sleigh. Harnesses may also be used to hitch animals to other loads such as a plow or canal boat....
. In a stable there is a blacksmith's workshop
Forge
A forge is a hearth used for forging. The term "forge" can also refer to the workplace of a smith or a blacksmith, although the term smithy is then more commonly used.The basic smithy contains a forge, also known as a hearth, for heating metals...
and farriery display,complete with many horseshoe
Horseshoe
A horseshoe, is a fabricated product, normally made of metal, although sometimes made partially or wholly of modern synthetic materials, designed to protect a horse's hoof from wear and tear. Shoes are attached on the palmar surface of the hooves, usually nailed through the insensitive hoof wall...
s, anvil
Anvil
An anvil is a basic tool, a block with a hard surface on which another object is struck. The inertia of the anvil allows the energy of the striking tool to be transferred to the work piece. In most cases the anvil is used as a forging tool...
s, and metalworking
Forge
A forge is a hearth used for forging. The term "forge" can also refer to the workplace of a smith or a blacksmith, although the term smithy is then more commonly used.The basic smithy contains a forge, also known as a hearth, for heating metals...
tools.
Stables
This building was a 1918 motor car garage. At one end it contains restored horse-drawn vehicleHorse-drawn vehicle
A horse-drawn vehicle is a mechanized piece of equipment pulled by one horse or by a team of horses. These vehicles typically had two or four wheels and were used to carry passengers and/or a load...
s. There is a reproduction of an 1890 garden seat omnibus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
, with wooden, slatted seats on top, like garden seats. These vehicles have not been used in the UK since 1931. This reproduction has hydraulic disc brakes for safety. There is a brougham
Brougham
Brougham could betransport:* Brougham , a single-engined aircraft of the 1920s and 1930s.* Brougham , a light four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage* Brougham , an automobile with a similar style; later applied to any luxurious car...
, a 19th-century gentleman's light one-horse carriage. This design is said to have been named after Lord Chancellor Brougham in the early 19th century. There is also a steamer, or Shand-Manson steam
Steam turbine
A steam turbine is a mechanical device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam, and converts it into rotary motion. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884....
fire pump
Fire pump
A fire pump is a part of a fire sprinkler system's water supply and can be powered by electric, diesel or steam. The pump intake is either connected to the public underground water supply piping, or a static water source . The pump provides water flow at a higher pressure to the sprinkler system...
of ca.1880. A team of horses pulled it, and steam
Steam turbine
A steam turbine is a mechanical device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam, and converts it into rotary motion. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884....
powered it, at 250 gallons per minute. Firemen could get it ready in 7 minutes. It was successful enough for the manufacturers to export it worldwide - for example to the Warsaw Fire Guard
Warsaw Fire Guard
Warsaw Fire Guard was a fire fighting unit in the city of Warsaw. Formed as Warsaw's first permanent fire service in 1834, it remained an independent and city-owned venture until its nationalization by the Nazi German authorities during the occupation of Poland following the Polish Defensive War...
- but it was expensive in coal and horses, and was superseded by motor pumps in ca.1900.
The working horses
Draft horse
A draft horse , draught horse or dray horse , less often called a work horse or heavy horse, is a large horse bred for hard, heavy tasks such as ploughing and farm labour...
live at the other end. There is a horse-drawn ride for the public several times a week: contact the Museum for current demonstration times.
Temporary exhibitions and events
There are living historyLiving history
Living history is an activity that incorporates historical tools, activities and dress into an interactive presentation that seeks to give observers and participants a sense of stepping back in time. Although it does not necessarily seek to reenact a specific event in history, living history is...
events, family activity days, and a yearly Victorian-style Christmas craft market. There are regular temporary exhibitions; in 2003, for example, there was a motorcycle exhibition, and in 2009 there was a rag-rug display. There are educational workshops for school and other groups, including Victorian classroom, World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
classroom and washday
Laundry
Laundry is a noun that refers to the act of washing clothing and linens, the place where that washing is done, and/or that which needs to be, is being, or has been laundered...
sessions. See the website for further information on the activities and education programmes.
More images
- BBC panoramic image of Motive Power gallery.
- Skipton Web: Numerous images of the museum exhibits.
- Philt-trams.fotopic.net: Image of the tram at the Museum, 1990.
- Geograph: Image of two dray horses pulling carriage at the Museum.
- Youtube: stills of the Museum, 2007.