Page:Miscellaneous Papers on Mechanical Subjects.djvu/163

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
NEW YORK INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION.
149

already upwards of 6,000 inhabitants, and it is officially stated that the average sum appropriated for the education of each child was in 1852, $3 72c.

There is a 60 feet fall of water, which can be used by two sets of mills on different levels, affording power sufficient to drive the machinery of 100 large mills.


60. Cotton Mills.—Two cotton mills employing 1,100 hands, a machine shop employing 365 hands, and a paper mill, are already at work; others are in the course of erection.

One of the mills was spinning yarns Nos. 70 and 90, and making it into cloth of excellent quality.

Self-acting mules were used, and twelve piecers were minding 13,056 spindles; three hanks per spindle were spun in a day of 11½ hours.

One girl is able to weave of this yarn, on four looms, 100 yards of cloth per day. Upwards of seventy girls were brought from Scotland a short time ago.

The machinery is driven by turbine wheels.

In some mills, gearing is employed for driving the heavy shafting, but generally belts are much preferred; of these, some had a breadth of 20 inches, and were driven at the speed of nearly 1,800 yards per minute.