Cotton Mill terms?

Lyle Lofgren

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Feb 7, 2010, 9:01:08 PM2/7/10

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I'm reading Patrick Huber's "Linthead Stomp." One of Dorsey Dixon's
songs mentions "filling batteries" in the weave room. Google has lots
of stuff about people who worked as Battery Fillers or Battery Boys in
the weave room, but nowhere does it say what the task is. In trying to
find what a Battery Filler did, I also ran across a reference to
someone who worked as a "Gaiter." Again, no clue as to what the job
was.

Any lintheads out there who can help me?

Thanks,

Lyle

David Sanderson

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Feb 8, 2010, 11:32:58 AM2/8/10

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The "batteries" were the ranks of bobbins that fed thread to the loom, I
think. Reloading the loom required replacing the empty bobbins with
full ones, often a child's job, as Huber points out.

I'm a little foggy about "gaiter," but a search through Google Books
gets a few hits. There is one reference that talks about hiring a
gaiter to set up looms, so I'm guessing that the job was to fit gearing,
feeds etc. for the particular task of a loom, that is "gaiter" as being
one who adjusts the "gait" of the loom. The looms were large and
mechanically complex, so getting everything to work together properly
was not a trivial job.

--
David Sanderson
East Waterford Maine
dwsande...@roadrunner.com
http://www.dwsanderson.com

Bill In Alexandria

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Feb 8, 2010, 10:29:14 PM2/8/10

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Lyle:

This paragraph may help:

"Her parents worked there also, from the time the family moved to Durham
from Danville, Va., in 1933, when she was 19. She had already been working
in such factories since she was 13. She started out "filling batteries" --
not electrical batteries but wheel-like contraptions that held a number of
spindles of thread, called "quills," that fed the looms."

The paragraph was excerpted from:
http://www.owdna.org/ermillbonner.htm

Bill

"Lyle Lofgren" <lylel...@visi.com> wrote in message
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Gitfiddle Gregg

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Feb 10, 2010, 7:22:30 AM2/10/10

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This page on the Northrup loom has a couple of images showing the
batteries on looms. Click on the images and you'll get a blow-up. I
believe that the battery is the cylindrical thingy on the left
(technical term):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Loom

Gregg

> "Lyle Lofgren" <lylelofg...@visi.com> wrote in message

Lyle Lofgren

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Feb 10, 2010, 10:28:45 AM2/10/10

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Thanks for the link to an image, Greg -- that helps a lot towards
understanding what filling a battery consisted of.

Lyle

sarah bryan

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Feb 12, 2010, 11:47:56 AM2/12/10

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These folks are a great resource for all things cotton-mill-history-
related:

http://www.textileheritage.org/

Sarah

Lyle Lofgren

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Feb 12, 2010, 1:16:06 PM2/12/10

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Thanks, Sarah --

Now that I know what a battery is and what a Battery Filler did, maybe
I'll ask them about "gaiter," just to check if David Sanderson's
speculation is correct.

Lyle

Gitfiddle Gregg

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Feb 14, 2010, 11:27:29 AM2/14/10

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One other thought on "gaiter." If you do a google search for "beam
gaiter" and "loom gaiter" you'll get some hits. Several are to JSTOR
articles that I can check at work. Gaiter or gater is also an old word
for watchman in English. I'll check the OED as well.

Gregg

Billl Martin

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Feb 15, 2010, 6:29:37 AM2/15/10

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"Bill In Alexandria" <bmcg...@cox.net> wrote>

>
> not electrical batteries but wheel-like contraptions that held a number of
> spindles of thread, called "quills," that fed the looms."

On my last job I worked on an old milling machine that had a mechanical
automatic feed on the head. They called it the "quill". I wonder if there is
a relation?

Bill