Today’s newsletter from the Manchester History Club is about the hidden practice in cotton weaving mills of kissing the shuttle - and how it damaged the health of generations of weavers. #Manchester #weaving #textiles #history - ThreadSky

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manchesterhistory.uk • 43 days ago

Today’s newsletter from the Manchester History Club is about the hidden practice in cotton weaving mills of kissing the shuttle - and how it damaged the health of generations of weavers.
#Manchester #weaving #textiles #history

Comments

calorofibrewerks.bsky.social•42 days ago

Interesting theory. Possibly inaccurate, but interesting nonetheless.

manchesterhistory.uk•43 days ago

When John Kay from Bury near Manchester developed the flying shuttle in 1733, it was such a pivotal moment that it lit the fires of the industrial revolution.

manchesterhistory.uk•43 days ago

But the shuttle also had a hidden cost for the health of generations of weavers lasting well into the twentieth century.

manchesterhistory.uk•43 days ago

Kay’s shuttle could only work as long as it had enough yarn spooled around its rod or “pirn” and at some point a weaver had to remove the pirn and replace it.

manchesterhistory.uk•43 days ago

To keep up with the lightning pace of the loom, they had to quickly suck the thread through a small hole or eye in the shuttle before it continued on its way.

manchesterhistory.uk•43 days ago

But little did the weavers know that, with so many of them sharing a kiss with the same shuttles, their jobs were giving them deadly diseases.

manchesterhistory.uk•43 days ago

Shuttle kissing was not officially outlawed in Lancashire until 1952.