This is part four of my “book report” on Quaker Homespun, a biography of Thomas Fox, a wool cloth manufacturer who lived through the Industrial Revolution. We won’t go into any specific machines that he used, but we will look at the difficulties he faced, many of which have parallels in our own times. Thomas […]
This is part of a “book report” on the 1958 book, Quaker Homespun. The whole book is available online and I read it in just a few sittings, to help satisfy my curiosity about the history of textile manufacturing. I enjoyed following one individual through the era of the Industrial Revolution. As the American Revolution […]
In my previous post, we began to follow Thomas Fox, who ran an English serge-making business in the late 1700s. Throughout his career, he had to deal with many challenges, including ones caused by international conflict, technological changes, and labor issues. In this post, we will focus on the American Revolution and its effects. I […]
This post is a supplement to my series on Thomas Fox, a Quaker who ran a family serge-making business in the late 1700s and early 1800s. The description of serge is from a wonderful book from 1728, the Cyclopedia by Ephraim Chambers, and the illustrations are pulled from various sources, including Diderot’s Encyclopedia from 1765. […]
When we look at the Industrial Revolution, it’s easy to find the dates of important inventions — 1764, spinning jenny; 1785, power loom — but it is harder to find out about how long home workshops persisted in the face of increasing mechanization. I always wonder, how quickly and how widely were these inventions adopted? […]
Those bug close-ups are amazing! So gorgeous, and I love the wet little bird.