Bobbin boy

A bobbin boy in Chicopee, Massachusetts, 1911

A bobbin boy was a boy who worked in a textile mill in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

Description

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, bobbin boys worked in textile mills. The boys brought bobbins to the women at the looms when they called for them, and collected the full bobbins of spun cotton or wool thread. They also would be expected to fix minor problems with the machines. Average pay was about $1.00 per week (equivalent to $38in 2024), with days often beginning at 5:30 am and ending around 7:30 pm six days per week. The job as a bobbin boy was dangerous, and there was always an extreme risk of death.

Notable bobbin boys

The following people once worked as a bobbin boy:

• Nathaniel Prentice Banks, Governor of Massachusetts and Union general ^[1]
• Andrew Carnegie, steel tycoon ^{[2] [3]}
• Robert Frost, poet ^[4]

See also

• Doffer

Notes

1. Hollandsworth, James (1998). Pretense of Glory: The Life of General Nathaniel P. Banks. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press. p. 4. ISBN   0-8071-2293-9.
2. Carnegie, Andrew (1920). Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie. p. 34. ISBN   9780722221914.
3. "Carnegie Started as a Bobbin Boy". archive.nytimes.com.
4. Faggen, Robert, ed. (2001). The Cambridge companion to Robert Frost. Cambridge companions to literature. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 246. ISBN   978-0-521-63248-5.