Learning from Experts Across the Pond

 MOSI Live Chat

In class on Tuesday, our class Skyped with the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI), of Manchester, England. During the live chat, our class was given a tour of the museum, and we were given a view of what it was like to work in the Manchester mills. To be familiar with the information given to us, our class prepared for the chat in various ways. The very first thing we did to prepare was view the MOSI website, to see what the museum was like. We viewed the textile gallery, which focused more specifically on the textile industry. After this, we watched a video from our “explainer” Jamie (who gave the Skype museum tour), and while watching the video, we made a list of the terminology that Jamie used. Then, we looked up the definitions of the words, using key words to make sure they were related to textiles. Finally, we made questions to ask Jamie during the chat.

During the chat, I learned a few new things about the textile process and how it works. One thing I learned was that the loom was usually at the top of the house, where a skylight was built. During the day, they could capitalize on the sunlight. Another thing I learned was that kids would actually be sucked into machines. When this happened, all the machines had to be shut down so that the victim would avoid injury and be able to continue working. Jamie talked not only about the textile process, but also the mill workers. One interesting fact he mentioned was that orphans were sold from orphanages to work at mills. The orphans would work at the mill during the day and then return to the orphanage at night. The mill owners didn’t want their own children working in the mill, so their solution was to buy orphans. He also spoke about how the hard physical work could lead to things like arthritis. However, even though they could get arthritis, workers still worked in the mills as long as they could in an attempt to escape poverty. A last thing that Jamie mentioned was that Richard Arkwright, the “inventor” of the water frame, didn’t actually come up with the original idea for the machine. He stole somebody else’s idea, made a patent, and then got all of the credit.

Overall, I thought the live chat was a positive experience. It was cool to see the machines being described while a live visual was on the screen. And, it was interesting to hear all of the information coming from an expert. However, at times it felt like there was too much information being thrown at us at one time, but that was understandable due to the limited time we had to do the chat. I would like to do something similar later in the year for a different topic, because it was a more interesting way to learn about the material.