Interior. Detailed view of self-acting mule made by Platt Brothers in 1891

Description Interior. Detailed view of self-acting mule made by Platt Brothers in 1891

Date 12/6/2002

Collection Records of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), Edinbu

Catalogue Number E 32396 CN

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 754853

Scope and Content Self-acting mule, Mill No 3, New Lanark, South Lanarkshire This shows a self-acting mule, made in 1891 by Platt Brothers. The carriage moves backwards and forwards along the tracks on the floor which has the effect of pulling the roves (slivers) of cotton through the rollers (right). The roves are drawn and twisted across the machine and onto a row of spindles on the front. The machine is in Mill No 3, which was built 1790-2 and rebuilt with a fireproof iron frame between 1826 and 1833 after a fire in 1819. Mill No 3 was originally known as the 'jeanie house' because it contained 'spinning jennies' which were spinning machines where cotton was spun into yarn onto several spindles. In 1811 the mill employed 398 people of whom 286 were women who would have shopped in the low-cost store and lived in the terraced houses and flats in the village. New Lanark was founded c.1785 by David Dale (1739-1806), a Glasgow merchant, and Richard Arkwright (1732-92), inventor of a water-frame for cotton spinning. Powered by water flowing from the Falls of Clyde the first cotton mill opened in 1786 and by 1799 the complex was the largest of its kind in Scotland. Robert Owen (1771-1858), who was married to David Dale's daughter, was one of a group who bought the mills in 1800. He transformed them into a model industrial community with good working conditions, houses, a non-profit store, a school and an institute for workers. Owen's partners bought the mills in 1828 and operated them until 1881 when another partnership took over. The Gourock Ropework Company ran the site until 1968 which is now mainly under the care of the New Lanark Conservation Trust (founded 1974-5). New Lanark was designated a World Heritage Site in 2001. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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