lled with great belts geared
from above, and machines placed in long lanes, where the operatives stand
and walk at their work. Humidifying pipes pass along the room, with spray
issuing from their vents. The lint fibres are constantly brushed and
wiped up by the workers, but there is still considerable lint in the air.
The heat, the whir of the machines, the heaviness of the atmosphere, and
the lint are at first overpowering to a visitor. While many of the girls
say that they grow accustomed to these conditions, others cannot work
under them, and go away after a few days' or sometimes a few hours'
trial.[56]

The speeders stand at one end of a long row of 160 bobbins and watch for
a break in the parallel lines of 160 threads, and twist the two ends
together when this occurs. The greater number of the speeders used to
earn $6 a week. But two or three women, on piece-work, earned about $9
and did nearly twice as much as the other workers. The speeders had
helpers who used to assist them to thread the back of the machine and to
remove and place the bobbins in front. The change or "doff" occupied
about 20 minutes. It generally occurred five times in the day of the
better worker and thus consumed an hour and forty minutes of her working
time. The hours in the cotton mill are ten and a half a day with five and
a half on Saturday,--58 hours a week.

In order to ascertain the proper task for the speeders, a time-study was
made of the work of one of the abler workers, who may be called Mrs.
MacDermott, a strong and skilful Scotch woman, who had been employed at
speeding in the mill for 14 years. Mrs. MacDermott was employed to teach
the other speeders how to accomplish the same amount in the same time.
The girls now thread the back of the machines with her help. Mrs.
MacDermott, the speeder tender herself, and the doff boys, all working
together, remove the bobbins and fill the frame, thus accomplishing the
change in 7 minutes instead of 20 minutes. The girls are paid, while
learning better methods from Mrs. MacDermott, at their old rate of a
dollar a day. If they accomplish the task allotted, they receive a dollar
a week more flat-rate, a bonus equivalent to a few cents a pound on each
pound received by the management; and this brings the wage to $1.65 a
day, or between $8 and $10 a week. The work tires the girls no more than
it did before. They receive about thirty per cent more wages, and the
management receives from the spee