Mill Times

While you can buy underwear in less than two minutes today at your local Wal-Mart, the process was a bit more complicated some 200 years ago: you had to shear the sheep, clean the wool, card it and create "slivers," stretch these into yarn on the spinning wheel, and only then plump your buns down in front of a large wooden apparatus and reap your hard-won Fruit of the Loom. But in the late 18th century, the process gradually shifted from hand to machine in England and the United States as the Industrial Revolution ushered in the factory and mill era. Noted author/host David Macauley (Pyramid, Castle, Cathedral) takes viewers on a guided tour of the evolution of the water-powered mill from Manchester, England to Lowell, Massachusetts, tracing the rise of the New England mills from struggling river-based entrepreneurial ventures to profit-driven factory sweatshops, and their subsequent fall during the mid-20th century as steam power freed owners from the geographical necessity of being located on a waterway, and the factories headed south, initially, where labor was cheaper, and eventually overseas, where labor was cheaper still. Interwoven throughout Macauley's presentation is an extended animated tale illustrating many of his points, as we follow the fate of the first textile mill established by Samuel Slater in Pawtucket, R.I. A peculiar hybrid that will likely bore younger viewers during the live-action segments, and older audiences during the cartoon segments, Mill Times nevertheless offers a cogent and often entertaining overview of a key shift in the production process that would have far-reaching social, cultural, and political ramifications over the years. Recommended. Aud: J, H, C, P. (R. Pitman)