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 speeders nearly twice as great an output as
before. Mrs. MacDermott's wage as a teacher has been raised to $12.
From the speeders, the doff boys send the roving--called fine roving in
the mill, because the other rovings in preceding operations are
coarser--upstairs in the older building to the spinners. Spinning is a
more difficult task than speeding. Two rovings are here twisted together
by the machines. The spinners have 104 bobbins on one side of a frame,
and watch for breakage, and change the bobbins on three frames, or six
"sides." Spinners formerly worked at piece-work rates and by watching
eight sides, and frequently doing the work very imperfectly, would earn
about $9. After a time-study was taken, the task was set at six sides,
and doffs as called for by a schedule. With the bonus the girls' weekly
wage comes to about $10. In the spinning department there is a school for
spinners. The heads receive a dollar for every graduate who learns to
achieve the task and bonus.
The yarn is carried from the spinners to the spoolers, and wound from
bobbins to spools for convenience in handling.
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