Appleseeds articles from January 2004

Appleseeds archives from January 2004

Samuel Slater's big secret.
January 1, 2004... If you were a 14-year-old today, you might spend your time studying and hanging out with friends. Two hundred years ago, a 14-year-old was probably beginning his or her career as an apprentice to learn a trade. That was what Samuel Slater did....

A day in the life ...
January 1, 2004... Many children who lived during the Industrial Revolution led exhausting lives. Compare these busy days for a girl at a cotton mill in the summer of 1851 and a breaker boy at a coal mine in the late 1800s. MILL GIRL ...

Spinning ideas to wave a new world.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... In the early 1700s, cloth was still made in the same way it had been made for centuries. Using a spinning wheel, women called spinsters turned cotton or wool fiber into thread. Reels of thread were then taken to a weaver, usually a man. With...

The mill girls.
January 1, 2004... In New England in the early 1800s, many young women and girls left their family farms to go to work in cotton mills. The girls wanted to earn money to help their families--some were probably looking for adventure, too. These "mill girls" became...

Life in a boarding house.
January 1, 2004... My name is Kate, and I live in a brick boarding house with 30 girls in Lowell, Massachusetts. I share a bedroom with Eliza, Mary, and Ruth. At 4:30 A.M., the mill bells wake us. I put on my calico dress, work apron, and bonnet. Girls in other...

A tour of Lowell: learn the history of the American Industrial Revolution firsthand by visiting the Lowell National Historical Park in Lowell, Massachusetts.
January 1, 2004... Boarding House Bedroom in the Mill Girls and Immigrants Exhibit See a typical boarding house bedroom. Four girls usually slept in a bedroom this size. They paid $5 a month for their room and meals. [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] Boott...

Lowell offering.(From the Source)
January 1, 2004... From 1840 to 1845, the mill girls of Lowell, Massachusetts, wrote and published their own magazine. It was called the Lowell Offering. In 1845, the Lowell Offering published a piece written by a girl named Elizabeth Turner. Here is a part of...

The breaker boys.
January 1, 2004... One hundred years ago, anthracite coal was very important to America. This extra-hard coal was the fuel most often burned to heat homes, make iron, run steam engines, and power railway trains. Many of the people who produced this coal were...

Be a numbers detective.(By the Numbers)
January 1, 2004... Before the Industrial Revolution, most children grew up on farms. They started doing jobs for their parents when they were about 5 years old. They worked from sunup to sundown every day but Sunday, and they didn't get a penny. Time for playing...

Children at work: imagine yourself watching thread spin on spools for 12 hours a day. Imagine yourself as a 5-year-old, working in a cold, dark mine, separating rocks from coal. Imagine yourself walking up and down rows of cotton plants in the heat of the summer, bending over to pick the fuzzy white bolls of cotton, dragging a full, heavy bag behind you.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... The new inventions of the 19th and 20th centuries created a need for huge numbers of workers. When employers couldn't find enough adults to do their jobs, they hired children. Some of the children came from families that needed extra money....

James Watt and the bubbling kettle.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Take a look around the room. What do you see? Did you ever think that something you see might lead to an invention that would change the world? That's what happened to young James Watt. In the mid 1700s, 12-year-old James sat in the kitchen...

The photos of Lewis Hine.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... In the early 1900s, nearly two million American children worked. Their jobs were low paying and often unhealthy or dangerous. Many had little or no education. A lot of people believed this was wrong. They organized a group called the National...

A trip back in time.
January 1, 2004... Did you know that many of the things you use every day were invented during the Industrial Revolution? What do you think your life would have been like if you lived before this time of great inventions? Get ready to take a trip back in time!...

The Industrial Revolution continues.(Soft Sight Inc.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Ten years ago, very few people used e-mail to keep in touch. Cell phones, digital cameras, and CD burners were just beginning to be developed. But today, these things are part of our everyday life. People continue to make machines and...

Make a simple spindle.(Fun Stuff)
January 1, 2004... Here's a new twist on an old idea: Use a CD to spin wool into yarn. It's really easy to make a drop spindle using a CD and a few other simple things. (Some people say it's called a drop spindle because you drop it a lot when you are first...

Touch the sky.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... "Cotton candy! Caramel corn! Hot dogs! I see it--we're almost there! Look, just over the cornfields, the Ferris wheel is spinning through the sky!" In 1893, the children of the Industrial Revolution were in for a thrill. That thrill came...

Branching out.(Brief Article)(Bibliography)
January 1, 2004... Imagine working in a factory to help support your family. In The Bobbin Girl, by Emily Arnold McCully (Dial Books), 10-year-old Rebecca is one of thousands of girls who worked 13 1/2-hour days in textile mills in Lowell, Massachusetts, more...