Moving Forward
It’s oddly gratifying to see a National Park Service site in an old mill town. The Rust Belt — that swath from Wisconsin to New England — was the backbone of the Old Economy. Once full of manufacturing and industrial innovation, fueling the greatest economic expansion of the last millennium, much of that area is now a forgotten shell of its former prosperity. Poverty, decay, and rust (in both the literal and metaphorical sense) plagues so many of these cities. We’ve forgotten about them, having long-since moved to well-groomed suburbs, freshly carved from farmland or forests, with clean water and clean air and clean dirt lining clean playgrounds. But these old cities still exist, and millions still call them home, pollutants or no. Lowell is no exception.
Lowell National Historical Park preserves Suffolk Mills, part of New England’s great textile operations. Dominating the industry since before the Revolutionary War, textile mills built up dozens of Massachusetts cities, only to abandon them when the Great Depression hit. These mills provided millions of jobs over the intervening 150 years, for young women looking to improve their dowries, to Portuguese immigrants looking to start a new life. The work could be dangerous in the time before OSHA, but industrial work transformed the U.S. into a post-agricultural society and created the middle class.
As an old-technology geek, I loved the machinery. Large, whirring wheels, tying belt to spindle. Great, thrumming rows of looms, weaving cloth for use in everything from colonial army topcoats to the uniforms of the Black Sox. Unlike metalworking machines, the sound of the wood and cotton is quite comforting, and would make an awesome ASMR recording for insomniacs. If you’re ever north of Boston, take some time and visit Lowell NHP, it’s pretty cool. Then visit some local artists at http://www.artsleagueoflowell.org/. It’s where I picked up Clyde here.
Side note: downtown Lowell is divided by numerous canals. I visited in the dead of winter (in the time when winters were actually cold). I could only imagine the fun kids must have had ice skating all throughout the town, the canals certainly seemed to form the perfect ice. Was sad I didn’t bring my own skates (although local law enforcement probably wouldn’t be too impressed).
Book Report
In preparation for this blog post, I read a book that certainly tickled my fascination with machines and innovation. The Most Powerful Idea in the World, by historian William Rosen, takes you through all the ins and outs of the greatest leap forward mankind ever took. Rosen weaves (lol) a wide tapestry of broke English monarchs, pretentious Italian aristocrats, clever child’s toys, dangerous steam explosions, and the most clever lawyer in history to explain how mankind changed from a collection of hard-toiling farmers and hammer-swinging blacksmiths to a car-addicted society of immense leisure. This is a great book, a great retelling of how it all happened. I think it should be required reading for freshmen engineering students.
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Links
Lowell National Historical Park
America In Context 
Compelling write-up. I grew up in the northeast, and even up until the 1980s it was a region of amazingly numeroys and varied industrial complexes. Then they began to move their operations to the US South. I went through 4 layoffs in 8 years due to my company leaving NJ. When I was finally able to move South in 1998, most of manufacturing was now moving offshore. Story of my life, LOL. Thanks for the writeup and the book rec.