Cotton Mule Spinning at Masson Mills

Short video showing the spinning of cotton yarn on a self-acting cotton mule. The video shows how broken yarn is “pieced“ together - without stopping the machine. The Mule was built by Platt Brothers of Oldham in 1927 and worked at the Elk Mill in Oldham until September 1974. When it worked in the mill it contained 1,122 spindles but now spins on only around 60. An Animation of this mule, working full-length, may be seen here:- Out of the 40-odd thousand such machines which once spun cotton yarn in Lancashire alone, only about six survive world-wide today and only two of these (this one and its sister at MOSI in Manchester) are able to properly spin cotton yarn. This machine is unique in spinning at full production speed. Beyond these, only two other cotton mules run - one at Neuthal in Switzerland, and one at Slater Mill in Pawtucket, USA. Two others languish in museum stores. In addition, around a further 10 “Condenser cotton“ Mules exist in museums across Europe, whilst mules are still used commercially for spinning high-end woolen-type yarns such as Cashmere, Angora etc. However, none of these are “true“ mules because they do not incorporate “roller drafting“. True mules for spinning Worsted exist in Museums in UK, Spain, France and Germany, but none of these are able to spin yarn. Masson Mills, located in Matlock Bath, Derbyshire, were built by Sir Richard Arkwright as a “show mill“, and remained in continuous production until 1992 when the museum was established. Machinery demonstrations take place daily except during the depths of winter, though the Cotton Mule is only run about one day per week during summer - please check for details. A short documentary showing cotton mules in action can be found here:- Note that as late as 1971, the spinners preferred to work in bare feet Condenser cotton mules (which constituted around only 2% of UK mule spindles) may be seen here:- Before the advent of the “self-acting“ mule in 1830, the winding operation was carried out by hand. The best example (spinning woolens) is in France and may be seen here:- Modern mules for spinning woolen yarns may be seen here:- The best examples of traditional self-acting woolen mules in a museum can be seen at the Tuchfabrik, near Aachen in Germany:- and also at New Lanark mills in Scotland:- The Cotton Mule at Slater Mill, Pawtucket RI, was built by John Hetherington in Manchester in 1909. It is the only cotton mule outside Europe which attempts to “work“... No one will make much of a wage running at this speed however...