Piccadilly Mill
Piccadilly Mill, also known as Bank Top Mill[1] or Drinkwater's Mill, owned by Peter Drinkwater, was the first cotton mill in Manchester, England, to be directly powered by a steam engine,[2] and the 10th such mill in the world.[1] Construction of the four-storey mill on Auburn Street started in 1789[2] and its 8 hp Boulton and Watt engine was installed and working by 1 May 1790.[3] Initially the engine drove only the preparatory equipment and spinning was done manually.[4] The mill-wright was Thomas Lowe, who had worked for William Fairbairn and helped with the planning two of Arkwright's earliest factories.[5]
During the early 1790s the mill employed around 500 workers.[3] Robert Owen was employed as the manager in 1792.[4]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Kidd 2013.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Nevell 2007, p. 198.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Nevell 2007, p. 199.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Miller & Wild 2007, p. 18.
- ↑ Miller & Wild 2007, p. 64.
Bibliography
- Kidd, Alan J. (2013), "Drinkwater, Peter (1750–1801), cotton manufacturer", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, retrieved 2013-12-23
- Miller, Ian; Wild, Chris (2007), A & G Murray and the Cotton Mills of Ancoats, Lancaster Imprints, ISBN 978-0-904220-46-9
- Nevell, Michael (2007), "The Social Archaeology of Industrialisation: the example of Manchester during the 17th and 18th centuries", in Casella, Eleanor Conlin; Symonds, James, Industrial Archaeology: Future Directions, Springer, pp. 177–204, ISBN 0-387-22831-4, retrieved 2013-12-23