MOSI Google Hangout

On Wednesday, September 24th, our class was given the amazing opportunity to have a live Google Hangout with workers of the Museum of Science and History. During our live chat, Jamie, our museum curator, showed us some machines used in the factories in the textile industry during the Industrial Revolution. To prepare for this chat, the class investigated documents on the MOSI website about the textile industry, analyzed a prepared video from Jamie, defined important textile terms, and developed questions to ask Jamie during our live chat.

I really enjoyed the live Google Hangout. While chatting with the museum curators, I learned a lot about the textile industry during the era of the Industrial Revolution. During the live chat I learned about the evolution of the textile process. During the seventeen and eighteen hundreds, cloth was made in mills by workers using dangerous machines such as power looms and speed frames. These machines often caused fatal injuries and death among factory workers. Today, many of the machines used are robotic and prevent injuries while producing cloth more efficiently. A positive impact that the industrialization of the textile industry had on families was the availability and mass production of cloth, making it easier for people to access this product. A negative impact that the industrialization of the textile industry had on families was child labor and poor working conditions in the mills. During the Industrial Revolution, many families faced economic hardships and were forced to send their children to labor in factories to work under dangerous conditions. These employees often worked under poor conditions such as, long hours in the mills, abusive treatment from over lookers of the mills, and the constant risk of injury due to working with such dangerous equipment.

Overall, during our interactive session, I learned a lot about the industrialization of the textile industry during the Industrial Revolution. I feel that it was beneficial to learn about this topic from an outside expert as they were able to provide  our class with specific information about the machines used to industrialize the textile industry and the lifestyle of factory workers during this era. I believe that it was extremely helpful to see these machines via live chat as it gave me a better understanding of how the machines worked and what purpose they served. During the live chat, I enjoyed seeing the machines on and running to help understand the jobs of workers in the mills during the Industrial Revolution and the function of the machine. If the class were given another opportunity to speak with experts via live chat about another topic in our curriculum, I think it would be very beneficial to the students.

Picture of the loom from Google Hangout