Where there any machines in a textile factory that could cut off a hand, what was it called, what did it do?

Question

could something like a nest or a rat jam the machine/how?

Answer 1

In the early days of the big textile factories (early 1800s) there were a lot of machines and not very many safety features. There were looms for weaving cloth, machines that cut the cloth, Large machines that pounded the cloth to make it flat or shiny, or picked at it to make it fluffy.

The machines had a lot of parts that spun or went back and forth at high speed. There were no covers or protections, so it was pretty common for people to get a hand caught in the machines. Also, women wore long dresses and sometimes they would get caught, and most women had long hair and sometimes that would get caught. The workers had terrible injuiries.

Very small children often were hired to work in the mills because they squeeze under the machines to fix parts that broke. Of course, they had many injuries, often being crippled for life or even killed.

There is a National Historical park in Lowell, Massachusetts that has a museum with old textile machines that are run for demonstration. You can go into the weave room and see how the old machines worked. It is VERY noisy from the clacking of all the machine parts. They have a website you could check out.

There is also a website and historic park at Slater Mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. That was the very first textile mill in the USA.

Answer 2

There are many dangers in this type of industry.
The blade that is used most of all is the Guillotine, it is used for cutting the end of a roll of cloth.