building the american landscape - Univerza v Novi Gorici
building the american landscape - Univerza v Novi Gorici
building the american landscape - Univerza v Novi Gorici
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containing falling water, <strong>the</strong> most suitable motive power, by<br />
considerable distances from easy access to national markets. This<br />
obstacle, which was overcome by <strong>the</strong> growth of <strong>the</strong> sou<strong>the</strong>rn railroads<br />
after <strong>the</strong> Civil War, limited large‐scale sou<strong>the</strong>rn industry to a few<br />
locations. In New England, where this obstacle was all but nonexistent,<br />
<strong>the</strong> textile industry grew to be <strong>the</strong> country's first great industry,<br />
accounting in 1860 for "about one‐sixteenth of <strong>the</strong> aggregate of all<br />
branches of industry”. The center of <strong>the</strong> large, integrated New England<br />
textile industry was <strong>the</strong> Merrimack River valley. Lowell, Massachusetts,<br />
was <strong>the</strong> first of <strong>the</strong> great mill towns of <strong>the</strong> Merrimack and in 1860 <strong>the</strong><br />
largest. Located at <strong>the</strong> Pawtucket Falls of <strong>the</strong> Merrimack, <strong>the</strong> textile mills<br />
of Lowell were powered by approximately 6,000 cubic feet of water per<br />
second, which produced about 10,000 horsepower as it fell through <strong>the</strong><br />
wheels and turbines of <strong>the</strong> factories, guided <strong>the</strong>re by a complex system<br />
of canals. Of equal importance were Lowell's transportation links to<br />
national and international markets by way of Boston, first through <strong>the</strong><br />
Middlesex Canal, opened in 1803 when Lowell was just a trading village,<br />
and <strong>the</strong>n by <strong>the</strong> Boston and Lowell Railroad, completed in 159 .<br />
The changes carried out in <strong>the</strong> Lowell textile industry placed <strong>the</strong> productive force of<br />
<strong>the</strong> machines in direct contact with <strong>the</strong> force of water.<br />
The <strong>landscape</strong> of Lowell thus involved elements of <strong>the</strong> natural <strong>landscape</strong> in <strong>the</strong><br />
industrial process, and ideally stretched factory organisation by means of a close<br />
network of canals to service <strong>the</strong> textile mills [Figures 68‐69].<br />
The productive objectives remained evident for a long time, to such an extent that a<br />
study made in 1923 by Harry Chamberlain Meserve (1868‐1925), secretary of <strong>the</strong><br />
National Association of Cotton Manufactures defined Lowell as “an industrial dream<br />
come true” 160 . The territory occupied by <strong>the</strong> town of Lowell once represented<br />
capital for an Indian settlement named Wamesit, but <strong>the</strong> rights to use <strong>the</strong> land had<br />
already been taken from <strong>the</strong> natives in 1726 by <strong>the</strong> English. “The site of Lowell was<br />
chosen purely for textile purposes. The definite plan grew out of its location at<br />
available water power. O<strong>the</strong>r advantages and disadvantages were weighed over<br />
against this matter of primary importance. The practicability of textile<br />
manufacturing at this particular place was <strong>the</strong> determining factor 161 .<br />
159 GOLDFARB, Stephen J., “A Note on Limits to <strong>the</strong> Growth of <strong>the</strong> Cotton‐Textile Industry in <strong>the</strong> Old<br />
South”, published in The Journal of Sou<strong>the</strong>rn History, Vol. 48, No. 4 (Nov., 1982), pp. 545‐558, pp.<br />
545 and 549<br />
160 MESERVE, Herry C., Lowell‐ an industrial dream come true, Boston, The National Association of<br />
Cotton Manufactures, Massachusetts, 1923<br />
161 Ibid., p.45<br />
94