Browse Items (246 total)
- Collection: Assabet Mills
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Curfew Bell
This "curfew bell" signaled to the mill employees that by 9 p.m. each night they were to be home and in bed. Amory Maynard warned that any of his employees found on the streets after the bell tolled would lose their jobs. In October 1935, the bell…
Machine Shop Flood Photo - 1936
During the flood of the Assabet River on March 13,1936, the river rose high enough to spill over its banks and to include the Walnut Street machine shop in mill Building No. 11 as part of the river.
Boiler Room Photo
This is one of the large boilers used to heat the mill buildings. The boilers could be fired by either gas or oil with an easy conversion.
Beehive Money Safe Photos
This large floor safe was installed in the main office building in the Assabet Mills.
Shuttle Photos
This shuttle with a bobbin of Khaki yarn was used in the Assabet Mills during World War One.
Photo negatives included.
Photo negatives included.
Powering the Mill
At first, the traditional wooden waterwheel was the prime mover in the Mill. Power was transmitted to the machines in different parts of the mill buildings by an intricate series of shafts and belts.
Dynamo Control Room Photo
With the installation of a dynamo in the new power plant, electricity became available and on September 1, 1902, a contract was made between the American Woolen Company and the Town of Maynard for lighting the streets of the town. Thus, the old…
American Woolen Mills - ca 1900
The American Woolen Company, by 1900, was was operating 26 mills, one of the in Maynard. By 1923, it reached a total of 57 mills.
Assabet Mills - ca 1900
The original ,mill was a wooden structure. Afterward, a six-story, 170-by-50 foot brick mill was built over the wooden frame while the machinery inside was still running.
American Woolen Mills - ca 1900
A picture of the American Woolen Mills, c. 1900, with the railroad embankment and bridge (later removed). In the background, behind Mill #5, are the tower on the home of Lorenzo Maynard, the upper part of Amory Maynard's home, and the tank house for…
Woolen Manufacturing Process Photos
Carding step 1.
The wool fibers are straightened and smoothed as they go through one cad cylinder after another. The photo 318.a shows a section of a back winder.
Carding step 2.
After carding, the wide, thin web of wool fiber into strips.…
The wool fibers are straightened and smoothed as they go through one cad cylinder after another. The photo 318.a shows a section of a back winder.
Carding step 2.
After carding, the wide, thin web of wool fiber into strips.…
Assabet Mills Twin Chimneys - ca 1932-33
A picture taken behind the block at River Street of the Walnut Street Bridge (note: ball-type globes on street lights on bridge), back of billboards, and the twin smoke stacks of American Woolen Mills.
Assabet Mills Photo - ca 1932-33
A picture of the American Woolen Co. Mills further up and off from Thompson Street. This picture is of Mill Buildings #1, and # 5, and the field that is now Digital parking lot.