Lowell, MA: "The cradle of the industrial revolution in America"

I came across the quote about Lowell, MA, being "the cradle of the industrial revolution in America" in a history of the Francis Turbine design. Lowell's need for more hydro power motivated the invention of the more efficient turbine design. When you look at a satellite image, you can see that multiple head- and tail-race canals were built around the Pawtucket Falls.

The Lowell National Historical Park has a Tsongas Industrial History Center. Their Facebook page posted two photos with the following comment:

Our #MillYardMonday posts continue with information this week about steam power. Following the Civil War, factory managers decided that a new energy source would be more efficient for running their mills. Steam power was becoming popular at the time, so many mill managers adopted it. By 1880 the amount of steam power being used in Lowell had surpassed the amount of waterpower. In the 1910s and ‘20s hydroelectricity would replace steam power, proving that water was still a viable energy source well into the 20th century. Click the photos for more information about steam power in Lowell.

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Source

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This Skinner Steam Engine was first manufactured around 1890. It is a Single piston reciprocating high pressure mill steam engine (Corliss type).The Skinner is a small steam engine that powered a small mill not the size and scope of the mill operations in Lowell. This steam engine was recently restored by Lowell National Historical Park  staff and is now on display as part of the Suffolk Mill/River Transformed Exhibit.

Their cover picture shows how line shafts and belts were used to power all of the machines from a single power source. Originally the power source was water, then it was a large stationary steam engine.

Tsongas Industrial History Center

Another posting shows some of the "guts" of a mill with the comment:

Here's another #MillYardMonday post and today's theme is flywheels - another important invention to the manufacturing system in Lowell. Flywheels transfer the energy that turbines create into the mill. At the top of a turbine is a rod holding a horizontal gear that fits into a vertical gear at a right angle. The vertical gear is also attached to a rod, on the other side of which is a huge flywheel. The turning of the turbine makes the interlocking gears work together to turn the flywheel. The flywheel acts as a pulley because as it turns, a large belt that is wrapped around it turns with it. The belt then travels through the floors of the mill and attaches to horizontal rods (called line shafts) on each floor, causing them to rotate and turn smaller belts attached to the machines. The flywheel was an important part of running the mill because of its role in transferring the turbine’s power to the machines. You can see flywheels on exhibit throughout Lowell National Historical Park today.

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A view of how large a flywheel actually is, this one can be seen at the Suffolk Mill at the River Transformed Exhibit at Lowell National Historical Park.

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In this view of a working weave room, located at the Boott Mill, you can see all of the individual belts that run down from the ceiling and connect to the machines. These were the belts that were connected to the fly shaft that the flywheel spun.

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An image of a moving flywheel at the Suffolk Mill as part of the River Transformed Exhibit at Lowell National Historical Park.