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Yorkshire Textile Mills 1770-1930 COLUM GILES AND IAN H GOODALL, 1992 London, HJVISO 274pp. 338 illust. £16.95 ISBN 0-1 1-300038-3
Cotton Mills in Greater Manchester MIKE WILLIAMS WITH DOUGLAS FARNIE, 1992 Preston Lanes, Carnegie Publishing Ltd 224pp. c250 illust £19.95 (paperback £14.95) ISBN 0-948789-89-1
Whatever iconographie status the textile mill might have acquired in recent years it remains preeminently an expression of engineering genius. Until 1 840 it formed the lead sector in the development of technology, focussing the attention of both mechanical and civil'engineering. For the rest of the century as the industrial spectrum widened its relative importance declined but continuing innovation sustained it as a key contributor to technological progress. The surviving examples offer a unique and largely unrealised insight into the technology of the industrial revolution at its most fertile and dynamic.
The Yorkshire Textile Mill 1770 - 1930 and its companion Cotton Mills in Greater Manchester undertake to survey the subject from a somewhat wider perspective and for this reason an assessment of their success in dealing with matters of technology is a less than adequate measure of their total value. In spite of this qualification it remains true to say that the technology of the mill forms a central object of interest as an explicit topic and as an underlying theme in the two volumes.
Direct comparison between the two books is complicated by their difference in format. The Yorkshire volume is divided into five central chapters which examine the industry between 1770 and 1930; the buildings, the development of the complex, power, transmission of power and the impact of the textile mill upon the landscape. In contrast the Lancashire study follows a chronological approach with chapters covering the periods 1780 to 1825, 1825 to 1860, 1860 to 1900 and a final chapter taking the account up to 1926. Each is then sub-divided by topic and whilst these vary between chapters all include reference to size, layout, external details, structure, organisation and power.
The Yorkshire volume was first to appear. This has clearly benefitted from the experience of the co-author and project leader, Colum Giles, whose previous publications have been justifiably well received. These seem to have influenced the framework through which the textile mills were approached. Extensive field...