Name/Title
StereographEntry/Object ID
2023.055.3.0354Description
A black and white stereograph. Image is of the interior of w weaving room, many people are standing in front of many looms. Above the image "22" is printed, below the image "V23231 - Weaving Room (2,400 Looms), Great Olympian Cotton Mills, Columbia, South Carolina." is printed, to the left of the image "Keystone View Company Copyrighted Underwood & Underwood Manufacturers MADE IN U.S.A. Publishers" is printed, to the right of the image "Meadville, Pa., New York, N. Y., Portland, Oregon, London, Eng., Sydeny, Aus." is printed. On the reverse the following is printed:
V23231
WEAVING ROOM OF GREAT OLYMPIAN COTTON MILLS, COLUMBIA
Lat. 31 (Degrees) N,; Long. 81 (Degrees) W.
Cotton is the most important of the textiles manufactures, judged by the number of persons employed and the quality and value of the product. Between 85 and 90 per cent of the cotton baled in the United States is sued in the manufacture of fabrics. It is only within the last fifty years that much of this has been done in the southern states, where the cotton is grown. now, while there are immense domestic and foreign shipments, the south is developing more and more important manufacturing enterprizes.
We see here the large scale on which South Carolina carries on its textile weaving. In the Olympian Cotton Mills at Columbia there are 2,400 looms. When bales are recieved at the factory the cotton undergoes many processes of drawing out and twisting slightly, spinning and doubling, before it is transformed into cotton yarn.
The weaving of these threads into cloth has been practiced longer than history can trace the process, but until about two hundred years ago it was done largely by had. In 1750 an important advance was made by the invention of a weaver's shuttle, by means of which the workman could pass his woof thread back and forth more quickly than before. The idea of weaving by machinery or by the power loom was first put into practice in 1785. This came into successful operation in factories in the early part of the nineteenth century. Since then most wonderufl mechanical inventions have caused decided progress in the weaving industry.
Copyright by The Keystone View CompanyCollection
Photograph Collection