The Artificial Intelligence tools (like ChatGPT4, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Meta, CoPilot, GenSpark, DeepSeek, and Perplexity) can provide much useful and nearly instant information about subjects in a concise format, especially when they have been pre-trained on a large volume of information about the subjects.
1) I wondered about making fabric and clothes in the 19th century, since several of my second and third great-grandparents (Richman and Rich) in Wiltshire, England and New England, and their children, were weavers and/or worked in a woolen mill, in the 1850 to 1900 time frame.
My prompt was: "You are an expert in textile manufacturing history. How did wool get from a sheep to a man's suit or woman's dress in the 1850-1900 time frame in New England? What jobs were there, who performed them, and what machines were used. How did technology change over this time period?"
(image created by Google Gemini 2.0 Flash)
2) I used the Grok 3 response for this question:
The process of transforming wool from a sheep into a finished suit or dress in New England between 1850 and 1900 was a complex journey involving multiple stages, skilled labor, and evolving machinery. During this period, the textile industry was a cornerstone of New England’s economy, particularly in states like Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Maine. Below, I’ll outline the key steps, the jobs and workers involved, the machines used, and how technology evolved over this time frame.Overview of the Process
The journey from sheep to finished garment involved several stages: shearing, sorting and cleaning, carding, spinning, weaving, dyeing, finishing, and tailoring or dressmaking. By the mid-19th century, much of this process had shifted from small-scale, home-based production to large, mechanized factories, though some tasks remained manual or semi-mechanized.Step-by-Step Process (1850–1900)
Shearing the Sheep
Sorting and Cleaning (Scouring)
Description: Raw wool was greasy, full of lanolin, dirt, and vegetable matter. Sorting separated high-quality wool (from the back and sides) from coarser wool (from the legs or belly). Scouring removed impurities.
Jobs and Workers:
Wool Sorters: Skilled workers, often men, who graded wool by quality and type. This job required experience to assess fiber length and fineness.
Scourers: Men and women operated scouring vats or assisted with washing. Women were increasingly involved in factory-based cleaning by the 1870s.
Child Laborers: Children sometimes assisted in sorting or picking out debris, especially in smaller mills.
Machines/Tools:
In the 1850s, wool was often cleaned by hand in tubs with soap and water. By the 1860s, mechanical scouring machines—large vats with rollers or agitators—began to automate the process.
Willowing Machines: Used to remove burrs and dirt before scouring, these machines shook or beat the wool.
Technological Change:
Scouring machines became more efficient by the 1880s, using steam power to heat water and agitate wool. Chemical detergents, like soda ash, improved cleaning, reducing reliance on manual labor.
Carding
Spinning
Weaving
Description: Yarn was woven into fabric on looms, creating woolen (soft, fuzzy) or worsted (smooth, tightly woven) cloth for suits and dresses.
Jobs and Workers:
Weavers: Men and women operated looms. Women dominated weaving rooms by the 1870s, as the job became less physically demanding with mechanization.
Loom Fixers: Men maintained and repaired looms, a skilled trade requiring mechanical knowledge.
Warpers and Beamers: Workers (often women) prepared yarn for looms by arranging it on beams.
Machines/Tools:
Power Looms: The Crompton loom (for woolens) and Northrop loom (introduced in the 1890s for simpler fabrics) were standard. Worsted fabrics required specialized looms for tighter weaves.
Jacquard Looms: Used for patterned fabrics, these were operated by skilled weavers for high-end dresses.
Technological Change:
Dyeing
Finishing
Description: Finishing included processes like fulling (shrinking and felting wool), napping (raising a soft surface), shearing (cutting nap for smoothness), and pressing to prepare fabric for garments.
Jobs and Workers:
Fullers: Men operated fulling mills or machines to compact fabric.
Nappers and Shearers: Men and women used machines to raise and trim the fabric surface.
Pressers: Workers (often men) used heavy presses to smooth fabric.
Machines/Tools:
Fulling Mills: Water- or steam-powered machines pounded fabric to shrink it.
Gig Mills: Raised the nap with teasels or wire brushes.
Shearing Machines: Cut nap evenly, replacing hand shears by the 1860s.
Steam Presses: Flattened fabric for a polished look.
Technological Change:
Tailoring or Dressmaking
Description: Finished wool fabric was cut and sewn into suits or dresses, either in small shops or, increasingly, in ready-made clothing factories.
Jobs and Workers:
Tailors: Mostly men, they cut and sewed men’s suits, requiring precision for fit. Custom tailors served wealthier clients, while factory tailors produced ready-made garments.
Dressmakers: Women designed and sewed dresses, often working from home or in small shops. By the 1890s, dressmaking factories employed women for mass production.
Seamstresses: Women performed repetitive sewing tasks, especially in factories.
Cutters: Skilled men marked and cut fabric based on patterns.
Machines/Tools:
Sewing Machines: The Singer sewing machine (patented 1851) revolutionized garment production. By the 1870s, foot-pedal models were common in homes and factories.
Cutting Tools: Hand shears and, later, mechanical cutting machines for factories.
Technological Change:
Sewing machines became electric by the 1890s, speeding up production. Ready-made clothing factories adopted standardized patterns, reducing custom work. Band-saw cutting machines (1880s) allowed precise cutting of multiple fabric layers.
Workforce Demographics
Gender: Women and girls made up a significant portion of the textile workforce, especially in spinning, weaving, and sewing. Men dominated skilled trades like dyeing, loom fixing, and tailoring, though women began entering these roles by the 1890s.
Age: Child labor was common in the 1850s–1870s, with children as young as 10 working as doffers or card room hands. Labor laws in the 1880s raised minimum ages and limited hours.
Ethnicity: Early mills (1850s) employed native-born New Englanders, often young women from rural areas (the “Lowell mill girls”). By the 1870s, Irish, French-Canadian, and later Eastern European immigrants filled factory jobs as urbanization grew.
Conditions: Factory work was grueling, with 10–12-hour days, loud machinery, and poor ventilation. Wages were low, especially for women and children, though skilled workers like loom fixers earned more.
Technological Evolution (1850–1900)
Mechanization: The shift from water-powered to steam-powered machinery (1860s–1880s) allowed mills to operate year-round and scale up production. Steam engines powered carders, looms, and spinning frames, increasing output.
Automation: Self-acting mules, ring spinning, and automatic looms (e.g., Northrop) reduced the need for skilled labor, making production faster and cheaper.
Synthetic Dyes: The introduction of aniline dyes transformed aesthetics, enabling vibrant colors that appealed to fashion-conscious consumers.
Sewing and Cutting: The sewing machine and, later, electric cutting tools revolutionized garment production, paving the way for ready-made clothing by the 1890s.
Transportation: Railroads expanded wool and fabric distribution, connecting New England mills to national markets and reducing reliance on local sheep farms (Western wool began to dominate by the 1880s).
Impact on Suits and Dresses
Men’s Suits: Woolen or worsted suits became standardized, with factories producing affordable, ready-made options by the 1880s. Custom tailoring persisted for the wealthy, using finer worsted fabrics.
Women’s Dresses: Wool dresses ranged from sturdy, everyday garments to elaborate, patterned designs for the middle and upper classes. Dressmaking remained labor-intensive, but ready-made dresses grew common by the 1890s, driven by sewing machine efficiency.
Conclusion
From sheep to suit or dress, the wool textile industry in 1850–1900 New England was a blend of manual skill and mechanized innovation. Jobs ranged from shearers and sorters to spinners, weavers, and tailors, with women and immigrants playing increasingly central roles. Machines like carding engines, spinning mules, power looms, and sewing machines transformed production, while steam power and synthetic dyes boosted efficiency and variety. By 1900, technological advances had shifted the industry toward mass production, making wool garments more accessible and setting the stage for the modern clothing industry.
If you’d like me to dive deeper into a specific stage, machine, or worker role, let me know!
3) My second prompt was: "How long did it take to make a man's suit from sheep wool to suit on the rack?"
Grok 3 described each step in the process as it changed over time due to better technology (but it is not included herein). The Grok 3 conclusion was:
Conclusion
For a man’s wool suit in 1870s–1880s New England, the process typically took 20–30 days for a ready-made suit on the rack, assuming efficient factory production and pre-sheared wool. Custom suits took 30–40 days due to slower, personalized tailoring. These estimates reflect the era’s balance of mechanized mills and labor-intensive garment-making, with ready-made production becoming faster and more common by the 1890s as technology and infrastructure improved.
4) The reason I asked the second question is because the published biography of my 2nd great-grandfather James Richmond (1821-1912) has this paragraph:
"James Richmond, above mentioned, is an expert in his line, as is evidenced by the fact that he had charge of the famous feat of making a suit of clothes in six hours and four minutes. In the hands of a tailor supplied with materials this might not seem an impossible undertaking, but in this instance the wool was taken from the back of the sheep and placed on the back of the wearer in the shape of a finished suit, within the specified time of six hours and two minutes."
I think that this "famous feat" was performed by the son of James and Hannah (Rich) Richman, James Richmond (1849-1929), with everything set up for him to actually take the wool and create clothing in a custom manner - going one step at a time and using machines in the 1890s (and perhaps ignoring some of the steps in the process, like dyeing).
5) The Grok 3 response to the prompts was interesting and probably is accurate. Making clothes was not a quick and easy process! I may ask the same question about the process used in England during the 18th and early 19th centuries.
I asked the same questions of ChatGPT4 and Gemini and received essentially the same responses.
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Links to my blog posts about using Artificial Intelligence are on my Randy's AI and Genealogy page. Links to AI information and articles about Artificial Intelligence in Genealogy by other genealogists are on my AI and Genealogy Compendium page.
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