Spinning Wheels & Balls

Today we visited Quarry Bank (NT) which was a large cotton mill that opened in 1784 and where 1000s of workers as young as 9 yrs old toiled in harsh conditions. I’m sure the owner’s family enjoyed the beautiful landscape and gardens as do today’s visitors.

My image is of the machinery attached to the steam engine that kept the cotton machines going when the water dried up to turn the waterwheel. The spinning blur in my thumbnail is the centrifugal governor, two brass balls that regulate steam or fuel to engines. The large wheel links to machinery above.