The Vermont Historical Society holds in its collections this apron. Object ID 1984.6.2 is described as
Blue checked cotton apron. The check design is woven into the fabric and is 4 yarns by 4 yarns. The apron consists of a long rectangular piece of fabric gathered into a narrow waistband that extends outward to a tie.
Additional context states that the apron is
Made from cloth woven at the Vermont State Prison in Windsor.
Aprons generally receive hard use and the plain ones don't often survive, so this apron and its context are interesting.
The description of "The check design is woven into the fabric and is 4 yarns by 4 yarns" we would generally refer to today as gingham. However, since gingham used to be woven in either stripes and checks, this fabric is most accurately called an apron check.
Instructions for weaving this exact apron check appear on page 29 of The Domestic Manufacturer's Assistant and Family Directory in the Arts of Weaving and Dyeing, by J & R Bronson, published in Utica New York in 1817.
The Vermont Historical listing doesn't include any measurements, but I suspect the apron is a single 3/4 yard wide loom width - 27 inches - as the Bronson instructions indicate. From the photo, I'd guess that the apron was made from a length of fabric a yard to 1 1/4 yards long (36" to 40 1/2",) with the ties being cut from the width.
Visible stains on the apron would indicate it has seen some use. The photo doesn't have the resolution to determine if the apron has been patched or darned, but there do seem to be a few areas that might be small holes, perhaps caused by sparks.
Just three years after the prison was built in 1809, they advertised their ginghams in the Vermont Republican and Journal on December 14, 1812. They sold not only ginghams, but shirtings and bed tickings, both wholesale and retail, and would take payment in produce, no doubt used to help feed the prisoners.
On June 28, 1813, the prison touted improvements to their weaving operation in an article published on page 3 The Washingtonian
Let's do some math. Convict S.G. was weaving a little over 3 3/4 yards per hour. This is a respectable speed. The writer's mention of the "great improvements" made in weaving machinery suggests that the loom was fitted with a flying shuttle.
In weaving, the weft, or filling threads, are laid down one at a time by the weaver passing a shuttle back and forth. (This is called throwing, but it's really a controlled, sharp push.) To overcome the limitations of the human arm-span, two weavers needed to work together to produce broadcloth, a huge industry in England.
The flying shuttle, patented in 1733 by John Kay, mechanized the throwing action so that one person could weave widths of fabric greater than their arm-span. But the invention was also found to be simply faster than throwing the shuttle by hand for narrower widths as well. S.G. was weaving 112 weft threads (these are called shots or picks) per minute, slightly less than two shots per second, a very speedy rate.
The mention of three shuttles is a head-scratcher. Weaving the apron check would require two shuttles, one for blue, one for white. Using two shuttles requires an additional mechanism on the flying shuttle to allow the weaver to change colors without having to handle the shuttles. But that's still only two shuttles.
Knowing both how many yards were woven and how many shots were woven allows us to determine that the fabric had about 48 weft ends per inch. The number of warp ends would be about the same. It would be interesting to know the thread counts of the apron in the Historical Society's collection.
The warp yarns may have been a twisted two-ply for additional strength, while the weft (filling) was single, similar to these yarns offered for sale in the New York Evening post on Monday, March 16, 1818.
The article indicates that there was an additional task of sizing the yarn - applying a thin liquid substance to the warp yarn strengthen it by minimizing fraying. Only the warp yarn would be sized. Starting on page 32 of their book, the Bronsons give detailed instructions for sizing cotton yarn, using a thin solution of wheat flour.
While the flying shuttle was necessary for convict S.G. to achieve the speeds they did, the ability to weave cotton goods relatively cheaply relied on three additional innovations; the spinning frame patented by Richard Arkwright in England 1769, using water to power the frame, which started at Slater Mill in Rhode Island in 1793, and Eli Whitney's cotton gin, patented in 1794. (1)
As the quantity of machine-spun cotton yarn increased, bringing down the price, and as refinements were made to looms, weaving as a prison trade would have become more economically feasible. The prison would have had the expense of acquiring the looms (2) and the associated equipment and the yarns. It also appears that they paid a master weaver, probably to teach inmates how to weave, to keep an eye on quality control, to keep the equipment in good order, and to manage supplies. (3)
This newspaper ad from the Vermont Republican and Journal Windham, Windsor and Orange County Advertiser from January 28th 1822 would seem to indicate that the prison was doing their own indigo dyeing, a process the Bronsons also detail in their book.
Note that the prison also had a side business of making reeds for looms as well as shuttles. The shuttles produced in the prison were very likely similar to the ones below. These shuttles would be used in homes where the shuttle was still being thrown by hand. None of these shuttles has any documentation, but the top one was purchased in Vermont.
The development of the power loom in Waltham, Massachusetts in 1814 would eventually spell the end of prison weaving. The last newspaper reference I've found for prison ginghams is from an ad on December 29th, 1832, on page 1 of the Vermont Republican and Journal, when the prison superintendent asked those owing amounts to the prison to make their payments (so that the prison could close their books at the end of the year.) The mention of "very reduced prices" may indicate a plan to close down the weaving business.
Here's a lovely demonstration of a flying shuttle loom, by somebody you may recognize, one way or another.
Notes
(1) If you're not familiar with John Styles's work you have a great treat ahead of you. You can find many of his papers
here. His paper on the rise and fall of the spinning jenny is helpful in this context. It's possible that the prison had a jenny to prepare their own yarns.
(2) Research into the looms of this period is ongoing, but largely handlooms were one-offs and could be made by just about anybody with a good grasp of timber framing techniques - perhaps even by inmates at the prison. Beaters (called "Lathes" at this time) using flying shuttles would require a little more skill. Perhaps Ebenezer Stowell in Middlebury Vermont was able to supply the prison. He advertised on page 4 of the Vermont Mirror on August 24, 1814.
(3) The Vermont Journal, Monday, November 1, 1819, p. 2. The master weaver's wages are summarized with those of the Keeper, Assistant Keeper, and Guards, so we don't know exactly what they were being paid. From this article we also learn that 115 prisoners were employed. Not all of them would have been weaving.
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