Search - Mill Times on DVD

Mill Times is another excellent special hosted by David Maca

James Garritson | Escondido, California USA | 04/13/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"David Macaulay hosts another romp through history in his PBS special called Mill Times. Like Roman City, Pyramid, Cathedral, and Castle, Macaulay uses animation and video to show how people interacted with the buildings and machinery of past ages. Macaulay presents many of his specials through the eyes of people such as leaders, workers, and politicians. This makes these specials a perfect avenue of understanding the social sciences. Viewers will learn how wool, yarn, fabric, rivers, factories, and steam power shaped mill times. Footage of restored working mills help explain how past people crafted textiles. It is interesting to learn how mills came from England to America and impacted the people of the modern times.Macaulay presents vivid, factual, and concise information about the history of mills that will benefit people of any age. This special truly coveys how mills have shaped where and how people live today. I plan to show this DVD when teaching American industrialization and the rise of cities.

These are some questions that a viewer can easily answer as he or she views this DVD:

1. What was the most common material that people in New England once used to make clothing? wool
2. A loom is used to create fabric or cloth.
3. What was the energy source that once powered early mills? water
4. What was the name of the fictional mill that Josiah Greshan and Shaddrack built? Huntington Mill
5. An early mill could spin the same amount of material as how many people? 50 people
6. How did mill owners access river energy? Owners built dams
7. In what year did Samuel Slater build the first American mill? 1789
8. The factory system began employing hundreds of workers.
9. In what city of Massachusetts did Lowell build his famous textile mill? Lowell
10. What did Lowell do to attract farm girls to work in his factories? Lowell offered good paying jobs and ensured that girls would not drink alcohol and would go to church. He also housed the girls in boarding houses and fed them very well.
11. What day of the week did Lowell girls get off? Sunday
12. What did some factory workers begin doing when unsafe working conditions, low wages, and long hours became unbearable? They formed unions or went on strike.
13. What name did Slater give to the mill he built in 1806? Slatersville
14. What was the new source of energy that made it possible to run a machine anytime and anyplace? Steam
15. Why did many New England mills begin moving south? Steam replaced the necessity of river power, cotton was close by, and labor was cheaper.

Mill Times is an excellent DVD special that will give people of all ages new insight in the development of the textile industry and how it impacts the modern world."

An excellant resourse

Andrew Dangel | 08/24/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have always enjoyed David Macaulay's work. As a child I was captivated by "Castle" and later grew to appreciate "Pyrimid" and "Cathedral". I currently teach 8th grade US history and "Mill Life" has become a central part of my lessons on the industrial revolution. The film, with Macaulay's unique blend of animation and on-the-spot dicussion, helps show the technological, and social issues involved with 18th and 19th century textile mills. This is a must for teachers who focus on this time period and highly recommmended for anyone who wants to be entertained and learn something at the same time."

Something of a letdown

Caraculiambro | La Mancha and environs | 06/07/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Five minutes into "Mill Times" I was blown away, and ready to buy the entire set of David Macaulay's productions sight unseen. (As of my writing there is also "Pyramid," Castle," "Cathedral," and "Roman City.")

Then I finished it.

It's not that it's poorly done, no. It is informative, and information is what I was looking for. I bought it chiefly because I was looking for a video about the origins of Industrial Revolution and, more specifically, what the heck was a mill and what did they do there?

Well, I certainly got that answered. The first five or ten minutes about the process of turning wool into cloth was extremely useful, and helped answer several questions that had been lingering in my mind, chiefly owing to reading so much 17th- and 18th-century literature.

But I was surprised to see that large chunks of this film -- even most of it -- were animated. I don't mean illustrative computer animation of buildings and machines, but an old-fashioned animated story complete with characters and a plot. I wasn't expecting this.

The animation was, I admit, well done, not boring, and managed to breathe life into the abandoned mills you see about New England, but it was also jarring and not entirely relevant.

I was expecting more of a straightforward, live-action documentary about the history of mills and the details of their operation. There was some of that, sure; but the bulk of this production turned out to be almost an animated soap opera focusing on the romantic and financial problems of fictional personages."

Excellent supplement to teaching Industrial Revolution

Ken Hoin | Fairfield, CT, USA | 03/17/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I used this video in my 9th grade World History class and although the animated sections are somewhat juvenile, the information is historically sound and illuminating. It appears to be the only viable educational video on the Industrial Revolution out there. I highly recommend it."