Getting A Handle On It

In the late 19th and early 20th century, as the availability of workers for labour-intensive farming increased, the planting of wheat and other grains became more prevalent. When the season for reaping came around, agricultural workers packed wheat, maize (corn), and other grains into jute sacks, usually imported from India. Handling the bags, which weighed […]

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Battle of the Machines

Most people if asked to name an old sewing machine would automatically name Singer. Yet it was the Willcox and Gibbs chainstitch machine, such as this one, that dominated the market until the late nineteenth century. These very elegant machines, advertised as the Silent Automatic, were cheap to buy and run. The lack of a […]

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