Steam-Powered Cotton Mill (ETW building)
| Steam-Powered Cotton Mill | |
|---|---|
| Category: | Textile Industry |
| Level: | 3 |
| Turns to build: | 6 |
| Building cost: | 6000 |
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| Requires | |
 Water-Powered Cotton Mill | |
| Technology | |
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A mill powered by steam engines can produce cheap goods of good, reliable quality on large machines.
Profits from the mills can be enormous, as the machines run day and night, for as long as the steam engines have coal and water, and there are raw materials to process. Usually there is a central engine, and power for various machines is transferred by a series of axles and belt drives. Powered machinery is dangerous, and injuries among workers are common. This is particularly true among child workers, who are small enough to crawl beneath the looms and fix problems as they occur. It is all too easy to get caught in the whirling machinery and lose a limb, or worse.
Historically, workers saw steam power as a threat to their livelihoods. “Plug riots” where workers destroyed boiler plugs to render steam engines useless were common in Britain. The Luddite movement was so threatening that machine breaking was made a capital crime, and men were executed for it. The word French term “sabotage” originally referred to workers throwing their wooden sabots (shoes) into machinery to cause stoppages. The running of mills night and day did create jobs, but it also introduced the tyranny of obeying the clock through shift work.
This building can be built when the region has sheep or cotton resources.