Item 873: Sucking thread through the shuttle eye, Draper Company, 1911

Printed in 1974 from glass plate negative no.B873. February 15, 1911. Image depicts an unidentified man demonstrating how mill operatives would suck the thread through the eye of a shuttle by using a shuttle and a skeleton. The hand of the skeleton (the skeleton's arm is supported by the hand of the man) holds the shuttle to its mouth (the shuttle is supported by the man's other hand). Mill operatives would draw the thread through their mouths to help smooth it and make it easier to draw through the eye of the shuttle. However, sucking on cotton thread could eventually cause lung problems and did so in many mill operatives. The unidentified man wears a three-piece suit and wire-rimmed glasses. Whether he is a Draper Company executive or someone else is unknown. See also Item 871 and Item 872, in this folder, for other views of this man; Item 870 and Item 874, in this folder, for a younger man demonstrating the same thing; and Box 15, Folder 1, Item 862 and Item 863 to see a male mill operative demonstrate this operation on a mill floor. As the Draper Company manufactured textile machinery, primarily looms, and did not manufacture cloth, it is unclear what relation this photograph has to Draper unless it was to demonstrate something with their looms. 25.25 x 20.25 cm.