Spinning is the process of twisting and thinning raw cotton or wool, making thread. Before the Industrial Revolution of the 1800s, spinning and weaving were a hand operation. During the 1800s, large machines replaced hand labor. Spinning mills hourly could produce hundreds of yards of cloth, but workers -- many of them women and children -- tended the machines. Kids were employed because the machine parts were small, and only small hands could reach them. No safety or health laws existed, so the work was harsh, brutal and dangerous.
Modern spinning mills are far different from their primitive counterparts. In many countries, including the United States, safety, health and child labor laws exist, making the work less dangerous. Modern mills are highly efficient factories, with automated machinery that can produce 40 meters of yarn per second.
The capacity of modern mills far exceeds the mills of the 1800s. One mill in Saiham, Bangladesh, can produce 7 million square yards of cloth per year. This converts to 19,178 square yards of cloth per day. Another spinning mill in Saiham can thin 12 metric tons per day. This converts to 26,455.47 pounds per day.
Modern spinning mills are large factories near main roads or railways, so the cloth can be quickly shipped. Spinning mills are divided into sections. The receiving dock takes in the raw material, which goes into a spinning area, where raw cotton or other materials are converted into thread or yarn. Those products go to weaving machines to make cloth. The finished product ships from the shipping docks. The engineering organization APITCO stated a mill should have about 2 and 1/2 acres of land to build on.