MILL TALK: Cities at the Falls, with Patrick Malone, Professor Emeritus, Brown University
If you would like to attend this Mill Talk, REGISTER HERE
Space is limited.
Proof of vaccination and face masks required.
The story of power canals and waterpower at Waltham, Lowell, Lawrence, and other mill towns is one of innovative engineering and awe-inspiring construction. From above the Moody Street dam in Waltham, the Boston Manufacturing Company’s power canal ran parallel to the Charles River, allowing it to drive multiple mills in a line. Company founder Nathan Appleton first saw this concept in operation in New Lanark, Scotland, and helped bring it to the U.S. Learn how the flows of water, technology, and capital converged to power the American Industrial Revolution.
Patrick Malone is an industrial archaeologist and historian of technology who is now Professor Emeritus of American Studies and Urban Studies at Brown University. He has served as president of the Society for Industrial Archeology (SIA) and as executive director of the Slater Mill Historic Site. His publications include Waterpower in Lowell and The Texture of Industry (with co-author Robert Gordon). His primary interests are the urban built environment and industrial development. Malone has also done a great deal of work in public humanities, focusing on museum interpretation, park development, historical preservation, and the recording of engineering structures.
Much of his scholarship examines waterpower development on American rivers, but he has also examined tide mills and the use of steam engines for textile manufacturing.
This Mill Talk will also be livestreamed on our YouTube Channel
The Mill Talks at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation are free and open to the public and are made possible by the generous support of the Lowell Institute.
