An illustrated 1890 magazine article tracing the development of cotton manufacturing in New England from the 1770s to about 1890. It covers early spinning experiments in Philadelphia, Bridgewater and Beverly, Samuel Slater's Arkwright-system mill at Pawtucket, the Waltham power-loom factory, and the growth of mill towns such as Lowell, Lawrence, Fall River, New Bedford, Manchester and Lewiston. It also describes the processes from carding to spinning and weaving, gives census statistics for 1860-1880, and discusses the moral and social effects of factory labor. Every page carries engravings or photographs of people, mills, and machinery.

Part V of a serial on silk manufacture in The Manufacturer and Builder, May 1892. It covers the steps after reeling: winding skeins onto spools, cleaning, doubling, and spinning (twisting) on the flyer machine, followed by warping. It then gives a short history of spinning and power-loom inventions (Hargreaves, Crompton, Kay, Cartwright) and explains the Jacquard attachment and the silk power loom with diagrams.