This is where Marie Blanchet works. Raw cotton (cotton wool from the cotton plant) is spun into yarn and then transformed into fabric to be used in garment-making.
In 1908, the mill employed 2,500 persons and produced 35 million yards of fabric. The physical plant is rather large, comprising several buildings, some of which are four or five storeys high. The mill is situated on both sides of one of the branches of the St. Lawrence and makes use of the strong river flow there to run its turbines and produce the power it needs.
The following operations take place in the mill:
1. Carding: After the raw cotton is cleaned, it passes through a carding machine where bristle-covered cylinders separate the individual fibres and arrange them in parallel fashion. The machine then takes the fibres and forms them into ropes one inch in diameter.
2. Spinning: The light fibre ropes leave the carding room and are then drawn, twisted and transformed into yarn which is rolled onto spools.
3. Yarn Cones: The spinning frame draws and twists the cotton fibres into yarn which is then rolled onto cones. The yarn may then be sold for domestic use. The mill in Valleyfield, however, used looms to weave the yarn into fabric.
4. Weaving: Fabric is then produced on the loom by means of a shuttle that interlaces the yarn as it moves back and forth.
5. Finishing: The cotton fabric produced on the loom is not completely white and must be cleaned and bleached. At the Valleyfield mill, fabrics were not dyed; some mills, however, such as the one in Magog, did dye their fabrics.
