A textile mill transitions from water power to electricity
Electric power "tore up our playhouse," Eula Durham recalls in this excerpt. For many years the mill ran on water power, so when the water level became low, the mill workers left their posts to wait for it to rise, losing wages but earning some time for chores or fun.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Eula and Vernon Durham, November 29, 1978. Interview H-0064. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- JIM LELOUDIS:
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But when the water would get low they'd shut the mill down for a while
and wait till the water level built back up in the race?
- EULA DURHAM:
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Oh, they'd shut down for three or four hours till that water builds back
up again.
- VERNON DURHAM:
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Sometimes you'd set down and wait the rest of the day. Had to wait till
the next day, till the dam fills up, the pond would fill up.
- JIM LELOUDIS:
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Did you get any pay for that?
- EULA DURHAM:
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No, you didn't get nothing.
- JIM LELOUDIS:
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But you were still happy?
- EULA DURHAM:
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Yeah, still happy to see that old thing going down. One would go up there
and say, "Well, it's fell about that much." Maybe
about fifteen to twenty minutes, a hour later somebody else go, say,
"Well, it's come down a little bit." Well, you could
tell by them guides. When they started going like that, you knowed then
it was time to get.
- JIM LELOUDIS:
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You were young then. How did the older employees feel? Were they as happy
to get off?
- EULA DURHAM:
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They was just as happy as we was?
- JIM LELOUDIS:
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Even though they weren't going to get paid?
- EULA DURHAM:
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Yeah. Well, most of them would go home and do their washing, and ironing,
or cooked, or something like that. They were just as happy. Well, a lot
of times a whole lot of them old ones would go with us, down the river
to cook them stews and things. Miss Ruby Farrell and Miss Lessie Snipes
and Miss McDuffie used to go with us a lot when
we'd go down there cooking stews and things. Cause they were expecting
you to go back to work in an hour or two, they'd go with us down
there.
- VERNON DURHAM:
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That fixed it when they got power over there, though.
- EULA DURHAM:
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Yeah, that ruined our playhouse when they got power. That tore up our
playhouse.
- JIM LELOUDIS:
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How reliable was that system of pulleys and belts?
- VERNON DURHAM:
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Well, the turbine shaft, about that large, come up from the wheel, up in
the water house. It had a crown with teeth on it on top of that shaft.
It run to another gear with teeth on it. The shaft went from that wheel
in the alley. They had ropes on the big wheel in there, great large
wheel and this smaller pulley that made it run faster, get more power.
That's the way that one run. That other wheel generated power.
- EULA DURHAM:
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Sometimes a stick or something would go through there and get in the
wheel and knock the teeth out.
- VERNON DURHAM:
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Tear the teeth all to pieces.
- EULA DURHAM:
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Tear enough of them out and then they'd have to stop off, you know.
- VERNON DURHAM:
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One time down there they thought somebody cut that rope. One of the ropes
down there. They never did find out exactly who done it, but they know
somebody cut it.
- JIM LELOUDIS:
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Were there a lot of breakdowns?
- VERNON DURHAM:
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Not too many.