A bobbin boy was a boy who worked in a textile mill in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The job of a bobbin boy was to bring bobbins to the women at the looms when they called for them, and collect the full bobbins of spun cotton or wool thread. They were also expected to fix minor problems with the machines. The average pay for a bobbin boy was about $1.00 a week (equivalent to $35 in 2022, compared to 1900), with days often beginning at 5:30 am and ending around 7:30 pm six days a week. The job was extremely dangerous, and there was always an extreme risk of death.
Notable bobbin boys include Andrew Carnegie, who worked as a bobbin boy at age 13 in 1848 and later became a great steel tycoon, Nathaniel Prentice Banks, Governor of Massachusetts and Union general, and Robert Frost, poet.
In modern times, Bobbin Boy is also the name of a fiber-tool restoration duo.
