An early photograph showing a worker at a Jute factory in Dundee, Scotland putting sacking cloth through a cropping machine. Throughout the late 1800s, more than half of Dundee’s workforce worked in the textile sector, (mainly jute). Jute was cheap and hard wearing & was ideal for sacks, bags, sandbags, packing materials & even cart covers (like those used by wild west pioneers). During most of the time, a majority of females worked in the industry earning a wage men couldn't equal, Consequently men stayed at home as 'house-husbands' and were known locally as kettle bilers (kettle boilers).

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Size: 4724px × 3189px
Photo credit: © Colin Waters / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 1800s, 1900s, bags, bilers, boilers, cloth, cropping, cutting, dundee, early, employees, factory, female, fibre, fibres, gender, historic, house, house-husbands, husbands, industry, jute, juteopolis, kettle, late, lib, machine, machinery, material, packing, photograph, reversal, role, sack, sackcloth, sacks, sand, sand-bags, scotland, textile, textiles, womans, womens, work, workforce, works