What do these men do?

[RonnieG]

Hi

While searching in the 1881 census for my Rhodes ancestor who was a butcher I came across these two occupations that are new to me.

"Self acting minder" and "Maker up".

I would guess that the first man has to look after some sort of automatic machine but I don't have a clue about the second.

What do you think?

RonnieG

[FRAN]

Hi

a Self Acting Minder was someone who watched & minded a "self Acting Mule" the name of a multi thread spinning machine

A Maker Up could have been either
1) made up garments to order
2) chemist
3) agent for paraffin sales

If you type in your search engine Hall Geneology website you will find a full list of old occupations

regards

Fran

[stanmapstone]

A self-actor minder (spinning), aka mule spinner, was a spinner who minded a pair of spinning mules which were arranged facing each other, that is spinning machines with an intermittent action which simultaneously drew and twisted cotton, wool, etc. in to yarn or thread and wound it into cops.
A self-actor minder (doubling) aka a twiner minder, or twiner spinner, operated machinery which controlled the working of a twining frame, and supervised the twiner piecer, and twiner spooler.
Stan

[stanmapstone]

There are 38 different catagories of maker-up in the "Dictionary of Occupational Terms"

Stan

[RonnieG]

Thanks Fran and Stan,

It's interesting to me that someone would describe their job in such a way.

They were not "yarn makers" or somesuch term but rather someone who minded a machine. This would of course have been a skill in itself and a responsible job but the romance of the job has been lost.

RonnieG