noon
The main building was lofty between floor and ceiling , letting in all the light and air possible , and the floors were of hard-wood and clean . As the greatest curse of the cotton lint was dust , atomizers for spraying the air were invented by Captain Tom . These were attached to the machinery and could be turned off or on as the operators desired . It was most comfortable now to work in the mill , and tired and hot employees , instead of lounging through their noon , bathed in the cool spring water which came down from the mountain side and flowed into the baths , not only in the mill , but through every cottage owned by the mill . And as the bath is the greatest civilizer known to man , a marked difference was soon noticed in every inhabitant of Cottontown . They were cleanly , and cleanliness begets a long list of other virtues , beginning with cleaner and better clothes and ending with ambition and godliness . But it was the old Bishop 's policy for the wage-earners , which put the ambition there -- a system never heard of before in the ranks of capital , and first tested and proved in his Model Cotton Mill .