On our next day in Bergen we were taken on a tour of both a Yarn factory and a factory that produced all sorts of cloth/material/t-shirts and underwear. Up to 1989 the material this factory made was very high quality as a result ended up going out of business. At the moment the Yarn factory, which was fascinating for reasons outlined below, is still making pure Norwegian wool yarn. The other factory is now a museum.
Let’s start with pure Norwegian wool yarn. This won’t be complete, but I’ll try to be accurate with some of my “facts”.
This factory, Hillesvag, was established in 1898. It is still producing yarn, still owned and operated by the same family and (incredibly) still using machines build in the 19th century. This is mainly because the buildings are also the same buildings and the newer machinery would not fit in the buildings. Regardless, these machines were built in the US and I guess they were built to last.
It was the machines that amazed me, that they could be used for over 100 years. Here are some data plates.
And here’s the result of all that yarn.. knitting is being done on this cruise.
The fabric museum was also fascinating. They demonstrated each of the machines.
