Lowell

Lowell, a manufacturing town in the north of Massachusetts, U.S., 25 miles N.W. of Boston. It is situated on the Merrimac, which is here joined by the Concord, and forms a centre in which five railways converge. Lowell is the chief seat of the cotton manufacture in the United States; there are also important woollen and linen factories, powder-mills, paper-mills, works for the manufacture of machines, etc. These factories are mostly worked by water-power derived from the Merrimac, which here has a fall of over 30 feet, but steam power is also largely employed. The mill-hands are remarkably prosperous and intelligent, and there are numerous literary clubs and similar institutions.