Question: Berkshire Fine Spinning Associates was founded in 1889 and by 1917 the company contained over 260,000 machines used to spin cotton and other fibers whose garriage carried up to how many spindles?

full_context: Document 1: James Hargreaves: James Hargreaves (c. 1720 – 22 April 1778) was a weaver, carpenter and inventor in Lancashire, England. He was one of three inventors responsible for mechanising spinning. Hargreaves is credited with inventing the spinning jenny in 1764, Richard Arkwright patented the water frame in 1769, and Samuel Crompton combined the two creating the spinning mule a little later.
Document 2: Cotton gin: A cotton gin is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, allowing for much greater productivity than manual cotton separation. The fibers are then processed into various cotton goods such as linens, while any undamaged cotton is used largely for textiles like clothing. Seeds may be used to grow more cotton or to produce cottonseed oil.
Document 3: Spindle (textiles): A spindle is a straight spike usually made from wood used for spinning, twisting fibers such as wool, flax, hemp, cotton into yarn. It is often weighted at either the bottom, middle, or top, commonly by a disc or spherical object called a whorl, but many spindles exist that are not weighted by a whorl, but by thickening their shape towards the bottom, such as Orenburg and French spindles. The spindle may also have a hook, groove, or notch at the top to guide the yarn. Spindles come in many different sizes and weights depending on the thickness of the yarn one desires to spin.
Document 4: Spinning (textiles): Spinning is the twisting together of drawn out strands of fibers to form yarn, and is a major part of the textile industry. The yarn is then used to create textiles, which are then used to make clothing and many other products. There are several industrial processes available to spin yarn, as well as hand spinning techniques where the fiber is drawn out, twisted, and wound onto a bobbin.
Document 5: Erwin Mill: Erwin Mill was a textile mill in Durham, North Carolina that operated between the years of 1893 and 1986. After seeing the success of other cotton mills in the Northeast and locally in Durham, entrepreneur Benjamin N. Duke incorporated the mill in 1892 and recruited William H. Erwin to manage the enterprise. The mill’s success in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was the result of Erwin’s and his successors’ exceptional management tactics, even when the factory hit obstacles such as the Great Depression and the unionization of its workers. The mill grew quickly in the late 19th century and early 20th century, became one of North Carolina’s largest cotton mills. It originally produced muslin pouches for tobacco, but the mill would later expand its production to other fabrics, becoming one of the largest producers of denim in the world during the early 1900s. Workers at the mill enjoyed some of the best working conditions and highest wages in textile factories throughout the southern United States. Mill employees would later sign union-friendly labor agreements that were radical to the southern textile industry in the early to mid 20th century. The establishment of homes, businesses and recreation areas in the mill village was a significant factor in the development of the West Durham, especially the Ninth Street business district and the Old West Durham Neighborhood. Erwin Mill No. 1 is on the National Register of Historic Places and the mill village of West Durham is a National Historic District. An apartment complex, office building and shopping center of the same name that are built on the original site also commemorate the factory.
Document 6: Edward G. Chace: Edward Gould Chase (1882–1935) was an American businessman and an entrepreneur in textile manufacturing. Chase led the organization of the Fort Dummer Mills in Brattleboro, Vermont, a cotton mill, and he served as the founding manager. He also served as a vice president and the treasurer of Berkshire Fine Spinning Associates, a predecessor of Berkshire Hathaway.
Document 7: Spinning mule: The spinning mule is a machine used to spin cotton and other fibres. They were used extensively from the late 18th to the early 20th century in the mills of Lancashire and elsewhere. Mules were worked in pairs by a minder, with the help of two boys: the little piecer and the big or side piecer. The carriage carried up to 1,320 spindles and could be 150 ft long, and would move forward and back a distance of 5 ft four times a minute.
Document 8: Berkshire Fine Spinning Associates: Berkshire Fine Spinning Associates was founded in 1889 as Berkshire Cotton Manufacturing Company in Adams, Massachusetts. The first mill built by the company was Berkshire Mill No. 1 in Adams. By 1917 the company was capitalized at $2,500,000 and contained over 260,000 ring and mule spindles and 6,500 looms for the production of cotton textiles, making it one of the largest cotton textile companies in the world. In 1929, Berkshire merged with the Valley Falls Company of Rhode Island, and became known as Berkshire Fine Spinning Associates. Its head was Malcolm Greene Chace of the influential Chace family of New England. Malcolm's descendants (his son Malcolm Jr, and grandson Malcolm III) would run the company until 2007.
Document 9: Helmshore Mills Textile Museum: Helmshore Mills are two mills built on the River Ogden in Helmshore, Lancashire. Higher Mill was built in 1796 for William Turner, and Whitaker's Mill was built in the 1820s by the Turner family. In their early life they alternated between working wool and cotton. By 1920 they were working shoddy as condensor mule mills; and equipment has been preserved and is still used. The mills closed in 1967 and they were taken over by the Higher Mills Trust, whose trustees included Chris Aspin, the historian and author and Dr Rhodes Boyson who maintained it as a museum. The mills are certainly the most original and best preserved examples of both Cotton Spinning and Woollen Fulling left in the country which are still operational.
Document 10: Nashua Manufacturing Company: The Nashua Manufacturing Company was a cotton textile manufacturer in Nashua, New Hampshire that operated from 1823 to 1945. It was one of several textile companies that helped create what became the city of Nashua, creating roads, churches and its own bank as part of the process. Like most New England textile mills it struggled during the Depression. It shut after World War II, when much of the industry had moved South for cheaper labor and land.
Document 11: Crompton Loom Works: The Crompton Loom Works is an historic industrial complex of the Crompton Corporation at 132-142 Green Street in Worcester, Massachusetts. The factory manufactured looms for textile factories. With its original portion dating to 1860, the complex is one of the oldest surviving industrial sites in the city. The facility was established by George Crompton, whose father William had invented the first power loom for weaving fancy fabrics. The younger Crompton's business would become of the most significant employers in the city, and his innovative looms would revolutionize the textile industry. Crompton and his successors would operate the loom manufacturing works at Green Street until 1915.
Document 12: Samuel Crompton: Samuel Crompton (3 December 1753 – 26 June 1827) was an English inventor and pioneer of the spinning industry. Building on the work of James Hargreaves and Richard Arkwright he invented the spinning mule, a machine that revolutionised the industry worldwide.
Document 13: Flying shuttle: The flying shuttle was one of the key developments in the industrialization of weaving during the early Industrial Revolution. It allowed a single weaver to weave much wider fabrics, and it could be mechanized, allowing for automatic machine looms. The flying shuttle was patented by John Kay (1704–c. 1779) in 1733. This greatly speeds up the previous hand process, and it halves the labour force. Where a broad-cloth loom previously required a weaver on each side, it can now be worked by a single operator. Until this point the textile industry has required four spinners to service one weaver. Kay's innovation, in wide use by the 1750s, greatly increases this disparity.
Document 14: American Yarn: American Yarn, formerly Burlington Industries, is an American company. It is the second largest warp drawn textile manufacturer, in the United States and is the third largest in the world. Founded initially as a part of Burlington Industries (International Textile Group), AY Manufacturing Services is a privately held company operating out of the Pioneer Plant - birthplace of Burlington Industries - in Burlington, North Carolina and is one of the area's main employers. The company records over 100 million USD in sales and has over 300 employees. AY Manufacturing Services is the main textile supplier for the Ford Motor Company and one of the largest textile suppliers for BMW and General Motors (GM).
Document 15: Foster Spinning Co.: Foster Spinning Co. is an historic textile mill on Cove Street in Fall River, Massachusetts. The mill was built in 1916 from red brick and had a capacity of 13,312 spindles when built. It was the last new textile mill built in Fall River. Its buildings are not particularly architecturally distinctive, representing typical early-20th century mill construction, but the complex is relatively complete, including the original main mill, boiler house, smokestack, and wooden storage building. In 1920 the plant was enlarged, increasing its capacity to 25,000 spindles. The Foster Spinning Company operated on the premises until 1962.
ground_truth: 1,320