'Scavengers' were employed in 18th and 19th century in cotton mills, predominantly in the UK and the United States, to clean and recoup the area underneath a spinning mule. The cotton wastage that gathered on the floor was seen as too valuable for the owners to leave and one of the simplest solutions was to employ young children to work under the machinery.

Legislation introduced in 1819 tried to reduce working hours and improve conditions but

there were still deaths recorded well beyond the middle of the 19th century.

Source: Wikipedia.org