The Industrial Revolution L E S S O N 2

The Victorians are famous for the industrial revolution

Early 18th century British industries were generally small scale and relatively unsophisticated. Most textile production, for example, was centred on small workshops or in the homes of spinners, weavers and dyers: a literal ‘cottage industry’ that involved thousands of

individual manufacturers. Such small-scale production was also a feature of most other industries, with different regions specialising in different products: metal production in the Midlands, for example, and coal mining in the North-East.

Focus for todayFACTORIES

Factories

Inventions with speed and precision were built throughout the industrial revolution which led to the rise of the factories. Bigger machinery meant that the domestic system could no longer handle the demands of the manufacturing industry promoting the era of the factory.

Factories

New machines began to be invented from 1765 onwards that could spin many threads at once. These inventions were the Spinning Jenny (1765) by James Hargreaves, Richard Arkwright’s water frame (1769) and of course Samuel Crompton’s spinning mule (1779). This level of machinery couldn’t be powered from the home as they used large water wheels.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81PydkdYQws – Spinning Mulehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM6T2mb-C6M&t=10s – Spinning Jennyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-6nPEcdvhg – water frame

Factories

Factories therefore with one large water wheel could comfortably power all the equipment required and the demise of the domestic home and the rise of the factories began.

The Textile Industry

The Textile industry was the first to adopt the factory as a place of work as the production of cotton and wool could be increased significantly. For those running the factories the industrial revolution was a profitable time. Those working in the factories however had to put up with incredibly difficult working conditions. Long hours, irregular breaks and labour intensive work made the factory lifestyle difficult. Even children were used throughout the factories as workers. It was said that the rules were so strict that even going to the toilet could only happen with permission from the bosses.

Children in the factories

Children were perhaps the biggest victims of the factory boom

as they were seen as a great option to use within the workplace. Children were a source of cheap labour, they were easily replaceable if accidents occurred (Children from Orphanages in particular) and they were small enough to crawl under machines to tie up broken threads. The safeguarding of children in particular was non existent.

Children in the factories

This began to be pondered in 1820 as to whether this was fair and in 1833 a legislation was implemented known as the ‘Factory act’ which prevented children from under the age of 9 from working within the factories. A small victory perhaps but still an extremely young age for working in such challenging conditions.

Working in the factories

Although children were mostly at risk, there were still day to day risks for adults too as ultimately factories were run with profit in mind. Health and safety was non-existent and they didn’t have set rules or regulations. With the machines lacking any protective guarding it wasn’t uncommon for clothes to be caught within machines and accidents to happen. Of course this didn’t matter for the factory owners. They were running for huge profits and only interested in increasing production and maximising the money they earned.

Welfare in the factories

Richard Arkwright, one of the most well-known factory owners of the industrial revolution, was perhaps one of the most caring owners of the era. Although his day to day rules were still very much strict in nature he did build homes, churches and provide basic education to the children of families who worked within the factories.

Arkwright however was one of very few who did this. Most saw the factory as a job for their workers; one of which they should be eternally grateful for. Conditions would remain the same for these workers because they had a job and as far as the factory owners saw it, they were there to work and earn money regardless of the conditions. How else would they provide for their families?

Inventions

There were many great inventions within the rise of the

factories and the speed of these new spinning machines meant that weavers were struggling to keep up. In 1787 the power loom was created and by 1829 there were 49,000 of

these throughout factories all over Britain with one worker operating 4 of these at one time! It was a mind-blowing operation.

Positives

The rise of the factories came with both positives and

negatives ultimately to the people of Britain. Economy wise the country got a huge boost and the factories brought people from across the country together, working side by

side. Furthermore, the pressure for finding food and keeping your family from going hungry passed as factory work provided enough financially to get by.

Negatives

Life in the factories was miserable. Long hours working in extremely poor working conditions and with an injury risk everyday was normal. Life expectancy was low due to the fumes, poor conditions and long hours the workers had to injure – people were expected to live to as young as 25-35 years old. Often there would be one break and no water breaks. Factory workers could walk the equivalent of 10 miles a day. They would often work from 5am in the morning until 9pm at night with a 40 minute break at noon for lunch. They would only get Sundays off. The factories weren’t great places to work however through the years we would see this continue to get better and better bringing us to the high standards most factories operate today.

Some useful videos to watch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PmHBqtLFss – what happened to children in the mills. This one is a bit gruesome as it talks about how some children died working in the mills.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKcSXqUrMGU – this one is really good! Explains about all the different jobs that children might have done in the factories