Industrial Revolution

Changes brought about when power-driven

machinery in factories replaced work done in

homes

Traditional Village Farming

• Unfenced private/public lands• most Europeans lived in small country

villages and were farmers before the Industrial Revolution

• wealthy landowners owned/controlled most of land

• small families b/c of high infant death rate• Low life expectancy (40) - harsh life

Domestic System

• 1700’s demand for wool increased, so merchants hired workers to produce woolens in their homes

• depended on network of workers (men, women & children)

• This allowed people to have an income outside of farming

• Extra money was spent on the goods artisans made

Beginning of Change

• Enclosure Movement: allowed landowners to take over and fence off private and public lands

• Ag. Revolution helps G.B. lead the Industrial Revolution

• Successful farming businesses provided landowners with money to invest in growing industries

SO…THE SO…THE INDUSTRIAL INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION REVOLUTION BEGINS IN GREAT BEGINS IN GREAT BRITAINBRITAIN

Key Elements G.B. Possessed to lead

Industrial Revolution

• Capital - $ to invest in labor, machines & raw materials

• Natural Resources - harbors, rivers, iron, coal• Large Labor Supply - improvements in

farming increased food supply and population grew; people who didn’t farm came to cities

• Entrepreneurs - risk takers who started new businesses and gave capital (mid & upper class)

Factory System• Mechanization - machines are

developed to rapidly spin and weave (textiles) - 1st water powered, then steam powered

• Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin helped meet the demand for textiles

• Factory system: method of production that brought workers & machines together under control of managers

Social Results • Pollution

• Child labor

• Unsupervised children

• Urbanization - growth of cities

• Women working in factories

• Increase in urban poverty

pollution

Lives Change and the Conditions of Factories

• People who worked in factories now had more money, but it was a hard life working in factories

• Because factories grew so quickly there were housing shortages, not enough police to protect, garbage college or sanitation

• Hazardous conditions of factories:– Poor pay

– Poor hours

– Poor working conditions

Child Labor &

Urban Poverty

The Spread of the Industrial Rev

• France, Germany and the US began to industrialize too

• Mass production, interchangeable parts, division of labor, scientific management, assembly line all aided in growth of industry

Social Effects Lead to Change

• We now have two classes:– Middle class (factory owners, merchants)– Working class (factory workers)

• Issue of Child Labor was a hot topic

•Poor factory conditions led to the creation of labor unions

•These unions worked to promote change worldwide in the 1800s

Governments eventually begin to make laws to protect workers

Some Inventors

• Watt - steam engine

• Bessemer - steel from iron

• Whitney - cotton gin; interchangeable parts

• Ford - assembly line methods - Model T

• Morse - telegraph

• Marconi - wireless telegraph

• Bell - telephone

• Edison - phonograph; incandescent lightbulbs

• Diesel - oil-burning internal combustion engine

• Wright Bros - airplane

IMAGES OF CHILD LABOR

When the industrial revolution first came to Britain and the U.S., there

was a high demand for labor. Families quickly migrated from the

rural farm areas to the newly industrialized cities to find work.

Once they got there, things did not look as bright as they did.

To survive in even the lowest level of poverty, families had to have every able member of the family go to work. This led to the high rise in child labor in factories. Children were not treated well,

overworked, and underpaid for a long time before anyone tried to

change things for them.

Wages and Hours:Children as young as six years old

during the industrial revolution worked hard hours for little or no pay. Children sometimes worked up to 19

hours a day, with a one-hour total break. This was a little bit on the

extreme, but it was not common for children who worked in factories to

work 12-14 hours with the same minimal breaks.

Not only were these children subject to long hours, but also, they were in horrible conditions. Large, heavy, and dangerous equipment was very common for children to be using or working near. Many accidents occurred injuring or killing children on the job. Not

until the Factory Act of 1833 did things improve.

Treatment: The treatment of children in factories was often cruel and unusual, and the

children's safety was generally neglected. The youngest children, who

were not old enough to work the machines, were commonly sent to be

assistants to textile workers. The people who the children served would beat them, verbally abuse them, and

take no consideration for their safety.

Both boys and girls who worked in factories were subject to beatings and

other harsh forms of pain infliction. One common punishment for being late or

not working up to quota would be to be "weighted." An overseer would tie a

heavy weight to worker's neck, and have them walk up and down the factory aisles so the other children could see

them and "take example." This could last up to an hour.

Weighting could lead to serious injuries in the back and/or neck.

Punishments such as this would often be dispensed under stringent rules.

Boys were sometimes dragged naked from their beds and sent to the

factories only holding their clothes, to be put on there. This was to make sure the boys would not be late, even by a

few minutes.

In the time of the Industrial Revolution, the children of the families who moved to the crowded cities had their work situation go from bad to worse. In rural areas, children would have worked long hours with hard work for their families farms, but in the cities, the children worked longer hours with harder work for large companies.

Harsher treatment, fewer rewards and more sickness and injury came from poorly

regulated child labor.

http://asms.k12.ar.us/classes/humanities/amstud/97-98/childlab/HAND.JPE