Industrial Revolution Through Their Eyes

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INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION Vivian Zhang

Transcript of Industrial Revolution Through Their Eyes

Page 1: Industrial Revolution Through Their Eyes

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Vivian Zhang

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1781 – Invention of Steam EngineToday something absolutely terrifying and nerve wrecking occurred. When life for us miners was finally improving, an ear piercing explosion, followed by several cries from animals and humans, occurred. Did our lives even improve after the invention of the steam engine?

 

Everyday, my mother would start doing the chores around our tiny and cold house, located in a town called Merthyr Tydfil in the valley of Wales, after we left. My dad, little brother Idris, and I would wake up an hour before her. We would leave before the sun rose and head off to the other side of the mountain where a pit boss would hopeful allow us in to start mining the precious anthracite that is only located in Wales. I remember the times when I was sick and how every other day at 6 at night or in the morning, I would see my dad come in the door camouflaged with the night and the only thing visible on him would be the fresh blue scars. The moment he saw us, he would light up and seem to glow brighter than the furnace on Sundays. My dad and I never liked to talk about our 24 hours in the three-foot mines. Idris was too little to understand or remember. I would constantly have nightmares about the screams and rumblings I hear everyday from explosions in nearby pits. The dead bodies scattered on the pool of human and animal waste. The stench, the nibbling of the rats and the biting of the creepy crawlies crawling up your bruised and beaten body, and the water that would flood the mines and prevent us from working and earning precious money. And as we all know, money is the difference between life and death.

 

 

 

 

Minors that worked with my dad

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But then, something finally changed.  I remembered how my father would talk with great excitement about the invention of the steam engine in 1781 invented by James Watt. His invention was not only used to easily and efficiently pump out the water from the mines, but also allowed major transportation systems in England to grow by helping to quicken the transportation of goods. This invention of the steam engine started the high demand for coal because people realized that the steam engine was a more efficient and reliable way of transporting coal.  Every time I finished listening to his amazing stories about the steam engine, I would also get very excited and dream of the day where I wouldn’t have to spend time with my family, whom I care so much about, like it was going to be the last. The steam engine changed our lives for the better.

First Steam Engine by James Watt

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1805 - Blanaevon Iron Works

In 1805 Uncle Gwallter, from my dad’s side died an extremely excruciating death in the Blanaevon Iron Works located in South Wales. Even though I never met him, since I wasn’t even born at the time, I was still able to imagine the kind of life he was living through. A different life from ours, but we were all able to understand and relate to it. We are still very furious about the incident and at the money pigs that lived in mansions with a heater and has three meals a day, everyday.

 

In the same year, the first ironworks started to operate and producing cheap and low quality iron by using limestone, iron stone, and coal. This was very good news for my dad, brother, and I because we were finally going to use stronger and longer-lasting tools down in the pit. However, we had to work harder because the demand for coal was now greater than ever. Nevertheless, it was good news for the richer folk who were now able to live in sturdier buildings made of iron. Unfortunately, those who were working in the ironworks were less fortunate. Working above ground in the ironworks was just as dangerous as working down in the mines. There were multiple and different risks for each. Uncle Gwallter unfortunately suffered and died because of those risks.

 

Old Pictures of Uncle Gwallter when he was a farmer

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Limestone and ironstone were heated using coal power in blast furnaces at extremely dangerous temperatures. Thus was one of the hazards, high temperatures. Uncle Gwallter’s face was melted off when iron, the temperature of molten volcanic rock, spat into his face. The melted iron flowed through channels where they were blocked by an iron or stone boulder, also known as a bun. As the molten iron pile grew larger, Uncle Gwallter, and some other men, would use an axe and start chipping away the boulder so the iron would keep on flowing into chambers that separated like a branch called pig iron. The danger of hacking away at the bun was the possibility of the melted white iron spurting at your face. That was exactly how Uncle Gwallter died. Even though Uncle Gwallter and many others were killed by the shearing hot and silver devil, the work in the ironworks was still not done. Finally, workers had to rake away the melted iron to cool it down.

Based on this tragic event, I will always be thankful for my still beating heart and the iron tools that I use everyday knowing that someone sacrificed their lives, to give us all the iron.

The Blanaevon Iron Works, where Uncle Gwallter died

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1842 –Mines ActThank you Queen Victoria. Thank you for my education and for my happy ten-year childhood. The Mines and Collieries Act spared me 10 years from working in the mines.

 

I wasn’t born at the age, but my father would tell me the stories of the Mines Act everyday when we headed to the pithead. It’s my most favorite story, because I am grateful for it every single day of my life. I can only imagine a life where children as young as five or six having to work in the pit of hell. These children had to work in the dangerous conditions as trappers, opening and closing ventilation doors down in the mines. This was their job, suffocating underground filled with methane, dust, rats, human and animal feces, hazardous rocks that could cut through their not fully developed bones, and boys and girls wearing only trousers and working bare breasted, making girls unfit for marriage and mothers. Sometimes they would fall asleep in the pitch black and would get run over by the carts. If they survived those experiences, they would then become a hurrier. The job of a hurrier is to push horse loads of coal like an animal.

 

Children working in mines as a hurrier and trapper

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What finally made the public aware of these conditions was death. I would always ask each time to father why only death always acted like the icy water splashing the face of a sleepy person. He would always reply with a sigh and say who knows why. In 1838, a stream overflowed into a ventilation drift after a violent thunderstorm causing the death of 26 young children between the ages of 8 and 12.

 

Finally someone became aware of what these boys and girls had to go through. Working like rats, digging away at coal underground in the pitch dark, no child should have gone through that experience. After the death of 26 young children who still had their whole life ahead of them, Queen Victoria ordered an inquiry. Commissioners visited these mines to gather information of the conditions that all of these poor children had to work in and published it to the public. I bet that those miner owners must’ve been very embarrassed after seeing so many shocked and disgusted reactions from the Victorian society.

 

The act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed on 1842. Till this day not one single child under the age of 10 will ever, ever work in the hellish mines down in the pit. Thank you Queen Victoria, thank you. Thanks to Queen Victoria, I had

a happy and healthy childhood

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1876 – Pendyrus Coal Mine OpenedIn 1876 father and mother, being pregnant with me, moved to a new valley called Ronndha located in Tylertown. They hoped for a better life, a fresh start, and a good future for their future children. They were attracted to this place in particular because their urban relatives had just built a new mine called Pendyrus Coal Mine because of the high demand of coal from the empire due to the need of iron for the ships. A new mine means a place that doesn’t have hundreds of rats and creepy crawlies, suffocating pollution, or coal dust everywhere…. at least not yet anyway.

 

My father, being an optimistic guy, would always say how great it was at first. However, my mother, being the pessimist, would always shake her head and point at the window with an expression that said “mhm”. They had just had a baby boy and girl, their house walls weren’t black, the sky was blue, the mine that my dad worked at, pit 8, wasn’t covered in human and animal waste, and they rested easily knowing we didn’t have to work in pit 8 at age 5. Here’s where my mother would pitch in and tell me what happened only a month later.

 

Our new home Ronndha

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Their one-month-old baby girl died, and I was their only child. They realized that no matter where they went, the high infant mortality rate would never change because of the conditions that we were living in. The more people moved in trying to find a job in the new mines, the more steaming coal was dug out, and the more money the Tyler family made. My baby sister had died of cholera, the walls were no longer bright brown, the sky was not blue, the mines were covered in feces, and they no longer rested easily knowing that I had to work underground for two 12 hour shifts a day in that environment in less than 10 years. People were dying in the mines again and explosions occurred every other day. Thankfully, Alfred Tyler gave each of us a Davy Safety Lamp that was used to detect high levels of methane. Whenever the blue flame reached a certain height, the levels of methane would be too high and so everyone had to escape as quickly as they can. Thanks to this lamp, I grew up knowing who my dad was. Personally, I think my mom is wrong. She could point to Alfred Tyler, the mines, the window, or the sky, but she can’t point at this family. We are all happy together, and I am glad to see my breathing father, my hard working mother, and my rosy cheeked little brother who was born 12 years later.

My dad sitting in the middle having lunch in Pit #7

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1896 Monday 28th January – Pendyrus Mine Disaster 5:30 AM

Did our lives improve after the invention of the steam engine? Yes it did, I have a healthy little brother, mother is still alive, but my father… My father died of black lung at the age of 55. I was devastated. He was my hero and I looked up to him for all of my life. Now he is gone.

 

6 years have passed and I am still mourning over the death of my father. My younger brother is now 8 years old and is almost eligible to work in the mines. Since my mom is too old to work in the mines, I am now the supporter of the family. I work hard, and I suffer everyday, but it’s worth it. My shift at the mines just started approximately 4 hours ago, based on how much my Davy lamp has burned. I am covered in dust, I have blue marks all over my hands, my muscles are all sore, and I stench of vomit and feces. To worsen my condition, I haven’t been feeling very well lately. I can’t breath well, I talk like I have been running for 5 hours, and whenever I cough, black dust comes out of my mouth. I don’t know what is wrong with me. I just started having this problem yesterday. My shift is almost over though. In just two hours I would switch places with my buddy Afel and go back home. However, I must hurry because I haven’t been collecting a lot of coal today. I have only filled one cart and time is running out. Then, as if from emerging from hell itself, the bit boss kicks me out and doesn’t even give me any money. I can no longer work for today and it is only approximately 5:20.

 

My buddy Afel in front of the pit horse

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This is my life, my painful and sad life. I hate the pits and what they make me do. I hated what they made my father do, and his resulting death. I hate the loud bang of clappers as they locked me in hell for the day. I hate working my every muscle just to be exploited at the end of the day. As my anger and frustration grows bigger and harder to control, the ground starts to shake and birds start to flutter out of their hidden nests. In the distance, I can see a cloud of smoke with red and orange flares in the background. The strong push of the wind carries the sound of screams and cries from man and animal. I rush back towards the mines, ignoring the pain in my muscles, fearing the most.

 

Smoke and ash comes out of pithead #7. That’s the pit I work in! Realizing that I could have died in this mine, today, not even 10 minutes ago at 5:30, I fall to the ground and start to cry. I am no longer angry or frustrated, I now understand to respect the way I live, appreciate what I have. However, I am also confused to why this was my fate. Why must I, and only I, live while all of the 57 people I work, with must die? Spare me of this guilt and confusion! I know now to respect and appreciate my life, spare me!

Pit heads #7 and 8 before disaster struck

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ConclusionThere were many consequences that occurred after the Industrial revolution that still affects us today. However, some effects didn’t last that long because it was improved or didn’t work at all. For example, the only way to collect the coal was to make people and animals dig the coal in terrible conditions underground for hours. Now, life in the pit improved and became more sanitary and a lot less laborious thanks to the many drills and machines. However, there were some good consequences that still affect us today. Such as, the Davy Safety Lamp that miners still use today. Of course, people modernized it a bit; however, the main concepts and functions of the safety lamp is still the same.

 

Many people argue that the industrial revolution is still happening today. However, I am talking about the major transition between an agricultural life to an urban life. During that time, a lot of things stayed the same, and a lot didn’t. When the demand for coal was booming, children as young as 5 would work with the adults in the terrible conditions of the mines; however, thanks to Queen Victoria, that didn’t last long. The Mines Act banned pit bosses and pit owners to allow children under the ages of 10 to work in the mines. The reason why child labor in the mines didn’t last long was because of the disgusted and shocked reactions from the Victorians who knew that child labor is a terrible way of getting something done. Which leads to my next point. The steam engine lasted a very long time, and is still used today, because it is a reliable piece of machine that will never stop as long as we keep feeding it coal. The steam engine was used throughout the industrial revolution to transport coal and other supplies, and also used to pump out the water in the mines. Today, we modified it to work longer and better; however, the concept and functions of the steam engine is still basically the same.

 

Thanks to the industrial revolution, the whole way human beings work changed and urbanized. In the best, we relied on the weather in order to grow our crops. We relied on the tired and unreliable animals and humans to transport those crops. Family would have to work together just to make one pair of shoes that we can so easily purchase in a nearby shopping mall. The invention of the steam engine, invented by James Watt, made pushed that start of change. The uses of coal for all sorts of purposes are still very important today. We use coal to generate electricity, production of steel and cement. Even though the purposes of coal has changed during and after the industrial revolution, the coal itself, is still a majorly important factor in the modern day life.

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Citations Steam engine: "James Watt Steam Engine." Some Interesting Facts. N.p., n.d.

Web. <http://someinterestingfacts.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/james-watts-steam-engine.jpg>.

Child Labor: "Child Labor in Mines." A Web of English History. Dr Marjorie Bloy, n.d. Web. <http://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/factmine/childmin.htm>.

Queen Victoria: "Queen Victoria." Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. http://someinterestingfacts.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/james-watts-steam-engine.jpg

Pit head #7 and 8: "Rhonnda Valleys." Blogs. N.p., n.d. Web.

<http://blogs.isb.bj.edu.cn/nikitas/files/2012/05/Rhondda-Valleys-Tylorstown-Pendyrus-Colliery-Pits-6-and-7.jpg>

The rest of the pictures are collected by Mr. Fidler in his collect folder

Some were gathered from:

http://www.rhonddaheritagepark.com/

"Rhonnda Valleys." Rhondda Heritage Park. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.rhonddaheritagepark.com/>.