Industrial Revolution

Working ConditionsThe machines were exposed and dangerousChildren worked in hard to reach places-

dangerousOften lived with 6 people in one roomNot paid wellExhausted 12 hour shifts

Reforms to Factory Work Robert Owen and Titus Salt started some of the reforms Other factory workers did not like the reforms (less money) Reforms:

Factory Act 1819 Limited the hours worked by children to a maximum of 12 per day.

Factory Act 1833 Children under 9 banned from working in the textiles industry and 10-13 year olds limited to a 48 hour week.

Factory Act 1844 Maximum of 12 hours work per day for Women. Factory Act 1847 Maximum of 10 hours work per day for Women

and children. Factory Act 1850 Increased hours worked by Women and

children to 10 and a half hours a day, but not allowed to work before 6am or after 6pm.

1874 No worker allowed to work more than 56.5 hours per week.

Farm Economy Individual families produce everything they

need on their farmLuxury items are sent from EnglandWealth is measured in property

Market EconomyBased on jobs and moneyFamilies bought more things than they madeWealth is measured in money.

Main Figures of the Industrial Revolution

Samuel SlaterFrancis Cabot LowellEli Whitney

TextilesFancy word for cloth or fabricLate 1700s: England made the best AND

cheapest clothEngland used cotton-spinning machines to

make their textilesEnglish factories kept their machines secret so

no American factories could compete with them.

Samuel SlaterAmerica’s first corporate spyWorked in a cotton factory in EnglandMemorized how cotton-spinning machines were

made.Came to America (1790) and shared the secret

with American businessmen

Samuel Slater

Francis Cabot LowellSaw a power loom in EnglandAfter seeing the power loom once Lowell

understood how it worked and made his own loom in the USA.

Lowell SystemFrancis Cabot Lowell hired young women to

work his factories.He paid them less than menHe offered attractive incentives:

Boarding house near the factory Religious instruction Educational opportunities

Eli Whitney Introduced the idea of interchangeable partsBefore this time a musket was made by a

gunsmith. Each gun would be a little different so if it broke

a gunsmith would have to be make a replacement part.

Now you could fix a gun using parts of another gun etc.

Applied this idea to machines used in the industrial revolution

Eli Whitney Invented the Cotton GinTook seeds out of cotton 50 times faster than

by handMade cotton more readily available for making

textilesGreatly increased the demand for slaves

Timeline of Industrial Revolution Inventions

1733 Flying shuttle invented by John Kay - an improvement to looms that enabled weavers to weave faster.

1742 Cotton mills were first opened in England.

1764 Spinning jenny invented by James Hargreaves - the first machine to improve upon the spinning wheel.

1764 Water frame invented by Richard Arkwright - the first powered textile machine.

1769Arkwright patented the water frame.

1770Hargreaves patented the Spinning Jenny.

1773The first all-cotton textiles were produced in factories.

1785Cartwright patented the power loom. It was improved upon by William Horrocks, known for his invention of the variable speed batton in 1813.

1787Cotton goods production had increased 10 fold since 1770.

1789 Samuel Slater brought textile machinery design to the US.

1790Arkwright built the first steam powered textile factory in Nottingham, England.

1792Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin - a machine that automated the separation of cottonseed from the short-staple cotton fiber.

1804 Joseph Marie Jacquard invented the Jacquard Loom that weaved complex designs. Jacquard invented a way of automatically controlling the warp and weft threads on a silk loom by recording patterns of holes in a string of cards.

1813 William Horrocks invented the variable speed batton (for an improved power loom)

1856William Perkin invented the first synthetic dye.