1. Industrial Revolution
The
Great Britain

2. Pre-conditions in Great Britain
What was feudal life like?
Agricultural Revolution 1600’s – 1700’s
Seed drill
Crop rotation – wheat, clover, barley, turnips
Selevtive breeding
Effects?
More money?
More food?
Survival rate goes up
Population boom
Move to?
urbanization

3. Results of the Agricultural Revolution on Quality of Life
The population of Britain goes from:
1700 – 6 million to
1900 – 38 million
The population shifts from:
80% rural to
70% urban 74 70 51
Life Expectancy 40 30
1790
1850
1900
1940
1990

4. Changes in Industry Cottage Industry – working out of your home (shop)
Examples of Cottage industry?
Textiles are the first industries to be industrialized… what are textiles?
How were textiles made initially?

5. Changes in Industry
What are these?

6. Changes in Industry Improvements come to the textile industry
ex. Spinning Jenny – allows one person to spin 8 bobbins at one time
New power sources are discovered
Then water power is harnessed to run machines
Switch from hand power to machine power

7. The Factory System Who can afford to build a factory?
What happens to the cottage industry?
How are workers treated in the factory?
Employees came to the workplace
Workers began at a certain time
(the clock becomes an important feature of life)
Workers were paid a specific wage
Workers completed tasks – they didn’t complete “items” (loss of pride)

8. Changes in Industry
Less people farming meant more people available for work in the cities.
These people became the ‘muscle’ to make the industrial revolution work.
Built machines for agriculture
Coal mines
Factory workers
Built roads
Built railroads

9. Factory Conditions

17. POWER Water power was used in many textile factories
Factories had to built beside streams
When water was scarce there was no production in the factory
Steam power was developed
James Watt refined the steam engine and made it practical to use
He measured the power of his engine by using horse power
Now the factory could be built anywhere!

18. Quality of Life for Factory Workers
Life was worse than before factories were built.
Owners wanted to make as much money as they could on the backs of their workers.
People live in slum housing, and worked in dreadful factories. Children worked in dangerous conditions. People who were hurt were fired. Low wages were paid and long hours were worked.
People who opposed the factories were called Luddites (the machine breakers) and actually attacked factories. They claimed that factories increased unemployment, created low wages, and produced poorer quality goods. They wanted things to go back to where they were before.

21. Work in the Mines... Coal crucial to the Industrial Revolution
Before 1842 there were no protection laws regarding age limits, hours or conditions of work
Teams of women employed to use windlass to lift coal and workers.
Men refused to do such work.

22. CHILDREN WORKING IN MINES
“I have been down six weeks and made 10 to 14 trips from the face to the top each day. I carry a full 56 lbs of coal in a wooden bucket. I work with sister Jesse and mother. It is dark the time we go”
(girl 6 years old)
“I have a belt around my waist, and a chain passing between my legs, and I go on my hands and feet. The road is very steep and we…hold onto anything we can…I am not as strong as I was…I have drawn til I had the skin off me…” (32 year old woman)

25. IN THE TEXTILE MILLS
Youngest children usually employed as scavengers and piecers
SCAVENGERS
picked up loose cotton from under machinery
extremely dangerous, children were expected to carry out the task while machines were still working
PIECERS
children had to lean over spinning machines to repair broken threads
might walk 20 miles per day

26. UNCOMPLAINING ACCEPTANCE
Life, work conditions brutal and degrading
Poverty, periodic unemployment, over-crowded and inadequate housing, bad work conditions, restricted opportunities
High incidence of dismemberment, disease, death
Human existence is a struggle, survival is an end in itself
Fatalistic attitude, ‘God gives and God takes away’

27. CRIPPLED

28. Who Would Help the Workers?
read the “The Rules of the Mill”
read the “ Interviews of Child Labourers”
hour days
No talking
Low pay
Dangerous work (mines, piecers, abuse)

29. Sadler Committee Report
Listen to 4 excerpts taken from Sadler’s 89 interviews he conducted. As we read these stories, put yourself in their shoes, and think about the following:
What would it be like to be a child labourer during the Industrial Revolution?
What would it be like to be the parent of one of these children?

30. Who Would Help the Workers?
Will the government step in?
Yes!
What did they do?
They made it “illegal” to be poor!
1832 – Poor Laws
Workhouse if you are poor
You can leave when you have a job on the outside… hmm?

31. The Workhouse

32. Who Would Help the Workers?
FINALLY – 1842…
The government brought in legislation to protect children and workers.
They also created social welfare programs for the poor.

33. Who Would Help the Workers?
1842 – Mine Acts
No women or boys under 10 allowed underground
The Factory Act (4 inspectors in England)
No kids under the age of 10
No kids at night
10 hr work day for women and children
2 hrs of school a day
1870 – Education Act
Public schools for all kids (to Gr 6) – paid with taxes

34. Stories of Poverty
Charles Dickens - Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, David Copperfield, etc
Beethoven – despite great success, died very poor (and deaf)
Van Gogh – sold only one painting (out of 1700 paintings) in his life ($80)
Today each Van Gogh painting STARTS at 11 million!

35. Fletcher

36. Questions… Should the government have stepped in?
Why didn’t the government step in sooner?
Is the government involved in business today? How? Explain!
Should the government be involved in the business world still or should they leave it alone?