What changes did the industrial revolution bring to factory workers

The Industrial Revolution brought an explosion of development. There were new jobs, (particularly in the cities), new goods, and increased trade. However, it also brought new problems to Europe. Further expansion of the population and mass migration caused explosive growth of cities. The maps to the right illustrate the concentration of population into the cities of England that occurred over 200 years beginning in 1700 as shown in these maps of population density in 1701 and 1911. (Link to more on the Industrial Revolution)

Poor workers were often housed in cramped, grossly inadequate quarters. Working conditions were difficult and exposed employees to many risks and dangers, including cramped work areas with poor ventilation, trauma from machinery, toxic exposures to heavy metals, dust, and solvents. Consequently, progress brought a whole new set of health problems that were widespread in Europe and in America.

Click on the "Photo Album" below to see a brief summary of living conditions in England during the 1800s.

Turn the pages by clicking on the right or left side of each page to view some public health problems that intensified as a result of the Industrial Revolutilon.

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Factory System

History >> Industrial Revolution The factory system was a new way of making products that began during the Industrial Revolution. The factory system used powered machinery, division of labor, unskilled workers, and a centralized workplace to mass-produce products.

Lowell Mills: An Early Factory in Massachusetts
(1850) by Sidney & Neff

What was there before the factory system? Before the factory system products were made one at a time by individual workers. The work was generally performed at a small workshop or at home. As machinery became larger and more expensive, factories formed where business owners purchased the machines and hired workers to run them.

What makes up the factory system?

The factory system of the Industrial Revolution introduced new ways of making products. Products could be made cheaper, faster, and in larger volume. Some of the key characteristics of the factory system include:

Centralized workplace - Rather than have individual workers spread out in their homes and workshops, the factory was a large central place where many workers came together to make products. Factories were necessary because the machinery was expensive, large, needed power, and was operated by many workers.
Division of labor - The factory system introduced the division of labor. This is where different workers each have a specific task in making the product. Each worker can specialize in one small task and doesn't have to know how to make the entire product.
Unskilled workers - Because of the division of labor, many of the workers could be "unskilled" workers. They could be taught one simple task that they would repeat over and over.
Standardized parts - Different parts of a product were standardized. This meant they were built the same way and to the same measurements. This concept eventually led to interchangeable parts where individual parts could easily be replaced and repaired.

Woman and Children Workers During the Industrial Revolution, women and children became an important part of the workforce. At first, this was because they would work for low pay compared to men. Often the working conditions were poor and dangerous. Eventually laws were passed to outlaw child labor.

Changes in Society

The factory system had a large impact on society. Before the factory system, most people lived on farms in the countryside. With the formation of large factories, people began to move to the cities. Cities grew larger and sometimes became overcrowded. This movement from a rural society to an urban society created a dramatic shift in the way people lived.

Interesting Facts about the Factory System

In order to fight dangerous working conditions and long hours, workers began to form unions and strike.
Early factories used water for power and were usually located along a river. Later factories were powered by steam and, eventually, electricity.
Many factories during the Industrial Revolution had dormitories on site where the workers lived.
Many factories use an "assembly line" where products move from workstation to workstation getting new parts added at each station until the final product is complete.

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The Industrial Revolution increased the overall amount of wealth and distributed it more widely than had been the case in earlier centuries, helping to enlarge the middle class. However, the replacement of the domestic system of industrial production, in which independent craftspersons worked in or near their homes, with the factory system and mass production consigned large numbers of people, including women and children, to long hours of tedious and often dangerous work at subsistence wages. Their miserable conditions gave rise to the trade union movement in the mid-19th century.

Learn more about trade unions.

Important inventors of the Industrial Revolution included James Watt, who greatly improved the steam engine; Richard Trevithick and George Stephenson, who pioneered the steam locomotive; Robert Fulton, who designed the first commercially successful paddle steamer; Michael Faraday, who demonstrated the first electric generator and electric motor; Joseph Wilson Swan and Thomas Alva Edison, who each independently invented the light bulb; Samuel Morse, who designed a system of electric telegraphy and invented Morse Code; Alexander Graham Bell, who is credited with inventing the telephone; and Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz, who constructed the first motorcycle and motorcar, respectively, powered by high-speed internal-combustion engines of their own design.

Read more about the history of technology.

Industrial Revolution, in modern history, the process of change from an agrarian and handicraft economy to one dominated by industry and machine manufacturing. These technological changes introduced novel ways of working and living and fundamentally transformed society. This process began in Britain in the 18th century and from there spread to other parts of the world. Although used earlier by French writers, the term Industrial Revolution was first popularized by the English economic historian Arnold Toynbee (1852–83) to describe Britain’s economic development from 1760 to 1840. Since Toynbee’s time the term has been more broadly applied as a process of economic transformation than as a period of time in a particular setting. This explains why some areas, such as China and India, did not begin their first industrial revolutions until the 20th century, while others, such as the United States and western Europe, began undergoing “second” industrial revolutions by the late 19th century.

A brief treatment of the Industrial Revolution follows. For full treatment of the Industrial Revolution as it occurred in Europe, see Europe, history of: The Industrial Revolution.

The main features involved in the Industrial Revolution were technological, socioeconomic, and cultural. The technological changes included the following: (1) the use of new basic materials, chiefly iron and steel, (2) the use of new energy sources, including both fuels and motive power, such as coal, the steam engine, electricity, petroleum, and the internal-combustion engine, (3) the invention of new machines, such as the spinning jenny and the power loom that permitted increased production with a smaller expenditure of human energy, (4) a new organization of work known as the factory system, which entailed increased division of labour and specialization of function, (5) important developments in transportation and communication, including the steam locomotive, steamship, automobile, airplane, telegraph, and radio, and (6) the increasing application of science to industry. These technological changes made possible a tremendously increased use of natural resources and the mass production of manufactured goods.

There were also many new developments in nonindustrial spheres, including the following: (1) agricultural improvements that made possible the provision of food for a larger nonagricultural population, (2) economic changes that resulted in a wider distribution of wealth, the decline of land as a source of wealth in the face of rising industrial production, and increased international trade, (3) political changes reflecting the shift in economic power, as well as new state policies corresponding to the needs of an industrialized society, (4) sweeping social changes, including the growth of cities, the development of working-class movements, and the emergence of new patterns of authority, and (5) cultural transformations of a broad order. Workers acquired new and distinctive skills, and their relation to their tasks shifted; instead of being craftsmen working with hand tools, they became machine operators, subject to factory discipline. Finally, there was a psychological change: confidence in the ability to use resources and to master nature was heightened.