THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN BRITAIN In the 18th and 19th centuries the Industrial Revolution spread throughout Britain. With the words industrial revolution it is meant a process which brought important changes in society. Those changes were so wide and deep that they can be considered a revolution. The period when those changes took place was especially between 1760 and 1840.

THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN BRITAIN At that time England had a series of favourable conditions for such a change: It was rich in coal and iron It had colonies all around the world which provided cotton and other cheap raw materials Rich merchants and landowners had large amounts of capital and were ready to invest money in new activities Technology improved

THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN BRITAIN Before 1698, the only power people had was that produced by their own muscles and those of animals and Britain had an agricultural economy. But in 1698 an English engineer, Thomas Savery, built a steam pump to remove water from mines and raw materials like coal and iron became more available. And that was good for industries. A series of inventions followed his discovery and contributed to revolutionize goods production in Britain. In 1733 John Kay invented the flying shuttle which strongly affected the textile industry because it permitted manufacturers to produce cotton and woollen cloth more quickly. Later in 1764 James Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny that enabled one person to spin as much thread as sixteen. A still greater impetus towards industrialization was given by the improvement made in the steam engine by James Watt in 1765 and by the great advances in transport. Many canals and roads were built in that period to make goods transport easier and cheaper and the railway was built too. But steam-powered machines were too big to be used in houses where cotton and woollen cloth were largely produced, so bigger places became necessary and factories were built.

FROM COUNTRYSIDE TO TOWN As the number of factories grew people from the countryside began to move into the towns looking for better paid work. The wages of farm workers were very low and there were less jobs on farms because of the invention and use of new machines such as threshers. Also thousands of new workers were needed to work machines in mills and foundries and the factory owners built houses for them. Cities filled to overflowing and London was particularly bad. At the start of the 19th century about 1/5 of Britain’s population lived there, but by 1851 half the population of the country had set up home in London. London, like most cities, was not prepared for this great increase in people. People crowded into already crowded houses. Rooms were rented to whole families or perhaps several families. If there was no rooms to rent, people stayed in lodging houses.

HOUSING The worker's houses were usually near to the factories so that people could walk to work. They were built really quickly and cheaply. The houses were cheap, most had between 2-4 rooms - one or two rooms downstairs, and one or two rooms upstairs. There was no running water or toilet. A whole street would have to share an outdoor pump and a couple of outside toilets. Most houses in the North of England were "back to backs" (built in double rows) with no windows at the front, no backyards and a sewer down the middle of the street.

HOUSING The houses were built crammed close together, with very narrow streets between them. Most of the houses were crowded with five or more people possibly crammed into a single room. Even the cellars were full.  Most of the new towns were dirty and unhealthy. The household rubbish was thrown out into the streets. Housing conditions like these were a perfect breeding grounds for diseases. More than 31,000 people died during an outbreak of cholera in 1832 and lots more were killed by typhus, smallpox and dysentery.

POLLUTION Chimneys, bridges and factory smoke blocked out most of the light in the towns. A layer of dirty smoke often covered the streets like a blanket. This came from the factories that used steam to power their machines. The steam was made by burning coal to heat water. Burning coal produces a lot of dirty, black smoke.

WOMEN LABOUR Many factory workers were women. That was because they were less paid than men. Women were forced to accept many hours of labour and lower wages, a third or even a sixth of a man’s wage.

CHILD LABOUR Children were employed both because their wage was very low but also because of their small size which gave them the possibility to squeeze inside machines which were still running when threads in the loom of weaving machines broke, and then they joined those threads again risking serious injury and sometimes even death during the process.

Growing up in Victorian Times Children often died before their teenage years. In 1842, a report said half of all infants died before their fifth birthday. And not all of this was from illness. In the 1860s, many parents murdered their own children before they were five because children were too expensive to bring up. If children survived they soon started working first in places called workhouses where they made ropes, nails and matchboxes, then they started working on looms, became chimney sweeps or miners. Some girls became maids. Children worked long hours and were often treated badly by the supervisors or overseers.

Growing up in Victorian Times A young child could not earn much, but even a few pence would be enough to buy food for his family. That’s why parents hated sending their children to school. Besides in 1870 school cost a penny a day, only in 1891 education became free. But not only parents hated school, children hated it too. It was because they were brutal. If you misbehaved, teachers tied a big piece of wood across your shoulders. Or you could be put in stocks (a device that locks up your hands and head). At that time classes had over 70 pupils!

IMPROVEMENTS Gradually, improvements for the poor were made. Factory workers and miners organized themselves into Trade Unions to improve their working conditions. Laws were passed to limit the working age, reduce working hours and raise salaries. Primary education was guaranteed to all children In 1848, Parliament passed laws that allowed city councils to clean up the streets. One of the first cities to become a healthier place was Birmingham. Proper sewers and drains were built. Landowners had to build houses to a set standard. Streets were paved and lighting was put up. Over time slums were knocked down and new houses built. However, these changes did not take place overnight. It took time to improve poor people’s life conditions.

THE PEAK OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN BRITAIN In 1851 there was a celebration in London of industry and manufacture called the Great Exhibition. The location for the Exhibition was the Crystal Palace, a fantastic structure made of glass and iron. There were trees growing inside it. That was the peak of the Industrial Revolution in Britain that in the meanwhile had spread to other countries such as Belgium, France and Germany, followed soon by the USA and Japan.