Industrial revolution As the number of factories grew people from the countryside began to move into the towns looking for better paid work. The wages of a farm worker were very low and there were less jobs working 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.

When the industrial revolution The Industrial Revolution started in England around 1733 with the first cotton mill. A more modern world had begun. As new inventions were being created, factories followed soon thereafter. England wanted to keep its industrialization a secret, so they prohibited anyone who had worked in a factory to leave the country. Meanwhile, Americans offered a significant reward to anyone who could build a cotton-spinning machine in the United States. Samuel Slater, who had been an apprentice in an English cotton factory, disguised himself and came to America. Once here, he reconstructed a cotton-spinning machine from memory. He then proceeded to build a factory of his own. The Industrial Revolution had arrived in the United States. The Industrial Revolution brought severe consequences to society. Factory owners, needing cheap, unskilled labor, profited greatly by using children and women to run the machines. By the age of 6, many children were already working 14 hours a day in factories! These kids had no free time to do anything else and earned low wages. Some got sick and died because of the toxic fumes, while others were severely injured and sometimes killed working at the dangerous machines in factories. Obviously, the Industrial Revolution had both good and bad sides.