1. World History, Unit 3, Chapter 7, Section 2
Factories and Workers

2. Main Idea
The transition from cottage industries changed how people worked in factories, what life was like in factory towns, labor conditions, and eventually, processes within factories

3. Production before Factories
Cottage Industry: workers produced goods at home
Pros: Could work your own schedule
Cons: If parents fell ill or died, or if equipment became damaged, work could not continue

4. Factories and Factory Towns
12 hour plus work day
Poor ventilation
Poor sanitation
Dangerous work conditions
They favored children because they could pay them less
Noisy
Inadequate food
Thick soot from coal burning covered the sky

5. The Factory System and Workers
3 main levels of participants: wealthy business people to invest, mid-level employees to supervise, low-level employees to run the machines
Workers were plentiful
Employers preferred hiring women and children because they could pay them less
“Luddites” burned factories and smashed machines in protest
Early 1800s British workers formed labor unions and organized strikes

6. Factories and Mass Production
Mass Production: the system of manufacturing large numbers of identical items.
Interchangeable Parts: identical machine- made parts
Assembly Line: product moves from worker to worker, as each one performs a step in the manufacturing process