Industrial Revolution Britain and America 18th‐ 19th centuries What was the Industrial Revolution? Text develops topic in ‘broad’ sense:
‐ looks at changes in technology and industry
‐ also suggests it embraced social, political, intellectual, gender ‘revolutions’
‐ important: Industrial Revolution not an event with consequences but a Process Video
“Living During the Industrial Revolution” (Add. Rdg; YouTube: 18min) Technology and Revolution
Both Text and Video place technological innovation in machinery as ‘heart’ of change
• Driving force of ‘revolution’ – machines replace people • People move to where they can use machines – factories, towns • Rural life marginalized, urban life central to economy • Environment irreversibly affected Technology and Revolution
Ending of Craft Production: (examples given) ‐‐ Pottery and Textiles
• Both produced small scale, at home or in small villages • Men, women, boys, girls involved in various aspects of production • Embedded in family and community life Technology and Revolution
Pottery (Text):
• Growing taste for drinking tea, cocoa, coffee led to greater demand for cups (porcelain) • Craft production: each ‘unit’ made individually – slow, expensive
• [note connection to world economy: tea, cocoa, coffee all grown in other parts of globe –e.g. Africa, Asia] Technology and Revolution
Josiah Wedgwood devised way to reduce costs of production, raise productivity –keys to revolution: • by dividing tasks up between ‘specialized’ workers • Succeeded in goal but created labourers with fewer skills (therefore limited options) • repetitive work over many hours had deleterious physical and psychological impact
[Add. Rdg “Industrial Worker”, first excerpt 1833 –ref. to textile workers but point is same; see drawing Text 555] Technology and Revolution
Textiles (Text and video):
• Usually seen as ‘the’ industry reflecting the revolution • ‘cottage industry’: involved production of thread (spinning) and of cloth (weaving) • Took place everywhere –rural based • Spinners, weavers (men, women) sold directly to ‘businessmen’ – did not leave community Technology and Revolution
First changes to spinning: • ‘spinning jenny’ replaced spinning wheel (video) ‐ Produced thread from wool much faster ‐ quality lacking: still needed linen thread (made from flax by hand) to give strength • ‘water frame’ added water power: provided consistent strong thread, linen no longer needed • ‘spinning mule’: drew from both, could spin cotton, wool, flax production: both fine (jenny) and strong (water frame) Spinning Jenny Water Frame Spinning Mule Technology and Revolution
Impact: • By end 18th century ‘success’ of mechanization of textile industry caused Cottage Industry to collapse • Families affected: women, children no longer able to contribute to income through piece work; men often sole wage earner • Widows, those without men to support them – impoverished • New machines located in specific areas – others marginalized [Add. Rdg. “Observations…1794”] Technology and Revolution
Textile ‘revolution’ (cont): • Hand‐operated weaving looms replace by water driven mechanized looms • (video) ‘Flying shuttle’: increased speed of passing horizontal thread in weaving process • Decreased number workers needed dramatically • Led to reaction of ‘Luddites’: destroying machines as if that could put an end to change occurring Flying Shuttle
Letter ‘l’ is Flying Shuttle “Luddite” Reaction Technology and Revolution
Large‐scale impact late 1700s –early 1800s: • Machines had to be ‘housed’ together: factories • Factories required moving water to drive machines: built along rivers • Factories required workers who had to move to where the factories were located: industrial towns, cities; ‘working class’ shaped by schedule • Workers required housing close to factories: residences, ‘worker slums’ (built by company) “Turning Point in Human society” (video) Factories Factory Work ‘Factory Towns’ Technology and Revolution
Factories and Industrial Towns: • Increasingly drew workers of both sexes, all ages, from rural areas where agriculture lagging and cottage/piece work destroyed
• 1794 ‘observer’ of industrial workers noted: ‐ ‘moral’ impact of the factory: ‘impropriety’ of women (young and older) working outside protection of family ‐ ‘poverty’ root cause: parents did not like children working in these environments but …no choice Technology and Revolution
• (1794 observer, cont.):
‐ ‘domesticity’ (essence of family): ‘who will teach children to be wives and mothers? How will those women know how to raise next generation?’
‐ (Add. Rdg. ‘Observations’)
‐ (see also Drawing/caption, Text 567) Technology and Revolution
• 1833 Observer Textile Workers:
Notes longer‐term physical impact ‐ Refers to men, women, boys, girls, as a most ‘Ugly Set’: poor stature, pallid complexion, malnourishment, hair thinning/loss…. Etc. ‐ In particular: ‘factory labour is… singularly unfitted for children’ – medical issues will affect their ability to be healthy adults and produce healthy next generation (Add. Rdg. “The Industrial Worker”, 1st excerpt) Technology and Revolution
Next major innovation: Steam Power • (Text and video) speak to development steam‐driven power, work of James Watt • Became viable alternative when industries build near coal sources: new cities not ‘tied’ to rivers (see Map, Text 553) • Many uses beyond industry: notably, transport (ship, rail) –each in own way generating new communication revolution (see painting/photo Text 560,1) • Facilitated industry by improving distribution • (text) notes ‘transformation’ most notable in US (newly industrializing, opens up West –below) Technology and Revolution
Impact: • Combination of uses created new, mobile society and facilitated overseas commerce and travel – feeding into Imperialism and Colonialism (more in weeks to come) • Also fundamentally changed physical environment, working conditions: ‐ coal mining destroyed land, mines dangerous, unhealthy ‐ air pollution characterized towns/cities (see painting in Text, p.565) Technology and Revolution Friedrich Engels “Industrial Manchester” (1844)* • Major cotton producing centre; Engels described it in his larger work on the conditions of the ‘modern’ working class: [my description…] is far from black enough to convey a true impression of the filth, ruin, and uninhabitableness, the defiance of all considerations of cleanliness, ventilation, and health which characterise the construction of this single district, containing at least twenty to thirty thousand inhabitants. And such a district exists in the heart of the second city of England, the first manufacturing city of the world. . .
*(Add. Rdg. But also quoted in Text, p. 549) Technology and Revolution Friedrich Engels “Industrial Manchester” (1844 – cont):
If any one wishes to see in how little space a human being can move, how little air ‐ and such air! ‐ he can breathe, how little of civilisation he may share and yet live, it is only necessary to travel hither. True, this is the Old Town, and the people of Manchester emphasise the fact whenever any one mentions to them the frightful condition of this Hell upon Earth; but what does that prove? Everything which here arouses horror and indignation is of recent origin, belongs to the industrial epoch. Manchester (c. 1865) Technology and Revolution
Move to America: • Text ‘mentions’ knowledge of machines spread to centres in Europe (i.e.France and Belgium); shift to steam limited industrial development to areas with accessible coal (see Map, Text 563) • Also includes America: (video) develops this case study in particular, emphasizing ‘espionage’ involved in initial mills [Text says ‘those willing to ignore patent rights. . .] • Unlike Text, video speaks to differences in industrial experience – differences that become very important 19th and 20th centuries Technology and Revolution
1780s: ‘Slater’s Mill’ (Rhode Isle) ‐ worked in British spinning factory ‐ brought knowledge of machines to America ‐ replicated factory: first one Technology and Revolution
1814: details of Power Loom similarly reached America ‐ factories proliferated in north: banking, investment, shipping ‐ railroads moved raw materials, finished goods, workers, agricultural settlers
United States soon major textile manufacturer US Textile Manufacturing 19th C. Technology and Revolution
“Mill Girls”: • (video) notes difference in initial labour force: in Britain, whole families moved off land, into industrial towns – men, women and especially children were new ‘working class’ (Add. Rdgs: “observations…”; “Industrial Worker) • In America: early workers were single women driven off (poor) farms for want of work, opportunities • Led to creation ‘Residences’: concerns for ‘morality’ ; unique sector urban society • Less concern for pay: poor, less than men Technology and Revolution
“Lowell Mill Girls” (Mass., 1832) (Add. Rdg):
• First‐had account woman who worked in mill from age 10 to 24, 14hr day –this was ‘average’ • Came from New England but also Canada • Note (and compare with British reading “observations…”) issue of ‘propriety’ and reputation: in spite of residences, rules –factory work seen as ‘lowest’ • Wages often used to pay for education of brothers, sons: poor but better than domestic work, teaching (few alternatives) “Lowell Mill Girls” Technology and Revolution
Most Important American Contribution to Industry: Cotton Ginny
• Developed in America (Ely Whitney, 1793) • US grew cotton (south) but seeds had to be removed from pods before raw cotton could be spun: intensive work performed by same slaves as grew the cotton • Machine replicated labour of 50 people/day • 1840: over 1200 cotton mills built Cotton Gin (diagram) Southern Cotton Production Technology and Revolution
Exponential increase in demand for raw cotton: • Expanded cotton‐growing in South, into new states in the west • Increased use of slaves: became major political issue– show slavery be allowed to spread? • (video) ‘Cotton’ and ‘Slavery’ rapidly became backbone southern US economy • Irony that so‐called ‘modernization’, rise of ‘working class’ (however one regards its condition) in Europe ultimately re‐enforced the institution of slavery in 19th C. America Cotton and Slavery Cotton and Slavery Cotton and Slavery (‘gin’ in use) Cotton Spinners, 19th C. Alabama Technology and Revolution
Summary: The industrial revolution was a ‘process’ that emerged from convergence several factors (Text, 551‐4) not all ‘local’ (to Britain or even Europe).
Technological change reflected economic need, intellectual development, access to resources; it ‘built upon itself’ (e.g. the revolution of water power ultimately allowed for the adaptation of steam to industry) Technology and Revolution
Summary (cont): Technology both shaped and reflected changes in human lifestyle: it was people’s adaption to and adoption of new technologies that allowed for the ‘revolution’.
The Industrial Revolution as experienced in both Britain/Europe and America fundamentally altered the geographical as well as the ‘human’ environment. For good or bad –it was irreversible Technology and Revolution
Summary (cont): Although we did not look here at related changes, the ‘human environment’ also involved new ideas about how government and the economy should work –and about how involved government should be in that economy and the lives of its ‘workers’. (Add. Rdg “The Industrial Worker – 1833 ‘Legislation debates’; Text, “Adam Smith”, 5560
Both Text and Video leave us with important observation: industry, urbanization, innovation created new ‘Middle Classes’ who became agents of changes in and of themselves (as we will see).