Machines and factories
- Between about 1750 and 1900, Britain changed from a mainly farming country to an industrial one.
- New machines made cloth faster: the spinning jenny (James Hargreaves), the water frame (Richard Arkwright) and the spinning mule (Samuel Crompton). Factories grew up around them.
- James Watt improved the steam engine in the 1760s and 1770s, so factories could be built anywhere, powered by coal.
Railways and towns
- The Stockton and Darlington Railway opened in 1825. George Stephenson's Rocket won the Rainhill Trials in 1829, and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened in 1830.
- Railways moved goods and people quickly, brought fresh food to cities, made seaside trips possible and led to a standard time across the country.
- Towns grew fast as people moved from the countryside for factory work. Cheap back-to-back houses were overcrowded, with little light, air or clean water.
Working conditions
- Factory workers, including children, worked 12 to 16 hours a day with dangerous machines, fines and beatings.
- The Factory Act of 1833 banned children under 9 from working in textile mills and limited the hours of older children.
- Reformers such as Lord Shaftesbury campaigned for better conditions; Robert Owen ran a model mill at New Lanark.
Public health
- Cholera spread in dirty water. In 1854, John Snow showed that a cholera outbreak in London came from a water pump on Broad Street.
- The "Great Stink" of 1858 (sewage in the River Thames) led Joseph Bazalgette to build London's sewers.
- Public Health Acts (1848 and 1875) made towns provide clean water and sewers.
Key terms
- Industrial Revolution
- The change to machines and factories from about 1750 to 1900.
- Factory
- A building where goods are made by machines.
- Steam engine
- A machine powered by steam from burning coal.
- Urbanisation
- The growth of towns and cities.
- Back-to-back houses
- Cheap houses joined at the back and sides, with little light or air.
- Child labour
- Children working, often in dangerous conditions.
- Factory Act
- A law that improved conditions in factories.
- Cholera
- A deadly disease spread in dirty water.
- Public health
- The health of the whole population.