Working hours in the factory were usually long, from dawn to dusk, six days per week. More unskilled workers were needed than ever before to work the massive machines.
Before the factory system, many products such as shoes and muskets were made by skilled craftsmen who usually custom-made an entire item. In contrast, factories used a division of labor, in which most workers were either low-skilled laborers who operated machinery, or unskilled workers who moved materials and finished goods.
Since they had fewer skills, these workers were often seen as expendable by management. They were paid low wages and worked in often dangerous conditions. Early factories were dark, poorly-lit buildings with large, unsafe machines. There were few safety guards since these cost money and there were no laws requiring them.
Young children were employed by many factory owners because they could be paid less money. They also were also small enough to crawl under machinery to tie up broken threads. It was not until child labor laws were finally passed in the late 1800's that children were protected from abuse by factory owners.
From the textile industry, the factory system spread to other industries. Large furnaces and mills replaced small local forges and blacksmiths for producing metal. Eventually, machines replaced skilled craftsmen in the building of most goods.
The impact of the creation of all these factories was to drive people from rural areas to the cities where factories were located.
Factory System
History >> Industrial Revolution The factory system was a new way of making products that began during the Industrial Revolution. The factory system used powered machinery, division of labor, unskilled workers, and a centralized workplace to mass-produce products.
Lowell Mills: An Early Factory in Massachusetts
(1850) by Sidney & Neff What was there before the factory system? Before the factory system products were made one at a time by individual workers. The work was generally performed at a small workshop or at home. As machinery became larger and more expensive, factories formed where business owners purchased the machines and hired workers to run them.
What makes up the factory system?
The factory system of the Industrial Revolution introduced new ways of making products. Products could be made cheaper, faster, and in larger volume. Some of the key characteristics of the factory system include:
- Centralized workplace - Rather than have individual workers spread out in their homes and workshops, the factory was a large central place where many workers came together to make products. Factories were necessary because the machinery was expensive, large, needed power, and was operated by many workers.
- Division of labor - The factory system introduced the division of labor. This is where different workers each have a specific task in making the product. Each worker can specialize in one small task and doesn't have to know how to make the entire product.
- Unskilled workers - Because of the division of labor, many of the workers could be "unskilled" workers. They could be taught one simple task that they would repeat over and over.
- Standardized parts - Different parts of a product were standardized. This meant they were built the same way and to the same measurements. This concept eventually led to interchangeable parts where individual parts could easily be replaced and repaired.
Changes in Society
The factory system had a large impact on society. Before the factory system, most people lived on farms in the countryside. With the formation of large factories, people began to move to the cities. Cities grew larger and sometimes became overcrowded. This movement from a rural society to an urban society created a dramatic shift in the way people lived.Interesting Facts about the Factory System
- In order to fight dangerous working conditions and long hours, workers began to form unions and strike.
- Early factories used water for power and were usually located along a river. Later factories were powered by steam and, eventually, electricity.
- Many factories during the Industrial Revolution had dormitories on site where the workers lived.
- Many factories use an "assembly line" where products move from workstation to workstation getting new parts added at each station until the final product is complete.
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Works Cited
History >> Industrial Revolution
1718 to 1721
Lombe's Mill, a silk throwing mill built by Thomas Lombe on an island in the river Derwent in Derby, England from 1718-21, was the first successful powered continuous production unit in the world, and the model for the factory concept later developed by Richard Arkwright and others in the Industrial Revolution.
The mill seems to have been the result of early industrial espionage. Silk weaving technology had evolved in Italy since the thirteenth century. The Italians had developed two machines-- a throwing machine and a doubler-- capable of winding the silk onto bobbins while putting a twist in the thread.
"They called the throwing machine, a filatoio, and the doubler, a torcitoio. There is an illustration of a circular handpowered throwing machine drawn in 1487 with 32 spindles. The first evidence of a externally powered filatoio comes from the thirteenth century, and the earliest illustration from around 1500. Filatorios and torcitoios contained parallel circular frames that revolved round each other on a central axis. The speed of the relative rotation determined the twist. Silk would only cooperate in the process if the temperature and humidity were high, in Italy the temperature was elevated by sunlight but in Derby the mill had to be heated, and the heat evenly distributed." (Wikipedia article on Lombe's Mill, accessed 09-30-2012).
About 1715 Thomas Lombe's brother John obtained employment at one of the Italian shops where the secret silk-throwing machinery was used. As the story goes, John stole into the shops at night and carefully diagrammed them by candlelight. He brought the designs back to England in 1716. In 1718 Thomas obtained British patent No. 422 for "A New Invention of Three Sorts of Engines never before made or used in Great Britaine, One to Wind the Finest Raw Silk, Another to Spin, and the Other to Twist the Finest Italian Raw Slik into Organzine in great Perfection, which was never before done in this Kingdom."
"Little of the original mill remain. It is known from written sources that it was five storeys high rectangular in plan. It was built of brick, in flemish bond, being 33.5m long by 12m wide. It was built on a series of stone arches that allowed the waters of the River Derwent to flow through. The mill was 17m high,topped by a shallow pitched roof.The throwing machines were two storeys high, and pierced the first floor. The winding machines were situated on the top three floors. All the machines were powered by Sorocolds external undershot waterwheel- one that was 7m in diameter and 2m in width. Its axle entered the mill through a navel hole at first floor level. It drove a vertical shaft which was 0.45m square. This drove a horizontal shaft or lay shaft that ran the length of the mill. The torcitoios and filatoios took their power from this shaft. The vertical shaft was extended past the second floor by an iron gudgeon to a further vertical shaft that reached the top 3 floors to drive the winding machines. The mill needed to be heated in order to process the silk and this was explained in the 1718 patent. It was reported in 1732 that Lombe used a fire engine (steam engine) to pump hot air round the mill. The stair column was 19.5m high, its layout is not known and there is no information on how bales were hoisted between the floors" (Wikipedia article on Lombe's Mill, accessed 09-30-2012).
(This entry was last revised on 05-10-2016.)
Richard Arkwright is the person credited with being the brains behind the growth of factories. After he patented his spinning frame in 1769, he created the first true factory at Cromford, near Derby.
This act was to change Great Britain. Before very long, this factory employed over 300 people. Nothing had ever been seen like this before. The domestic system only needed two to three people working in their own home. By 1789, the Cromford mill employed 800 people. With the exception of a few engineers in the factory, the bulk of the work force were essentially unskilled. They had their own job to do over a set number of hours. Whereas those in the domestic system could work their own hours and enjoyed a degree of flexibility, those in the factories were governed by a clock and factory rules.
Edmund Cartwright’s power loom ended the life style of skilled weavers. In the 1790’s, weavers were well paid. Within 30 years many had become labourers in factories as their skill had now been taken over by machines. In 1813, there were only 2,400 power looms in Britain. by 1850, there were 250,000.
Factories were run for profit. Any form of machine safety guard cost money. As a result there were no safety guards. Safety clothing was non-existant. Workers wore their normal day-to-day clothes. In this era, clothes were frequently loose and an obvious danger.
Children were employed for four simple reasons :
there were plenty of them in orphanages and they could be replaced easily if accidents did occur they were much cheaper than adults as a factory owner did not have to pay them as much they were small enough to crawl under machinery to tie up broken threads they were young enough to be bullied by ‘strappers’ – adults would not have stood for this
Some factory owners were better than others when it came to looking after their work force. Arkwright was one of these. He had some harsh factory rules (such as workers being fined for whistling at work or looking out of the window) but he also built homes for his work force, churches and expected his child workers to receive a basic amount of education. Other owners were not so charitable as they believed that the workers at their factories should be grateful for having a job and the comforts built by the likes of Arkwright did not extend elsewhere.
At the time when the Industrial Revolution was at its height, very few laws had been passed by Parliament to protect the workers. As many factory owners were Members of Parliament or knew MP’s, this was likely to be the case. Factory inspectors were easily bribed as they were so poorly paid. Also there were so few of them, that covering all of Britain’s factories would have been impossible.
Factories rarely kept any records of the ages of children and adults who worked for them. As employment in cities could be difficult to get, many people did lie about their age – and how could the owner know any better ? Under this system, children in particular suffered.