GS 336: Work and Society

Lecture 09
 2: Work in Historical Perspectives

Outline/Objectives:
 Factories and Technological Change

 The Development of Factory System and Work

 Factory System and Societal Change

 THE FACTORY SYSTEM (1750-1900)…
The emergence of the factory system is linked with the
following phenomena:
 The rise of textile industry and the decline of cottage industry
(putting-out system)
 The invention and use of complex machines
 The increase of production and the rise of the market economy
 Rigid schedule (12-14 hour/day) and low wages
 Dangerous working conditions in terms of health, safety and
environment
 The emergence of Large-Scale Organizations e.g., British Navy,
Merchant Navy, Civil Service employees in 1750-1850
 The emergence of rigid power and hierarchical structure
…THE FACTORY SYSTEM (1750-1900)
 The concept of super-ordination and sub-ordination
 Social statuses and diverse class division
 Machines became larger, faster, more expensive, and
needed more power
 Concentrates production in one place [materials,
labor]
 Located near sources of power [rather than labor or
markets] e.g., rivers, and mines
 Requires a lot of capital investment [factory,
machines, etc.], more than skilled labor
• Early Factories were nice places to work;
• People cooked and lived together in employee
communities and their children went to community
schools;
• Bosses knew their employees personally.

The Mills at Lanmark

• Later Factories were bigger, harsher places;
• Bosses did not know their employees, did not care about
them and could always hire someone else.

Manchester Factory Building

 Richard Arkwright:
“Pioneer of the Factory System”
• Arkwright is considered the father of the modern
industrial factory system and his inventions were a
catalyst for the Industrial Revolution.
• He was born in Preston in 1732, the son of a tailor.
Money was not available to send him to school, but
his cousin taught him to read and write.
• He began working as an apprentice barber and then
became an entrepreneur.
• He acquired a method for dyeing hair and travelled
around the country purchasing human hair to
manufacture wigs. During this time he was often in
contact with weavers and spinners and when the
fashion for wearing wigs declined, he looked to
mechanical inventions in the field of textiles to make
his fortune.
 Richard Arkwright
• By 1767, a machine for carding cotton had been
introduced into England. With the help of a
clockmaker, who had been working on a mechanical
spinning machine, Arkwright made improvements in
spinning frame that produced a stronger yarn and
required less physical labor.
• Arkwright's constructed a horse-driven spinning mill
at Preston - the first of many. He developed mills in
which the whole process of yarn manufacture was
carried on by one machine and this was further
complemented by a system in which labor was
divided, greatly improving efficiency and increasing
profits.
• Arkwright was also the first to use James Watts'
steam engine to power textile machinery, though he
only used it to pump water to the millrace of a
waterwheel.
Transportation
Revolution
James Watt’s Steam Engine
Steam Tractor
Steam Ship (1776)
The Steam Locomotive
Richard Trevithick…

The London Steam Carriage

Richard Trevithick…
1804 Locomotive

“Catch-Me-Who-Can”
1808
An Early Steam Locomotive
Later Locomotives
The Impact of the Railroad
Crystal Palace Exhibition: 1851

Exhibitions of the new industrial utopia

 Crystal Palace:
British Ingenuity on Display
The “Haves”(Bourgeois) Life thrived on
the luxuries of the Industrial Revolution
“Upstairs”/“Downstairs” Life
The "Have-Nots": The Poor, The Over-Worked, & the Destitute
 The Luddites: 1811-1816

Attacks on the “frames” [power looms].

Ned Ludd [a mythical figure supposed to live in Sherwood Forest]
 Peterloo Massacre, 1819

British Soldiers fired

on British Workers:
“Let us die like men,
and not be sold like
slaves!”
 Homework Assignment

How did the factory system with

different occupational categories
contribute to the concept of social
classes in society?
 Thank You

Any Question