inglese 14.09.

2022
➔ The major changes happened in four areas agriculture, manufacturing,
transportation, urbanisation:
- Late 1600s new ideas and machines were being experimented on
farms.
- Enclosure system (more practical to grow crops in large enclosed fields
(General Enclosure Act of 1801)
- Due to these changes, machinery was more widely-used, farms were
more productive
- Many people had to leave the countryside and go to the city to look for
work
- This large, available workforce was a key factor in the growth in
production during the Industrial Revolution
➔ Other key factors contributed to Britain’s role as the birthplace of the
Industrial Revolution: Deposits of coal and iron •Political stability •Leading
colonial power
- the leading industries were textile ad metallurgy
- the extensive network of navigable rivers and canals as well as the
numerous coal mines were fundamental to these industries
➔ England domestic and overseas commerce developed thanks to its colonies
and its rich commercial fleet and it had good communication routes
➔ the availability of capital from landlords (who became richer and richer
thanks to enclosures) and merchants (especially those involved in colonial
trade and the putting-out system) helped finance the industrialization of the
country
the industrial revolution was a period of age of great change
➔ Machinery was developed rapidly, leading to changes in the way that
manufacturing functioned.
➔ There was a shift from a predominantly agricultural society to one in which
industry and urban areas dominated.
➔ Towns and cities grew quickly around the mills, factories and mines that
developed. This brought many challenges as rapidly constructed housing was
often inadequate
➔ Whilst conditions were often extremely hard for workers, the Industrial age
was one in which trade prospered and the major nations developed rapidly.
inventors
➔ Inventors came up with the ideas that sparked the Industrial Revolution. They
tested ideas and prototypes and came up with methods and machines. An
invention could transform an industry.
The Spinning Jenny (James Hargreaves in 1770)
➔ The device reduced the amount of work needed to produce cloth, with a
worker able to work eight or more spools at once. Hargreaves developed this
machine to the extent that it could spin 120 threads at any one time.
factories
➔ Large purpose-built factories were a new idea, eg Arkwright's Mill at
Cromford, full of machines.

The Steam Engine

➔ The first steam powered devices were pumps, not only to pump water from
mines but also to blow air into furnaces, and for pumping drinking water into
towns.
➔ James Watt’s development of the steam engine led to a large number of
further developments.
➔ The steam engine is best associated with the invention of trains but was also
used to power machinery in factories, to power lifts in mines and for many
other purposes.
the luddites
➔ The Luddites named themsleves after Ned Ludd who smashed a machine in
anger in 1779.
➔ The movement protested against the new machines that were being
introduced during this period which caused many people to loose their jobs.
There were fights between Luddites and governement soldiers. Men were
employed to guard factories and in 1812 machine-breaking became a crime
punishable by death

-> The Black Country is an area of the West Midlands in England. During the
Industrial Revolution it became one of the most industrialised part of Britain. The
term was first used during the 19th century because of the smoke and pollution
coming from the thousands of iron working foundries and forges and also because of
the abundance of coal in the region
Women and Children during the Industrial Revolution
➔ maids for wealthier families, governesses for rich children
➔ less fortunate forced to work in factories shocking conditions during the day
and then home households domestic needs
➔ demand for children: rapid increase in birth rates :impact upon the physical
strength of the mothers. (not uncommon for families to have more than 10
children)
➔ Parents were quite willing to let children work in mills and factories as it
provided the family with a higher income.
➔ Children were not at school education in the early 19th century was not
compulsory.
➔ Children ideal employees. cheap, not educated enough to argue or complain
small enough to fit between tight fitting machinery.
 - Nowadays lots of children in western countries have Saturday jobs or part
time work after school.
- These jobs are carefully controlled and the government has made laws saying
how long children can work for. It regulates the types of job they can and
cannot do and what the minimum age for working is.
- There was no restriction on the age of workers, nor on the number of hours
that they could work. This led to children as young as 8 or 9 being required to
work 12 or more hours a day.

Working condition
➔ Industries such as the cotton trade hard to endure:
- the workplace had to be very hot, steam engines contributing further
- Machinery was not always fenced off
- Children small enough to fit between tightly packed machinery.
➔ great deal of danger and mortality (death rates) were quite high in factories.
the impact of the hours worked. (12 hours or more a day,)
➔ Exhaustion naturally leads to the worker becoming sluggish (slow), which
again makes the workplace more dangerous.