5. The industrial revolution

The industrial Revolution began in Great Britain in the textile industry. In the 1600s and early 1700s, cloth was made by a domestic system. Most of the work was done in the workers' cottages, where families worked together. Travelling merchants brought the workers raw wool and cotton and picked up the finished cloth to sell. The domestic system could not meet the growing demand for cotton. The first major change came in 1733 when the flying shuttle was invented. It reduced the time needed to weave cloth by half. In 1764 the spinning jenny was invented. The jenny made it possible for one person to spin many threads at the same time. When ways were found to use the power of falling water instead of hand power to run the textile machine, the factory system began. Workers still lived in their cottages, but they came to the factories to work. In time, towns grew up around the factories. In 1769, a Scottish engineer named James Watt perfected the steam engine. Steam soon replaced water as the major source of power. Now, factories of all kinds could be set up near raw materials and markets. The Industrial Revolution caused changes in society. In England, until the Middle Ages, there had been two major social classes - the nobles, who were the upper class, and the peasants, who were the lower class. Then, a middle class of rich merchants developed. Duringthe Industrial Revolution the middle class increased in numbers and grew richer. Many factory, railroad, and mine owners became s wealthy as the nobles. They began to keep company with the members of the upper class and to gain political power. They also gained the rich to vote and to be represented in Parliament.

The Industrial Revolution also created an industrial working class. Most members of this class were peasants who could no longer support themselves by farming. Since they had no property of their own to sell, they had to sell their labour in order to live. In the early years, members of the working class did not benefit from the Industrial Revolution. They worked 12 to 16 hours a day, six days a week, for low wages. Working conditions were difficult, dirty and dangerous. Many people were killed or injured by unsafe machinery. The working class did not have job security. Most children of the working class did not have time to go to school or to play. Instead, they worked in factories and mines along with the men and women. They were paid less than the adults. Because their bodies were still growing, children were sometimes crippled by the work. Another change brought by the Industrial Revolution was the growth of the cities. Before the Industrial Revolution, less than 1 percent of the people in Great Britain lived in cities. By 1900,the number had reached 75 %. Indeed, 10 % of the people in the whole country lived in London. Soon the cities became overcrowded. Houses could not be built fast enough. Sometimes, a dozen people had to live in one room. Many moved into damp basements and rooms with no windows. Epidemics of cholera, typhoid, and tuberculosis were common. The death rate among the working class was more than twice that among the middle and upper classes. Many people in the middle and upper classes were indifferent to the suffering of the workers but some of the members of the middle and upper classes believed that higher wages and better working conditions could still produce good profits. The reformers began by starting schools, orphanages, and hospitals for the poor. Improvements were slow, but gradually life became better for the working class.