Textile Industry and Development of Factories During the Industrial Revolution:

As poet William Blake described: “dark Satanic mills”

Textiles Before the Revolution• Workers would sit at a spinning wheel working at their own pace

and their own time. • They were well paid because they needed to attract a lot of them to

make enough for the population.

The domestic system meant that spinning and weaving was farmed out at home…

Domestic System• In the 18th Century the production of textiles was the

most important industry in Britain. • Most of the work was carried out in the home and was

often combined with farming. • There were three main stages to making cloth: carding,

spinning and weaving. • Most cloth was made from either wool or cotton, but

other materials such as silk and flax were also used. • The woven cloth was sold to merchants called clothiers• They came with trains of pack-horses. • Cloth was made into clothes for people to wear • A large amount of cloth was exported.

Domestic System cont’d.• Before factories all manufacturing of products like textiles

was done at home and on a small scale.• Sometimes the jobs were split up between cottages

– For example: One cottage would shear the wool from the sheep, the second cottage would make the yarn from the wool, and the third cottage would make sweaters from the yarn.

• If a worker did not work in his own home he would work in a small workshop

• Workers worked at their own speed at, or near, their own home

• Children were better treated • Workers were allowed to rest as

needed

• Raw materials delivered• Work done to completion• Merchant takes product to

market• Workers controlled

schedules, quality• Family life revolved around

business

Work in the Home

Production before Factories

• Destruction of equipment

• Time to learn skills• Physical strength

required• Factory owners took

advantage of drawbacks

Problems for Cottage Industries

As you can imagine, this production capacity was limited.

Weaknesses of the Domestic System

• Production was very slow and did not produce enough.

• A better and faster system of production was needed

• Time was lost as materials were taken from cottage to cottage

• Cottages could not take advantage of water as a power source

• Needed to meet the demands of a growing population

There were several inventions that occurred one after the other. All were considered innovative--

Skilled labor or weavers and spinners was all replaced by machine—machines that

produced far better quality goods.

Technological Changes and New Forms of Industrial Organization

• Cotton Industry– Water frame, Crompton’s mule– Edmund Cartwright’s power looms, 1787

• The Steam engine– Coal– James Watt (1736-1819)

• The Iron Industry– Puddling, using coke to burn away impurities

• A Revolution in Transportation: Railroad• Richard Trevithick’s locomotive• George Stephenson’s Rocket

• The Industrial Factory– Factory laborers– Time-work discipline

Mechanization

• During the first half of the 19th century, the European manufacturing process shifted from small-scale production by hand at home to large-scale production by machine in a factory setting.

At the Expense of Workers

• The shift meant high quality products at competitive prices, but often at the expense of workers. For example, the raw wool and cotton that fed the British textile mills came from:– Lands converted from farming to

sheep raising, leaving farm workers without jobs

– The southern plantations of the United States, which were dependent upon slave labor

Where employees worked• Major change from cottage industry• Had to leave home to work• Hardships for some workers

Life in factory towns• Towns grew up around factories• Towns, factories rose near coal mines• Sanitation poor in many factory towns

Working in a factory• Dangerous work for all• Long workdays• Poor factory conditions common

Factories and Factory Towns

James Hargreaves: Spinning Jenny• Hargreaves was one of many weavers who

owned a spinning wheel and loom. • One day his daughter Jenny accidentally knocked

over the family spinning wheel and the spindle continued to revolve.

• It gave Hargreaves the idea that a whole line of spindles could be worked off one wheel.

• In 1764 Hargreaves built what became known as the Spinning-Jenny.

• The machine used 8 spindles onto which the thread was spun from a corresponding set of rovings.

• By turning a single wheel, the operator could now spin 8 threads at once.

James Hargreaves

James Hargreaves: Spinning Jenny• Hargreaves produced the machine for

family use • Hargreaves did not apply for a patent for

his Spinning Jenny until 1770 • Others copied his ideas without paying

him any money.• Others began to make improvements to

the Spinning-Jenny and the number of threads was increased from 8 to 80.

• By the time James Hargreaves died in 1778, over 20,000 Spinning-Jenny machines were being used in Britain

Spinning Jenny

John Kay: Flying Shuttle• John Kay was born near Bury in Lancashire in about

1704. • He was living in Bury in 1730 when he patented a

machine for twisting and cording mohair and worsted.

• For centuries handloom weaving involved the shuttle bearing the yarn being passed slowly and awkwardly through the loom by hand.

• In 1733 Kay patented his flying shuttle that dramatically increased the speed of this process.

• Kay placed shuttle boxes at each side of the loom connected by a long board, known as a shuttle race.

• By means of cords attached to a picking peg, a single weaver, using one hand, could cause the shuttle to be knocked back and forth across the loom from one shuttle box to the other.

The Flying shuttle 1733

John Kay: Flying Shuttle• Kay's flying shuttle could produce much

wider cloth at faster speeds than before. • Some woolen manufacturers used Kay's

flying shuttle but were reluctant to pay him royalties.

• The speed of weaving was doubled; and a single weaver could make cloths of any width, whereas previously two men had sat together at a loom to make broad cloth.

• By 1800 it was estimated that there were 250,000 handlooms in Britain.

• The cost of going to court to obtain the money owed to him nearly ruined Kay.

Water Frame• Richard Arkwright decided to

employ the power of the water-wheel in to his new invention the Water Frame.

• In 1771, he set up a large factory next to the Drewent River in Cromford.

• His machine became known as the Water-Frame and was used in his factory.

• The Water Frame could take the place of the spinsters because, with the power of water powering it, it could spin yarn faster and make it stronger.

Samuel Crompton: Spinning Mule• In 1775 Crompton produced his spinning

mule, so called because it was a hybrid that combined features of two earlier inventions, the Spinning Jenny and the Water Frame.

• The mule produced a strong, fine and soft yarn which could be used in all kinds of textiles, but was particularly suited to the production of muslins.

• The first mules were hand-operated and could be used at home.

• By the 1790s larger versions were built with as many as 400 spindles.

Samuel Crompton

Samuel Crompton: Spinning Mule• The Spinning Mule could also be driven by the new steam

engines that were being produced by James Watt and Matthew Boulton.

• Crompton was too poor to apply for a patent and so he sold the rights to a Bolton manufacturer.

• A large number of factory owners purchased Crompton's mules, but because he had sold the rights for his machine, he made no money from these sales.

• Samuel Crompton died in poverty in Bolton in 1827.

Cylinder Printing• Joseph Bell was the

inventor of printing with engraved copper rollers used in factories.

• The engraved printing cylinder was placed horizontally with another cylinder above it.

• The cloth passed between the cylinders and then over several steam-heated drying boxes.

Carding Engine• In 1748, Lewis Paul invented

a hand driven carding engine.

• This device involved a card covered engine with slips of wire placed around a cylinder.

• Richard Arkwright made improvements to the machine and in 1775 he took out a patent for the new Carding Engine.

Steam.. The next frontier. First harnessed in 1702 by Thomas Newcomen, then improved by Thomas Wyatt.

Legend has it that Thomas Wyatt first noticed the power of steam when he observed his mother’s tea kettle.

Rotary Steam Engine• James Watt improved

Thomas Savery and Thomas Newcomen’s engine.

• His engine improved the steam engine using a separate condensing chamber which allowed the machine to continue to work nonstop.

So, steam became a source of energy

around 1780.

Thus, coal begins to be used in great amount—but do to Newcomen’s steam engine which drives the pumps that get

the water out of the mines…

See how this all ties together? It is this reciprocal inventiveness that really makes it an Industrial Revolution.

Edmund Cartwright: Powerloom• In 1784 Cartwright visited a factory owned

by Richard Arkwright. • Inspired by what he saw, he began working

on a machine that would improve the speed and quality of weaving.

• Cartwright managed to produce what he called a power loom.

• He took out a patent for his machine in 1785• In 1787 Cartwright opened a weaving mill in

Doncaster and two years later began using steam engines produced by James Watt and Matthew Boulton to drive his looms.

Edmund Cartwright

Edmund Cartwright: Power Loom• All operations that had been previously

been done by the weaver's hands and feet, could now be performed mechanically.

• The main task of the weavers employed by Cartwright was repairing broken threads on the machine.

• Cartwright now turned his attentions to over projects and took out a patent for a wool-combing machine (1790) and an alcohol engine (1797).

• By the early part of the 19th century a large number of factory owners were using a modified version of Cartwright's power loom.

Edmund Cartwright: Power Loom• When Cartwright discovered what was

happening he applied to the House of Commons for compensation.

• Some MPs such as Robert Peel, who had been one of those who had made a great deal of money from the modified power loom, supported his claim and in 1809 Parliament voted him a lump sum of £10,000.

• Edmund Cartwright now retired to a farm in Kent where he died in 1823.

Spinning factory in England

Map 20.1: The Industrial

Revolution in Britain by

1850

As the machinery of cloth production became larger and more cumbersome, mills were built along streams, and

workers flocked to the mills..

Woolen Industry• The Woollen Industry was established in the

Middle Ages using home-grown wool. • Production was based on the domestic system• Leeds in Yorkshire became the market centre

where the cloth was exchanged and finished. • The output of broadcloth in the area rose

from 30,000 pieces to 60,000 pieces in the 1740s.

• Leeds now covered 60 acres and by 1770 the town had a population of 16,000.

• Thirty years later, this figure had doubled. • After the invention of the Spinning Jenny

some cloth merchants became factory owners.

Woolen Industry• Several were opened in the Leeds area but by

1803 only one piece of cloth in sixteen was being woven in a factory.

• Power-loom weaving was introduced in the 1820s.

• Entrepreneurs in Yorkshire were more likely to employ steam power than other areas.

• The Woollen Industry declined rapidly in Devon, Somerset, Wiltshire, and Gloucestershire.

• By 1860s steam power was more important than water in the West Country but in Scotland only 65% of the power was still obtained from water.

Power-loom

Silk Industry• The art of producing silk cloth reached France, Spain

and Italy in the 12th century. • The weaving of silk was introduced to England by

Flemish refugees in the 16th century • It was greatly developed after 1685 when the

Huguenots from France established themselves at Spitalfields in London.

• The industry developed slowly because the shortage of raw silk and competition from the cloth being made in Italy, France and China.

• The main centers of the silk industry in England was London, Coventry, and Norwich.

• In 1718 Thomas Lombe obtained a patent for a "new invention of three sorts of engines never before made or used in Great Britain, one to wind the finest raw silk, another to spin, and the other to twist".

Silk Industry• Critics said his invention was based on a machine

that had been used in Italy since early 17th century.

• Thomas and his brother, John Lombe, built a silk mill in Derby.

• It was claimed by William Hutton that the Italians were so angry that the Lombe brothers had stolen their invention, that they sent a women to kill the two brothers.

• John Lombe did die in 1722 and Hutton argued he was poisoned.

• By the 1730s Thomas Lombe employed over 300 workers in his large factory in Derby.

• Silk factories were established in Manchester, London, Norwich, Macclesfield, Chesterfield and Stockport.

Thomas Lombe

Silk Industry• In 1793 George Courtauld and Peter Nouaille

opened a silk mill in Sevenoaks, Kent. • The two men argued over politics and

eventually Courtauld opened his own silk mill in Braintree in Essex.

• Courtauld specialized in crape, a hard, stiff silk, which was used for mourning clothing.

• Production was increased after Courtauld developed a new silk spindle in 1814.

• In the early 19th century, Joseph Jacquard, a silk weaver in France, invented a loom that allowed patterns to be woven without the intervention of the weaver.

• At first Jacquard's looms were destroyed by weavers who feared unemployment.

Silk Industry• By 1812 there were 11,000 Jacquard looms working in

France, and they also began to appear in other countries. • The growth of the use of the Jacquard loom in the 1820s

gave the textile industry a tremendous boost in Britain. • By 1833 there were about 100,000 power-looms being

used in this country that had been influenced by Jacquard's invention.

• After George Courtauld's death the business was run by his son, Samuel Courtauld, Peter Taylor and Peter Alfred Taylor.

• The industry became more mechanized after the invention in 1836 of a spinning machine which could deal with short fibers.

• Taylor & Courtauld employed over 2,000 people in its three silk mills.

• Overall, by 1851, over 130,000 people were employed in the silk industry in Britain.

Silk IndustryEmployment in the Silk Industry

Year Males Females Total

1851 53,936 76,787 130,723

1861 43,732 72,588 116,320

1871 29,225 53,738 82,963

1881 22,205 42,630 64,835

1891 19,090 32,937 52.027

1901 13,859 25,176 39,035

(1) Employment in the Silk Industry

Cotton Industry• Cotton is a white fibrous substances composed of the hairs surrounding

the seeds of the cotton plant. • It was first imported to England in the 16th century. • Initially it was mixed either with linen or worsted yarn. • By 1750 some pure cotton cloths were being produced in Britain. • Imports of raw cotton from the West Indies and the American Colonies

gradually increased • By 1790 it had reached 31,447,605 lbs.• The Cotton Industry developed in three main districts: North West

England, centred on Manchester; the Midlands, centred on Nottingham; and the Clyde Valley in Scotland, between Lanark and Paisley.

• By the 1780s the industry was becoming more concentrated in Lancashire, with a considerable number of mills within the Oldham, Bolton, Manchester triangle.

• At the end of the 18th century, a large proportion of the Lancashire population was dependent on the cotton industry.

Linen Industry• Flax, a slender blue-flowered plant cultivated for

its strong woody fiber was used for making linen. • Evidence from early Egyptian tombs suggests that

flax was the first textile spun by man. • The growing of flax and the making of linen was

introduced to England by the Romans. • By the Middle Ages restrictions were placed on

flax growing in order to help the woolen industry. • However, people in Ireland were encouraged to

produce flax and by the 18th century, the country became the largest producer of linen in the world.

• In the 1790s John Marshall and Matthew Murray created an efficient flax-spinning machine that produced good quality yarn.

John Marshall

Matthew Murray

Linen Industry• Marshall built two mills in Leeds, installed

Boulton & Watt steam-engines• Between 1803 and 1815 both Temple Mill

(£238,000) and Castle Foregate (£82,000) made healthy profits.

• By 1820 Marshall was worth over £400,000. • Linen was also used as the warp thread in

the production of fustian cloth. • The invention of the water-frame made it

possible to make cotton cloth with cotton warp and linen was then no longer needed for this.

• Linen was still used for sails, sacking and furnishing.

Water-frame

Linen Industry• By 1802 the industry accounted for between 4% to 5%

of the national income of Britain. • By 1812 there were 100,000 spinners and 250,000

weavers working in the industry. • Production had grown to

8% and had now overtookthe woolen industry.

• By 1830 more than half the value of British home-produced exports consistedof cotton textiles.

Development of Factories• After patenting his spinning frame, Richard Arkwright

created the first true factory in 1769• The factory employed over 300 people• After 20 years it employed 800 people• The bulk of the work force were essentially unskilled• They had their own job to do over a set number of hours• Those in the factories were governed by a clock and

factory rules• Within 30 years many of the weavers had become

laborers in factories and replaced by machines

Dangers of Mill Work• Cut fingers: watch out for sharp

metal pins on the carding machines

• Crushed: if you are working under a mule, roll away from its wheels or you will be crushed to death

• Deformed: if you are a doffer, you will be bending over so much that you will grow a curved spine

• Ear Bashing: a mill is one of the noisiest places you can work and many go deaf

• Boiler Explosions and Fire

• Bad Chest: all the cotton dust in the air is bad for you lungs and you develop lung disease and a throaty cough

• Itchy Eyes: cotton fibers in the air get into your eyes and make them swollen, sore, very itchy, and infections

• Tuberculosis: painful coughing disease from weavers who leave germs on the shuttles

• Scalped: long hair gets caught in the machines

Children worked 12-14

hour days.

Working Conditions

• Work days were 12-16 hours a day– 6 days a week

• No assurances of employment

• No minimum wages• Temperatures in the 80s

was common

Factories cont’d.• Factories were run for profit• Any form of machine safety guard cost money, so

none were used• Under the factory system, children in particular

suffered• Children were employed for four simple reasons:

– They were abundant in orphanages – Could be replaced easily if accidents occurred– Did not have to be paid as much– Small enough to crawl under machinery

Child Workers• Women and children were used in factories and mines• Children were desired workers

– Their small size made it easy for them to crawl under machines to gather loose cotton

– Were a cheap and abundant supply of labor– Only got paid 1/6 of what a man got paid

• Orphans were acquired by factory owners because they didn’t have to be paid– Were beaten– Fed little amounts of food– Often became deformed from being kept in usual positions for

long periods of time

Factories cont’d.• Some factory owners supplied lodgings and

food for their workers, but others were not so charitable

• Few laws had been passed by Parliament to protect the workers

• Factory inspectors could be bribed• Factories rarely kept records of the ages of

laborers

Women• By 1830 women and children made up 2/3 of the cotton

industry’s labor• The Factory Act of 1833 caused a decline in the number of

employed children– Replaced them with women

• Women made up half the work force– Paid half of what a man received

• Later Factory Acts limited the number of hours women and children could work and created a distinction between work and home

• Men were regarded as the primary bread winners and women took on the daily role of house wife

The factory system changed the world of work. In addition, new processes further changed how people worked in factories.

• Mass production began in U.S.• Elements:

– Interchangeable parts

– Assembly line• Production and repair more

efficient• Production more swift

Mass Production• Dramatic increase in

production• Businesses charged less • Affordable goods• More repetitious jobs• Soon became norm

Effects

Factories and Mass Production

The Condition of Labor• All working people, however, faced

possible unemployment, with little or no provision for security.

• In addition, they were subject to various kinds of discipline:– The closing of factory gates to late

workers– Fines for tardiness– Dismissal for drunkenness– Public censure for poor quality

workmanship– Beatings for non-submissiveness

Weekly Pay in 1842• Adult Spinner: 25

shillings or 1.25 pounds but only left with 16 shillings or 80 pence because he had to pay his piecers

• Adult Carder: 9 shillings or 45 pence

• Child Piecer: about 3 shillings or 15 pence depending on age and experience

• Fines:• Opening Window: 1

shilling or 5 pence• Taking a Wash: 1

shilling or 5 pence• Whistling: 1 shilling

or 5 pence• Leaving Gaslight On:

2 shilling or 10 pence

1842 Currency Conversion to 2007 US Dollars

• 5 pence $6.83• 10 pence $13.65• 15 pence $20.50• 45 pence $61.50• 80 pence $109.35• 1.25 pounds $170.90

Cost of Living• 20 shillings equals 1

pound• 1 shilling equals 12

pennies• As a child working in

the cotton mill in 1842, you would be earning about 3 shillings a week.

• If you pay 2 shillings a week for rent, this leaves 1 shilling left to spend.

• Large loaf of bread is 9 pennies• Pint of milk is 1 pence• 1 lb of oatmeal is 2 pennies• 5 lbs of potatoes is 2 pennies• 1 lb of tea is 4 shillings• 1 lb of sugar is 8 pennies• 1 lb of butter is 1 shilling• 12 eggs is 8 pennies• 1lb of soap is 6 pennies• 1 lb of candles is 6 pennies• 1 bag of coal is 1 shilling and 6

pennies

Prolitarianization

• During the century, factory workers underwent a process of proletarianization (i.e., they lost control of the means of production).

Factory owners provided the financial capital to construct the factory, to purchase the machinery, and to secure the raw materials.

The factory workers merely exchanged their labor for wages.

Standard of Living• Long term: standard of

living increased• Short term: workers

suffered– Wages remained low

creating higher profits

– Overall increase in wages

Family Structures Changed

• With the decline of the domestic system and the rise of the factory system, family life changed.– At first, the entire family, including

the children, worked in the factory, just as they had at home.

– Later, family life became fragmented (the father worked in the factory, the mother handled domestic chores, the children went to school).

Family as a Unit of Consumption

• In short, the European family changed from being a unit of production and consumption to being a unit of consumption alone.

Gender-Determined Roles

• That transformation prepared the way for gender-determined roles.– Women came to be associated with

domestic duties, such as housekeeping, food preparation, child rearing and nurturing, and household management.

– The man came to be associated almost exclusively with breadwinning.

Workers in a New Economy • Wealthy to invest in, own

factories • Mid-level to run factories• Low-level to run machines

Changing Labor Conditions• No government regulation • Labor unions organized• Strikes brought change

Cottage Workers’ Unrest• Handmade goods more expensive

than factory made • Luddite movement, 1811 • Violence spread, 1812

New Class of Workers• Growth of middle class • Managers, accountants,

engineers, mechanics, salesmen• Economy increased

The Factory System and Workers

Industrial Revolution and Coal Mining

• Industrial Revolution was based on coal and steam engine production.

• While the Industrial Revolution was flourishing the coal production needed to catch up.

• Coal was the driving force through the Industrial Revolution.

Demand Rising • James Watt

Development of the new engine

• Arkwright enhancements in factory production

• Bigger demand meant deeper mines and more dangerous working situations

Coal Mines

• Coal mines were originally used by local homes and industry

• As the country became industrialized more and more coal was needed to fuel steam engines and furnaces.

• Coal was difficult and expensive to move so towns and other industries grew up around the coal mining areas

Mine Enhancements

• Shaft Mine

• Drift Mine

• Slope Mine

• Surface Mine

Coal• 1851: 330,000 miners or

colliers working in Britain’s coal mines digging up more than 100 million tons of “black gold” a year

• Work 12 hour days six days a week

• 1, 640 feet deep below the surface, the colliers work

• Down the shaft: in total darkness for the 30 seconds it takes the cage to reach pit bottom

• Cage falls 89 feet every second

• Lots of noise from the clanking of the cage and unwinding of the steel cable

• Pain in eardrums due to sudden change in air pressure

• From the pit bottom, you travel along a tunnel to the coalface or “walking out”

• This can be as far as 5 miles and take up to an hour

Supplies and Tools• Good boots made from tough

leather with hard-wearing metal studs on the soles

• Damp cloth to hold against your nose and mouth so that you do not breathe in too much coal dust

• Candles which are collected at the bottom of the pit.

• They are green to show they belong to the mines.

• If you try to take one home, you will be fired.

• The candles burn for one hour. So when eight have gone, you know it is time to start to head back.

• Hat made of felt to fix a candle to the brim to work by candelight

• Leather pads for your knees and elbows to protect your joints

• Singlet, trouser, and boots: Your own clothes…sometimes so hot, men work in the nude.

• Pick and Shovel: to cut the coal from the seam and load into the tubs

• Hammer, Wedges, and Chisels: to loosen the seams of coal

First Day at the Coal Mine

• My first day in the mines was down the Number One shaft at Bear Creek Colliery. The shaft was 321 feet deep. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the terrible sensation I had while descending that morning. I was so dizzy that when I was halfway down, I thought I was going up.---John McCormick

The Breaker Boys Primary Source• At the age of eight, I left school and was given

a job in the mines. I found it pretty hard getting out of bed at five-thirty every morning. The first two months, the road to work wasn’t bad, but with the coming of the snow, I found that I was much too small to make my way to work alone. Many times I was forced to wait by the side of the road for an older men to help me through the snow.

A Mother’s Song for her Breaker Boy

• Mickey Pick-Slate, early and late,

• That was this poor little breaker boy’s fate;

• A poor simple woman at the breaker still waits,

• To take home her Mickey Pick-Slate.

• Mickey fell into the crusher rolls and was ground up with the coal. His mother had walked him to and from work each day, lost her mind. Each day, she continued to wait at the breaker for him, scanning the sooty face of each young boy as he walked past, looking for her Mickey.

Dangers in Coal Mines• Underground pit collapses were common• The sheer weight of the ground above was colossal and only

held up by wooden beams called props.• Coal mines became deeper and deeper and mining became

more and more dangerous• Coal shafts could go hundreds of feet into the ground• Flooding was a real problem • Mine explosive gas would be found the deeper the mines got.• One spark from a miner’s pick axe or candle could cause an

explosion.

Dangers• Floods: happen when miners

break into old flooded tunnels• Roof Falls: are caused by

explosions and weak pit props. They caused the most deaths and injuries

• Explosions: caused by the coal dust and the dreaded fire-damp and could blow you and the mine to bits

• Deadly Gas: such a poisonous choke-damp, is mostly carbon dioxide, and an invisible killer. You take a canary with you. If the canary stops singing, it means there is choke-damp in the air.

• Amputations: due to falling rocks and accidents with tools or machines

• Black Lung: coal dust in your lungs will leave you short of breath, and your spit will be black

• Nystagmus: years of working in poor light will make your eyes roll painfully around

• Beat-Up Knees: After years of kneeling and crawling , your knees will be swollen and sore

• Cuts and Bruises: Every miner gets these.

• Broken Bones: These are often caused by terrifying cage drops.

Dangers in Coal Mining

• Explosive gas • Falling from a variety of

structures • Roof collapsing • Suffocating due to poison gas • At a random mine there was

reported to be 349 deaths in one year. That’s more then one a day!

Coal Mines

• Coal mines had dangers like cave-ins, explosions & gas fumes

• Tunnels were no higher than three of four feet– Children often pulled the

coal carts• Mines deformed bodies

and ruined lungs

Dangers in Coal Mines Primary Source

• A report on deaths in coal mines to Parliament gave a list of ways miners could be killed:

• “Falling down a mine shaft on the way down to the coal face, falling out of the ‘bucket’ bringing you up after a shift, being hit by a fall of dug coal, falling down a mine shaft as it lifted up, drowning in the mine, crushed to death, killed by explosions, suffocation by poisonous gas, being run over by a tram carrying dug coal in the mine itself.”

• In one unnamed coal mine, 58 deaths out of a total of 349 deaths in one year, involved children thirteen years or younger.

Safety in Coal Mines

• To clear mines of gas a crude system of ventilation was used

• In 1807 John Buddle invented an air pump to be used in mines.

• Sir Humphrey Davy invented the safety lamp in 1815 which meant that a miner could have light under ground without having to use a candle

• It gave off light but a wire gauze acted as barrier between the heat given off and any gas it might have had contact with

The Mine Report of 1842

• In 1842 children under the age of five worked 12 hours a day for 2 pennies a day.

• Ridiculous times for ridiculous pay

• Extremely bad working experience for children.

The Mines Report

• In 1842 Parliament published a report about the state of coal mining

• Its contents shocked the nation• The report informed the public that children under

5 years of age worked underground as trappers for 12 hours a day and for 2 pennies a day

• Older girls carried baskets of dug coal which were far too heavy for them and caused deformities in these girls

The Mines Report cont’d.

• One girl claimed that she had to do 20 journeys a shift, pushing a tub which weighed over 200 kilos and if she showed signs of slacking she would be whipped

• Children had to work in water that came up to their thighs

• Heavily pregnant women worked underground as they needed money

• One woman claimed that she gave birth on one day and was expected to be back at work the very same day!

Mine Work for Women • Bal Maidens were women

who broke up large pieces of rock with a hammer

• They were required to wear warm clothing

• Very painful and tiring • Blasting within 3 feet of the

ocean floor• Transportation was tricky

Women’s Work in the Mines• Unloading coal tubs from the

cart when it comes to the surface and pushing them to the screening shed.

• Tipping or emptying the tubs onto a chute at the screening shed. Each tub holds about 600 pounds of coal and dirt. Some 1000 tubs a day are tipped.

• Running in or pushing the empty tubs back to the pithead to be sent back down the shaft to the miners below.

• Screening or agitating the coal as it falls down the screen and pushing slack and dirt through its metal bars.

• Sorting or picking over the screened coal by hand as it moves on conveyor belts removing lumps of stone.

• Chipping or taking large blocks of coal from the conveyor and breaking them into smaller pieces by hand.

• Loading or working at the coal wharf , shoveling the cleaned and sorted coal into canal barges

Children’s Work in the Mines• Trappers: opened and

closed trap doors to let coal wagons pass on underground tracks

• Bearers: usually older girls or young women who carried heavy baskets of coal away from the coalface

• Putters: put lumps of coal into coal wagons by hand

• Drawers, Hurriers, and Thrusters: were children who pushed and pulled the loaded wagons

Young children were maimed in the mines and in the mills.

Abuse of Children and Women • Younger boys did

older men's Jobs • Girls wore boys

clothes (no distinction of sex)

• Worked in space that was 2 feet tall

• Slacking = whipped • They were often

abused and ridiculed

Abuse (continued)• Boys had to make twenty

journeys to carry things that weighed over 200 kilos which was difficulty for a man to do.

• Girls were often strapped at the waist by chains for safety purposes.

• Always worked in treacherous situations many times with water up to their thighs