Who invented the first factory

By , the Cromford mill employed 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. Within 30 years many had become labourers in factories as their skill had now been taken over by machines. In , there were only 2, power looms in Britain.

Women and men tended to marry someone from the same job, geographical location, or social group. The traditional work sphere was still dictated by the father, who controlled the pace of work for his family. However, factories and mills undermined the old patriarchal authority. Factories put husbands, wives, and children under the same conditions and authority of the manufacturer masters. Factory workers typically lived within walking distance to work until the introduction of bicycles and electric street railways in the s.

Thus the factory system was partly responsible for the rise of urban living, as large numbers of workers migrated into the towns in search of employment in the factories.

Until the late 19th century, it was common to work at least 12 hours a day, six days a week in most factories, but long hours were also common outside factories. The transition to industrialization was not without opposition from the workers, who feared that machines would end the need for highly skilled labor. For example, a group of English workers known as Luddites formed to protest against industrialization and sometimes sabotaged factories.

They continued an already established tradition of workers opposing labor-saving machinery. Numerous inventors in the textile industry, such as John Kay and Samuel Crompton, suffered harassment when developing their machines or devices. However, in other industries the transition to factory production was not so divisive.

Although the Luddites feared above all that machines would remove the need for highly skilled labor, one misconception about the group is that they protested against the machinery itself in a vain attempt to halt progress. As a result, the term has come to mean a person opposed to industrialization, automation, computerization, or new technologies in general. The overall impact of the factory system and the Industrial Revolution more on adults has been the subject of extensive debate among historians for over a century.

Optimists have argued that industrialization brought higher wages and better living standards to most people. Pessimists have argued that these gains have been over-exaggerated, wages did not rise significantly during this period, and whatever economic gains were actually made must be offset against the worsening health and housing of the new urban sectors.

Since the s, many contributions to the standard of living debate has tilted towards the pessimist interpretation. Engels described backstreet sections of Manchester and other mill towns, where people lived in crude shanties and shacks, some not completely enclosed, some with dirt floors. These shanty towns had narrow walkways between irregularly shaped lots and dwellings. There were no sanitary facilities. Population density was extremely high.

Money was not available to send him to school, but his cousin Ellen taught him to read and write. He began working as an apprentice barber and it was only after the death of his first wife that he became an entrepreneur. His second marriage to Margaret Biggins in brought a small income that enabled him to expand his barber's business. He acquired a secret method for dyeing hair and travelled around the country purchasing human hair for use in the manufacture of 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.

By , a machine for carding cotton had been introduced into England and James Hargreaves had invented the spinning jenny. They have a son. But a year later, Patience is dead. Grief gives way to ambition. Richard, a hairdresser, decides he wants to become an entrepreneur and start his own company. They have three children. Only their daughter survives into adulthood. He decides to manufacture male wigs. But by the time he starts up his own Bolton based business in , the fashion for them is already passing its peak.

During his travels round the country collecting hair he comes across a method for dyeing it that makes it waterproof. The extra cash it generates will give him the money to finance the development of his first spinning machine. The textile business at this time is often literally a cottage industry. Raw cotton is turned into threads using a spinning wheel in the family home.

These turn cotton or wool into threads, one at a time, which are then woven onto looms to make fabric. This fabric can be then used to make, for example, clothes.

Arkwright believes he can make his fortune from the right invention. In , he teams up with a Warrington watch and clockmaker, John Kay. Kay and reed-maker Thomas Highs have been working on a mechanical spinning machine. But a lack of funding frustrates them. It substitutes the need for human hands and fingers using instead machine and metal to create stronger spun thread, more quickly and easily. It will revolutionise the world of work but it will also make thousands of skilled workers obsolete.

Their first spinning frame is put into use in It is the first powered, automatic, and continuous textile machine.