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
Production before Factories
Work in the Home
• Raw materials delivered
• Work done to completion
Problems for Cottage
Industries
• Destruction of
equipment
• Merchant takes product to
market
• Time to learn skills
• Workers controlled
schedules, quality
• Physical strength
required
• Family life revolved around
business
• Factory owners took
advantage of drawbacks
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
Factories and Factory Towns
Where employees worked
• Major change from cottage industry
• Had to leave home to work
• Hardships for some workers
Working in a factory
• Dangerous work for all
• Long workdays
• Poor factory conditions common
Life in factory towns
• Towns grew up around factories
• Towns, factories rose near coal mines
• Sanitation poor in many 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 waterwheel 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
Power-loom
• 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.
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
Thomas Lombe
• 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.
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 Industry
Employment 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
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
Water-frame
• 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.
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 overtook
the woolen industry.
• By 1830 more than half the
value of British homeproduced exports consisted
of 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 1214 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
Factories and Mass Production
The factory system changed the world of work. In addition, new processes
further changed how people worked in factories.
Mass Production
• Mass production began in U.S.
• Elements:
– Interchangeable parts
– Assembly line
• Production and repair more
efficient
• Production more swift
Effects
• Dramatic increase in
production
• Businesses charged less
• Affordable goods
• More repetitious jobs
• Soon became norm
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
10 pence
15 pence
45 pence
80 pence
1.25 pounds
$6.83
$13.65
$20.50
$61.50
$109.35
$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.
The Factory System and Workers
Workers in a New Economy
Cottage Workers’ Unrest
• Wealthy to invest in, own
factories
• Handmade goods more expensive
than factory made
• Mid-level to run factories
• Luddite movement, 1811
• Low-level to run machines
• Violence spread, 1812
Changing Labor Conditions
New Class of Workers
• No government regulation
• Growth of middle class
• Labor unions organized
• Managers, accountants,
engineers, mechanics, salesmen
• Strikes brought change
• Economy increased
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 firedamp 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