Archivo del autor: Peter Van der Heyden

“In examining factories, we have frequently asked, “Where are the old men?” In fact, our towns and manufactures present but a small proportion of the aged,- no such proportion as we can find in the pursuits of husbandry. In the employments, moreover, which do present a considerable number of old workmen – weaving for instance – theseSigue leyendo «6.6. Industrial Diseases and Pollution»

In order to investigate if there was an increase in mortality – and thus a decrease in life expectancy – due to the Industrial Revolution, we have to collect population, birth and death data for the years up to e.g. 1830, and compare these with those of 1830 to 1860. The Census data were collectedSigue leyendo «6.5. Life Expectancy»

Following we have the mortality rates for different types of town, at the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century, taken from an earlier chapter. Town type   Under the age of 1 Between 1 and 2 Between 2 and 5 Between 5 and 10 Total under 10           Sigue leyendo «6.4. Child Mortality»

The better classes, when they talked about “the poor”, did not mean “the totality of the working class”. For them, “the poor” were those persons who were objectively poor, that is, did not earn enough to eat properly, or were unemployed, or had very bad living conditions. The majority of workers were referred to asSigue leyendo «6.3. Poor Areas of the Cities»

As to the living conditions outside the factory, obviously these did not change for those families who were already living in the town. Certainly the streets and alleys were narrow, there was a lot of dirt and excrement, and the living quarters were small; but this was already part of their life. For those familiesSigue leyendo «6.2. Sanitation»

We have the impression that all the districts of Manchester (apart from the mansions of the wealthy, on the outskirts of the town), were uniformly poor, dirty, with dirty water and excrement in the streets, and with houses with small rooms and people living in cellars. But the truth is that there was a greatSigue leyendo «6.1. Housing»

6.1. Housing https://history.pictures/2020/02/05/6-1-housing/ 6.2. Sanitation https://history.pictures/2020/02/05/6-2-sanitation/ 6.3. Poor Areas of the Cities https://history.pictures/2020/02/05/6-3-poor-areas-of-the-cities/ 6.4. Child Mortality https://history.pictures/2020/02/06/6-4-child-mortality/ 6.5. Life Expectancy https://history.pictures/2020/02/07/6-5-life-expectancy/ 6.6. Industrial Diseases and Pollution https://history.pictures/2020/02/07/6-6-industrial-diseases-and-pollution/

The intention of this section is to revise if the wages in the first years in the factories were or were not higher than for the preceding generation of workers. In 1818, according to a newspaper, the men spinners had a net wage of 31s. at least, and the boys and girls at least 17s.Sigue leyendo «5.5. New Wage Conditions in the Factory»

The conditions of housing and sanitation in the towns of Lancashire, particularly Manchester and Liverpool, were bad and very bad. But this does not mean that all the persons in the textile industry in Lancashire, Cheshire, and Derbyshire had horrible housing. There were a large number of mills in the hilly areas with cottages forSigue leyendo «5.4. Life in the Mills outside the Towns»

FACTORIES ACTS REFERRING TO CHILDREN’S EMPLOYMENT Health and Morals of Apprentices Act 1802 Limited working hours for apprentice children in textile mills to 12 hours a day excluding breaks, and prohibited night work for them. But the owners did not apply it to “free” children. Cotton Mills and Factories Act 1819 (only applied to cottonSigue leyendo «5.3. Children’s Employment»