The Industrial Revolution

1
The Industrial Revolution

• Changes in the Textile Industry

2
The Domestic System

• Before the Industrial Revolution, the production
  of Woollen Cloth was Britains most important
  manufacturing industry
• Cloth making was centred in areas where sheep
  farming was common Yorkshire, the Cotswolds,
  Devon
• The main processes carding, spinning and
  weaving were carried out in the cottages of
  workers
• This was known as the domestic system or cottage
  industry

Carding
Spinning
Weaving
3
How did the Domestic System work?

• A merchant delivered wool to the workers homes
• Children carded (untangled) the wool
• Women and girls spun the wool into yarn using a
  spinning wheel
• Men wove the yarn into cloth on a loom
• The merchant took the cloth to other workers for
  stretching, dyeing, and cropping

4
Advantages and Disadvantages of the Domestic
System

• Advantages
• It was convenient for workers who could stay at
  home, work at their own pace and mind the
  children
• Their earnings from spinning and weaving were
  extra to the living they were making from working
  the land (open field system)
• Some workers were quite skilled and produced a
  good quality product

• Disadvantages
• The quality of cloth varied from worker to worker
• The system wasted the merchants time
• Production was slow
• Workers could cheat the merchant
• The merchant could cheat the workers
• Piece-rates could be very low
• Cottages were often dirty, badly-lit and poorly
  ventilated

5
Why was there a Revolution in the textile
industry?

• The population was growing rapidly
• There was an increase in the demand for better
  quality cloth
• The price of raw cotton fell as more was imported
  from the slave plantations of USA (after 1776)
• New machines were invented which speeded up the
  working of cotton

6
New Technology

• Spinning
• 1764 James Hargreaves invented Spinning Jenny
• 1769 Sir Richard Arkwright invented Water Frame
• 1779 Samuel Crompton invented Spinning Mule
  (so-called because it combined the best of the
  Jenny and the Frame) became the most important
  spinning machine

• Weaving
• 1733 John Kay invented Flying Shuttle

Hand power Water power leads to building of first mills or Factories James Watts Steam Engine- form 1770s
1785 Edmund Cartwright invented Power Loom
7
James Hargreaves and the Spinning Jenny 1764

• This was the first of the new spinning machines
• The first models produced thread on 8 spindles at
  once (instead of 1)
• Probably called Jenny meaning Gin,or Ginny
  short for engine (not after his wife!)
• Angry spinners smashed up Hargreaves home in
  Blackburn
• Designed for use in domestic system

8
Sir Richard Arkwright 1732-92

• One of the great entrepreneurs of the Industrial
  Revolution
• His Water Framewas the first machine to be
  designed as a factory machine driven by water
  power
• The Factory Age began with Arkwrights mill at
  Cromford, Derbyshire
• He devised the Factory System
• Employed thousands of workers
• Patented his machine
• Made a huge fortune

9
The Factory System

• Other entrepreneurs were quick to copy
  Arkwrights system
• Many spinning factories were built
• For a while weaving remained a domestic craft
• The wages of hand loom weavers soared as great
  quantities of spun yarn were produced
• However, by the 1820s Power Looms were being
  introduced and weavers incomes fell

10
The Luddites

• Many skilled craftsmen lost out to the new
  machines
• The firstLuddites were croppers in Yorkshire
• They formed a secret society and smashed machines
• The mill owners and the government reacted
  strongly
• Britain was at war with France
• Luddites were captured by use of spies
• Several machine-breakers were hanged, others
  transported

11
The Importance of Manchester(and Southern
Lancashire)

• Manchester and Southern Lancashire became the
  main location for the Cotton Industry because-
• The climate was damp ideal for working cotton
• It was close to the port of Liverpool the main
  port for trade with the USA and imports of raw
  cotton
• There were skilled spinners and weavers just
  across the Pennines in the Yorkshire woollen
  industry
• The Pennines supplied fast-flowing streams for
  water power
• There was a local coalfield for steam power

12
Conclusions

• The development of the Factory System massively
  increased the amount of cotton cloth produced
• A new class of entrepreneurs made great
  fortunes
• Towns and cities grew up around the new factories
  the process of Urbanisation- living
  conditions and public health worsened
• Working conditions were very different in the
  factories to the old Domestic System child
  labour, long hours, harsh discipline