Thousands of works were required to man the new machines and work in the mills; in return the factory owners built houses and homes for the workers. Within a short time, cities were overrun with people making it particularly uncomfortable and cramped, it was believed that 1/5 of Britain lived within the London area when the revolution took place. Obviously London was not prepared for such a huge flow of families, workers & children so many people crowded into small lodging houses or families would join together to share the rent in small houses.
The factories smoke from their chimneys began to make a layer of black smoke which covered the towns just like a blanket, it was not a very nice sight, homes would appear dirty and people would be unwashed and filthy more often. ‘Child labour’ was used a lot in the industrial revolution, most of the factories workers were children, they worked long hours, were treated very unfairly, in quite common cases children as young as 4 – 5 years old were working in these factories. Because the children were small, they could easily fit into small spaces and were used for getting into gaps in the machines and either cleaning them or repairing a fault.
Coal production became a huge revolution, even though the mines were one of the most dangerous places, workers would come out with all sorts of injuries. The roofs of the mines easily would cave in on the workers. Men, Women & children worked within the mines, the children’s job roles were being ‘trappers’ they would have to sit in a damp and draughty hole and when they heard the coal wagons coming they would simply have to open the doors. Other jobs within the mines were called ‘Coal bearers’ where the workers would have to carry coal around on their backs.
The cotton mills were a huge new invention, where most of the orphans of the towns worked in the workhouses, these children lived and worked in the mill, and they were pushed and pushed as hard as they could to do the labour. Some very severe injuries were caused from the mill’s machines, if the children caught a piece of there hair on the machines they would be very lucky to escape with any hair at all, in some cases their scalps were removed by the machines if caught. Hands were regularly crushed and fingers removed by the machines. Many deaths to the orphans were caused by these mills.
