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Communication/Technology


1876 Alexander Graham Bell wanted to patent his own invention after his competitor, Thomas Edison, had already received patents!

In the 1740s, Ben Franklin experimented with electricity. He corresponded with many other scientists and eventually a book was published about electricity in 1751.


Throughout the late 1800s and 1900s, Thomas Edison was the world's most prolific inventor. His final count was 1,093 U.S. patents. One of his most famous inventions was the lightbulb, in 1879.

Morse code was invented by Samuel Morse in 1840. The most famous message sent by Morse Code is S.O.S., a distress signal for ships. Many believe that S.O.S. stands for “Save Our Ship” or “Save Our Souls,” but in reality, S.O.S. does not stand for anything.

Factories/Working Conditions

Quote from a business owner in the 1880s

“I regard my people as I regard my machinery. So long as they do my work for what I choose to pay them, I keep them, getting out of them all I can. What they do or how they fare outside my walls I don’t know, nor do I consider it my business to know. They must look out for themselves as I do for myself.” Source: Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, Thirteenth Annual Report, 1883.


The Sadler Report was written by Michael Sadler in 1832. He was a chairman of a UK Parliamentary committee trying to limit the hours of child labor. Child laborers were called into the committee hearing to give a testimony about their experiences in the factories. The following document is a script of one of the witnesses.

Source:[Parliamentary Papers, 1831-1832, vol. XV. pp. 44, 95-97, 115, 195, 197, 339, 341-342.

Child 1: Matthew Crabtree

What age are you? — Twenty-two.

What is your occupation? — A blanket manufacturer.

Have you ever been employed in a factory? — Yes.

At what age did you first go to work in one? — Eight.

How long did you continue in that occupation? — Four years.

Will you state the hours of labour at the period when you first went to the factory, in ordinary times? — From 6 in the morning to 8 at night.

Fourteen hours? — Yes.

With what intervals [how much time for break] for refreshment and rest? — An hour at noon.

When trade was brisk what were your hours? — From 5 in the morning to 9 in the evening.

Sixteen hours? — Yes.

With what intervals at dinner? — An hour.

How far did you live from the mill? — About two miles.

Was there any time allowed for you to get your breakfast in the mill? — No.

Did you take it before you left your home? — Generally.

During those long hours of labour could you be punctual [on time]; how did you awake? — I seldom did awake spontaneously; I was most generally awoke or lifted out of bed, sometimes asleep, by my parents.

Were you always in time? — No.

What was the consequence if you had been too late? — I was most commonly beaten.

Severely? — Very severely, I thought.

In those mills is chastisement [punishment] towards the latter part of the day going on perpetually [constantly]? — Perpetually.

So that you can hardly be in a mill without hearing constant crying? — Never an hour, I believe.

Do you think that if the overlooker [supervisor] were naturally a humane [kind] person it would still be found necessary for him to beat the children, in order to keep up their attention and vigilance at the termination [end] of those extraordinary days of labour? — Yes; the machine turns off a regular quantity of cardings, and of course, they must keep as regularly to their work the whole of the day; they must keep [up] with the machine, and therefore however humane the slubber [supervisor] may be, as he must keep up with the machine or be found fault with, he spurs the children to keep up also by various means but that which he commonly resorts to is to strap [hit them with a leather belt] them when they become drowsy [sleepy].

At the time when you were beaten for not keeping up with your work, were you anxious to have done it if you possibly could? — Yes; the dread [threat] of being beaten if we could not keep up with our work was a sufficient impulse [motivation] to keep us to it if we could.

When you got home at night after this labour, did you feel much fatigued? — Very much so.

Had you any time to be with your parents, and to receive instruction [to learn] from them? — No.

What did you do? — All that we did when we got home was to get the little bit of supper that was provided for us and go to bed immediately. If the supper had not been ready directly, we should have gone to sleep while it was preparing.

Did you not, as a child, feel it a very grievous hardship to be roused [awakened] so soon in the morning? — I did.

Were the rest of the children similarly circumstanced? — Yes, all of them; but they were not all of them so far from their work as I was.

And if you had been too late you were under the apprehension [worried] of being cruelly beaten? — I generally was beaten when I happened to be too late; and when I got up in the morning the apprehension of that was so great, that I used to run, and cry all the way as I went to the mill.




Child 2: Elizabeth Bentley

What age are you? — Twenty-three.

Where do you live? — At Leeds.

What time did you begin to work at a factory? — When I was six years old.

At whose factory did you work? — Mr. Busk's.

What kind of mill is it? — Flax-mill. [Flax is a type of seed]

What was your business in that mill? — I was a little doffer. [A doffer is a person who removes “doffers”, or a part of a machine, that holds sorted cotton or wool from the machine. The person replaces the full doffer with a new, empty one for the machine to fill up again.]

What were your hours of labour in that mill? — From 5 in the morning till 9 at night, when they were thronged [busy].

For how long a time together have you worked that excessive length of time? — For about half a year.

What were your usual hours when you were not so thronged? — From 6 in the morning till 7 at night.

What time was allowed for your meals? — Forty minutes at noon.

Had you any time to get your breakfast or drinking? — No, we got it as we could.

And when your work was bad, you had hardly any time to eat it at all? — No; we were obliged to leave it or take it home, and when we did not take it, the overlooker [supervisor] took it, and gave it to his pigs.

Do you consider doffing a laborious [difficult] employment? — Yes.

Explain what it is you had to do? — When the frames are full, they have to stop the frames, and take the flyers off, and take the full bobbins off, and carry them to the roller; and then put empty ones on, and set the frame going again.

Does that keep you constantly on your feet? — Yes, there are so many frames, and they run so quick.

Your labour is very excessive [too much]? — Yes; you have not time for any thing.

Suppose you flagged [slowed down] a little, or were too late, what would they do? — Strap [hit with a leather belt] us.

Are they in the habit of strapping those who are last in doffing? — Yes.

Constantly? — Yes.

Girls as well as boys? — Yes.

Have you ever been strapped? — Yes.

Severely? — Yes.

Could you eat your food well in that factory? — No, indeed I had not much to eat, and the little I had I could not eat it, my appetite was so poor, and being covered with dust; and it was no use to take it home, I could not eat it, and the overlooker took it, and gave it to the pigs.

You are speaking of the breakfast? — Yes.

How far had you to go for dinner? — We could not go home to dinner.

Where did you dine? — In the mill.

Did you live far from the mill? — Yes, two miles.Had you a clock? — No, we had not.

Supposing you had not been in time enough in the morning at these mills, what would have been the consequence? — We should have been quartered.

What do you mean by that? — If we were a quarter of an hour too late, they would take off half an hour; we only got a penny an hour, and they would take a halfpenny more.

The fine was much more considerable than the loss of time? — Yes.

Were you also beaten for being too late? — No, I was never beaten myself, I have seen the boys beaten for being too late.

Were you generally there in time? — Yes; my mother had been up at 4 o'clock in the morning, and at 2 o'clock in the morning; the colliers used to go to their work about 3 or 4 o'clock, and when she heard them stirring she has got up out of her warm bed, and gone out and asked them the time; and I have sometimes been at Hunslet Car at 2 o'clock in the morning, when it was streaming down with rain, and we have had to stay until the mill was opened.




Child 3: Peter Smart

You say you were locked up night and day? — Yes.

Do the children ever attempt to run away? — Very often.

Were they pursued [chased] and brought back again? — Yes, the overseer [supervisor] pursued them, and brought them back.

Did you ever attempt to run away? — Yes, I ran away twice.

And you were brought back? — Yes; and I was sent up to the master's loft, and thrashed [hit] with a whip for running away.

Were you bound to this man? — Yes, for six years.

By whom were you bound? — My mother got 15s. for the six years.

Do you know whether the children were, in point of fact, compelled to stop during the whole time for which they were engaged? — Yes, they were.

By law? — I cannot say by law; but they were compelled by the master; I never saw any law used there but the law of their own hands.

To what mill did you next go? — To Mr. Webster's, at Battus Den, within eleven miles of Dundee.

In what situation did you act there? — I acted as overseer.

At 17 years of age? — Yes.

Did you inflict the same punishment that you yourself had experienced? — I went as an overseer; not as a slave, but as a slave-driver.

What were the hours of labour in that mill? — My master told me that I had to produce a certain quantity of yarn; the hours were at that time fourteen; I said that I was not able to produce the quantity of yarn that was required; I told him if he took the timepiece out of the mill I would produce that quantity, and after that time I found no difficulty in producing the quantity.

How long have you worked per day in order to produce the quantity your master required? — I have wrought [worked] nineteen hours.

Was this a water-mill? — Yes, water and steam both.

To what time have you worked? — I have seen the mill going till it was past 12 o'clock on the Saturday night.

So that the mill was still working on the Sabbath [Sunday] morning? — Yes.

Were the workmen paid by the piece, or by the day? — No, all had stated wages.

Did not that almost compel you to use great severity to the hands then under you? — Yes; I was compelled often to beat them, in order to get them to attend to their work, from their being over-wrought.

Were not the children exceedingly fatigued at that time? — Yes, exceedingly fatigued.

Were the children bound in the same way in that mill? — No; they were bound from one year's end to another, for twelve months.

Did you keep the hands locked up in the same way in that mill? — Yes, we locked up the mill; but we did not lock the bothy [shelter].

Did you find that the children were unable to pursue [complete] their labour properly to that extent? — Yes; they have been brought to that condition, that I have gone and fetched up [brought] the doctor to them, to see what was the matter with them, and to know whether they were able to rise or not able to rise; they were not at all able to rise; we have had great difficulty in getting them up.

When that was the case, how long have they been in bed, generally speaking? — Perhaps not above four or five hours in their beds.

Life Expectancy/Health

There's a fine line between wine and vinegar.

That's what Louis Pasteur discovered in 1856 when an alcohol manufacturer commissioned him to determine what was causing beet root alcohol to sour. At that time, scientists thought that fermentation was a purely chemical process. Pasteur's research into fermentation led him to the discovery that it was yeast, a living organism, that turned the beet juice into alcohol.

In previous experiments, Pasteur had discovered that heating the fermented wine would kill the microbes that caused it to spoil. Pasteur's contribution was to determine the exact time and temperature that would kill the harmful microorganisms in the wine without changing its taste. He patented the process and called it pasteurization. The process is still used today to heat food/drink to a certain temperature to preserve it and make it safe to eat/drink.

Source: http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/cellular-microscopic/pasteurization1.htm


Germ Theory

The work of multiple scientists in the 1800s led to the germ theory, or the idea that diseases are caused by microorganisms that get into the human body and invade.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/alcohol.htm


VaccinationsEdward Jenner was born on May 17, 1749, in Berkeley, Gloucestershire, the son of the Rev. Stephen Jenner, vicar of Berkeley. Edward was orphaned at age 5 and went to live with his older brother. During his early school years, Edward developed a strong interest in science and nature that continued throughout his life. At age 13 he was apprenticed to a country surgeon and apothecary in Sodbury, near Bristol (16). The record shows that it was there that Jenner heard a dairymaid say, “I shall never have smallpox for I have had cowpox. I shall never have an ugly pockmarked face.” It fact, it was a common belief that dairymaids were in some way protected from smallpox.

For many years, he had heard the tales that dairymaids were protected from smallpox naturally after having suffered from cowpox. Pondering this, Jenner concluded that cowpox not only protected against smallpox but also could be transmitted from one person to another as a deliberate mechanism of protection. In May 1796, Edward Jenner found a young dairymaid, Sarah Nelms, who had fresh cowpox lesions on her hands and arms (Figure (Figure3 3 ). On May 14, 1796, using matter from Nelms' lesions, he inoculated an 8-year-old boy, James Phipps. Subsequently, the boy developed mild fever and discomfort in the axillae. Nine days after the procedure he felt cold and had lost his appetite, but on the next day he was much better. In July 1796, Jenner inoculated the boy again, this time with matter from a fresh smallpox lesion. No disease developed, and Jenner concluded that protection was complete

Source: Riedel, S. (2005). Edward Jenner and the history of smallpox and vaccination.Proceedings (Baylor University. Medical Center), 18(1), 21–25.

Farming/Industry

The hand of Sarah Nelms.

Photo courtesy of the National Library of

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1200696/figure/F3/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1200696/#B16

Farming/Industry

The Spinning Jenny

For many centuries, wool and flax (used to make linen) had been changed from fibers (the raw material) to thread, or yarn, using a spinning wheel. The wheel was turned by hand or, in some cases, by using a foot peddle. The motion of the wheel turned a spindle which pulled on the fibers. This caused the fibers to be drawn out and twisted to make yarn.

James Hargreaves was a weaver who lived in Stanhill, near Blackburn in Lancashire. He was poor, uneducated and had a large family. It is said that, in 1767, one of his daughters accidentally knocked over his spinning wheel. As Hargreaves watched the overturned machine, he noticed that the spindle continued to spin, even though it had now been turned over by the fall. It occurred to him that the same wheel might be used to turn many spindles [to make thread or yarn] at the same time. He set about making a machine with eight spindles connected to one wheel. He called his machine the Spinning Jenny, after his daughter.

Hargreaves made a number of Spinning Jennies and started to sell them in the area. However, since each machine was capable of doing the work of eight people, other spinners were angry about the competition. In 1768, a group of spinners broke into Hargreaves' house and destroyed his machines. Hargreaves decided to move his family away from Blackburn and they settled in Nottingham. Here Hargreaves found a partner, Thomas James, and together they set up a small spinning mill.

Sanitation/Sewage/Housing

A magazine cartoon from 1858 shows Father Thames with 'his offspring', diphtheria, scrofula and cholera.


Cholera was a greatly feared disease. Caused by contaminated water, it could spread with speed and with devastating consequences. Not for nothing did the disease get the nick-name “King Cholera“. Industrial Britain was hit by an outbreak of cholera in 1831-32, 1848-49, 1854 and 1867. The cause was simple – sewage was being allowed to come into contact with drinking water and contaminating it. As many people used river water as their source of drinking water, the disease spread with ease. In London it is thought 7000 people died of the disease in the 1831-32 outbreak which represented a 50% death rate of those who caught it. 15,000 people died in London in the 1848-49 outbreak.

Smallpox made a major re-occurrence in industrial cities even after Edward Jenner’s vaccine. The reason was simple. Very many in the industrial cities were ignorant of the fact that Jenner had developed a vaccine. Also the overcrowded tenements of the cities were a perfect breeding ground for smallpox.

Typhoid and typhus were as feared as cholera. Both were also fairly common in the Industrial Revolution. Typhoid was caused by infected water whereas typhus was carried by lice. Both were found in abundance in industrial cities.

The greatest killer in the cities was tuberculosis (TB). The disease caused a wasting of the body with the lungs being attacked. The lungs attempt to defend themselves by producing what are called tubercles. The disease causes these tubercles to become yellow and spongy and coughing fits causes them to be spat out by the sufferer. TB affected those who had been poorly fed and were under nourished. It also affected those who lived in dirty and damp homes. TB can be spread by a person breathing in the exhaled sputum of someone who already has the disease. In the overcrowded tenements of the industrial cities, one infected person could spread the disease very easily. Though accurate records are difficult to acquire, it is believed that TB killed one-third of all those who died in Britain between 1800 and 1850.

Microbes were only discovered in 1864 by Louis Pasteur. Until that time all manner of theories were put forward as to what caused diseases. A common belief – and one that dated back to Medieval England – was that disease was spread by bad smells and invisible poisonous clouds (miasmas). Industrial cities were certainly plagued by poor smells from sewage, industrial pollutants etc. The majority of deaths were in the industrial cities. Therefore, doctors concluded, the two went together: death and bad smells/gasses.



As the new towns and cities rapidly developed during the Industrial Revolution the need for cheap housing, near the factories, increased. Whilst there were some men, such as Robert Owen, who were willing to create good housing for their workers, many employers were not. These employers ruthlessly exploited their workers by erecting poor, and often unsanitary, shoddily built houses. Workers often paid high rents for, at best, sub-standard housing.

In the rush to build houses, many were constructed too quickly in terraced rows. Some of these houses had just a small yard at the rear where an outside toilet was placed. Others were ‘back to back’ with communal toilets. Almost as soon as they were occupied, many of these houses became slums. Most of the poorest people lived in overcrowded and inadequate housing, and some of these people lived in cellars. It has been recorded that, in one instance, 17 people from different families lived in an area of 5 metres by 4 metres.

Sanitary arrangements were often non-existent, and many toilets were of the ‘earth closet’ variety. These were found outside the houses, as far away as possible because of the smell. Usually they were emptied by the ‘soil men’ at night. These men took the solid human waste away. However, in poorer districts, the solid waste was just heaped in a large pile close to the houses. The liquid from the toilets and the waste heaps seeped down into the earth and contaminated the water supplies. These liquids carried disease-causing germs into the water. The most frightening disease of all was cholera.

Source: http://www.saburchill.com/history/chapters/IR/039a.html

Life Expectancy

Source: https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy/

Population data gathered from Clio Infra

1773- 35.3 years

1783- 35.8

1793- 37.9

1803- 40

1813- 41.3

1823- 40.7

1833- 40.9

1843- 41.6

1853- 40

1863- 40.4

1873- 43.3

1883- 44

1893- 44.7

1903- 49.5

Population Growth

Source: BBC.com




Transportation

The railroad was first developed in Great Britain. A man named George Stephenson successfully applied the steam technology of the day and created the world's first successful locomotive. The first engines used in the United States were purchased from the Stephenson in England. Even rails were largely imported from England until the Civil War. Americans who had visited England to see new steam locomotive were impressed that railroads dropped the cost of shipping by carriage by 60-70%.

John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie were 2 of the most famous robber barons in the U.S. A robber baron referred to very wealthy businessmen in the 1800s who did whatever they had to do to get richer. Rockefeller used horizontal integration with his oil company, while Carnegie used vertical integration with his steel company. Rockefeller relied on the railroad to transport his oil all over the U.S., while Carnegie’s steel build the railroads.

Transportation

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