The Industrial Revolution
Revolución industrial

Men and women working on an assembly line, making spark plugs, 1920
English | LEVEL A
Men and women working on an assembly line, making spark plugs, 1920
Think about some of the objects you use each day. Maybe you have some toys that you like to play with. Maybe there is a comfortable blanket on your bed. You might have a cozy couch you sit on to watch TV. All of these things are produced in factories today. Now, try to imagine a time when all of these objects had to be made by hand. Before the Industrial Revolution in the late 1700s, everything was made by hand. It was a long and tedious process to produce clothing, furniture, and everyday items one by one.
This changed during the Industrial Revolution. The start of the Industrial Revolution is connected to manufacturing in England. People in England were using water and steam to make power to make items like shirts. Water or steam power was used to spin cotton into thread to make clothes. This allowed for more common goods to be made. Before this invention, a person might have had only one or two shirts. That’s because someone would have to spin each thread of cotton and weave each piece of fabric by hand. Now more goods and everyday items could be made more quickly and at a lower price.
The knowledge about how to make large amounts of products had an interesting journey from England to the United States. One example is a man named Samuel Slater. He worked in English mill factories. He paid close attention to how water-powered cotton mills worked. At the time, it was not legal for him to leave the country. England was afraid that mill workers like Samuel would share what they knew about the technology of mills with other countries. In fact, that’s just what Samuel did! He memorized the way the mills worked in England, and brought the technology to the US. He has been called the “father of the American factory system.”
As factories opened, many people left their farms to work in cities. The assembly line was developed. It was considered an important invention. Each person on the assembly line had a task to complete. The assembly line became especially important late in the Industrial Revolution. In 1913, the Ford Motor Company advanced the assembly line. It allowed them to make cars much faster and at a lower price. Along the assembly line, someone would be in charge of one task that they would repeat over and over. For example, they may have been in charge of attaching the steering wheel or a car seat. Cars that used to take up to 12 hours to put together only took 2 hours! Assembly lines allowed cars and most items to be produced more quickly. This resulted in much lower prices for everyday products, but it was very boring and often dangerous work.
During this time, more goods were available to people and purchased at lower prices. Before the Industrial Revolution people were more likely to be either very poor or very wealthy. Now there was a rise in the middle class. More people found jobs making more money in factories. They could live comfortably somewhere between being poor and rich. However, as the Industrial Revolution spread in cities, many people moved to the area in a short amount of time. This caused a housing problem. They needed housing they could afford. This led to an increase in unsafe housing where single-family homes were divided up to house as many people as possible. Imagine a very small house or apartment where as many as 15 people might live! There was little or no indoor plumbing and a lack of rules to make sure the housing for the factory workers was safe. Sometimes clean water wasn’t available and disease spread.
The Industrial Revolution caused some very bad situations. As factories grew and immigrants came into America in large numbers, the factories became more dangerous. At the same time, the demand for workers increased. Factory owners began hiring a large number of child laborers. These young children used and fixed the dangerous factory equipment and worked for low pay. Imagine working 12 or more hours a day for only two dollars per day or less! Children were at risk for terrible injuries or even death. They had little time for fun activities like playing with their friends. During the Industrial Revolution, worker unions came together and formed to protect the rights and well-being of workers. Eventually unions began to work toward more rights and protections for children. This included allowing children to be free to receive an education, rather than work their lives away in factories.
The Industrial Revolution was harmful to many people and the environment. The burning coal that powered the factories released large amounts of pollution into the air. This caused illness. However, there were also positive effects from this time period that we benefit from today. More goods were available to a larger number of people at a lower cost. This made people’s everyday lives more convenient. We experience other benefits of the Industrial Revolution today. Children can no longer work in dangerous situations. Workers have the right to a clean, safe environment. The waste produced by factories has been reduced so that they do not harm the environment nearly as much as they used to. The Industrial Revolution was one of the most important events in human history. It transformed life for people throughout the world. It began in England, but the effects spread throughout the world. Next time you ride in a car or use your smartphone, remember that these items were produced on assembly lines as a result of the Industrial Revolution.