How The Industrial Revolution Has Changed The Development Of The Cotton Industry

The development of the cotton industry throughout the Industrial Revolution marked an extremely important time in history. It altered forever the way products are manufactured through mechanization, changed the labour process and its management through the capitalist created factory system, and affected monumental social changes for families and working people. One can only speculate the ways in which the Industrial Revolution would have changed the world we live in today without the development of the cotton industry in England because its effects were far reaching including the development and influence of “engineers, builders, chemists, bankers, financiers… workers' houses, for gas (and later electric) lighting…the chemical industry…mining,

This mechanised the spinning and winding of multiple pieces of cotton with the manual labour of a worker. This replaced the 1 person spinning wheel, a process completely done by hand, that was used for hundreds of years until 1788. At the same time, Richard Arkwight invented a Water Frame. It differed from Hargreaves’ Spinning Jenny as the Water Frame could use water to power it, and in the late eighteen century James Watt’s steam engine replaced water power. By 1799 Samuel Crompton combined the ideas of Hargraves and Arkwright creating what was called a Spinning Mule. It was refined over the years until it became ‘self-acting’ allowing for thousands of spindles to be used at the same time. Once the spinning became mechanized weaving followed. In 1785 Cartwright designed the first Power Loom. This Power Loom was continually being modified and refined until the 1840’s when the machine was so advanced, it could last up to 100 years of use. These refinements created a beautiful quality cloth as well as cut the manual labour of a weaver in half as compared to earlier machines. Machines used today are engineered based on the

Throughout the industrial revolution, villages were transformed into factory towns. The manufacture of cotton was mainly situated in the eastern half of Lancashire and parts of Yorkshire and Cheshire because of its ideal temperatures. Including all of the above, a port in Liverpool and markets in Manchester, it appears as though the ideal conditions were in place for cotton manufacture and its huge expansion in the area. Now employed under the new factory system, spinners and weavers as a group were a leading specialized group in terms of numbers, however occupationally just came behind farm labourers by the 1820’s. Interestingly, those employed in the cotton industry could earn more in wages than the average farm labourer, which brought about a huge influx of once farm labourers and their families into the new factory towns. Male workers, who once employed their spouses and children as helpers in the home, were now working side by side with them in the factories. Women and children’s wages were far lower than that of men, but if they didn’t work, their family would experience poverty. A grave picture of a worker’s factory life is painted by both Rule and Aspin. The working lives of people had completely transformed. Congested dwellings and unsanitary towns were the new way people lived with few exceptions.