Overview

The Industrial Revolution was the rapid advances in technology during the 18th and 19th centuries. Even though the it had many great economic successes, it also had a wide variety of victims. 

Working Conditions in Factories

The working conditions during the industrial revolution were dreadful. As more factories were being built, businesses were in need of more workers. Factories were usually dark with the only light source coming form the windows. The machines were exposed and close together causing more danger. It was very unsanitary with constant smoke coming from machines and dust and dirt build up. Employers could set wages as low as they wanted because there were many people in need of jobs.    

Women and Childern

Women and children were treated worse than men. They were hired more because they were paid less money. Women earned one-third to one-half of men's wages. Children earned even less. Employers could get away with paying orphans no money. They were forced to work for 12-16+ hours a day with only an hour break. Children had their heads dunked in water for being drowsy while women were sexually harassed. Children worked as young as six and had little to no education.

Children were very useful as laborers because their size allowed them to move through small spaces between the machines where adults couldn't fit. Machines usually ran so quickly that little fingers, arms and legs could easily get caught. Children were easily and more likely to catch diseases and illnesses because of the constant fumes and toxins coming from the machines. Many accidents occurred and with the lack of medical care, it resulted in the deaths of many children and an increased mortality rate. 

Working in the Mines

Coal-mining was a prominent industry during the Industrial Revolution. Breaker boys, who worked above-ground to sort slate, rocks, and other debris from the coal, were required to be ate least twelve years old. underground miners were required to be at least fourteen years of age. Parents often presented a fake birth certificate with an altered date in order to have their children, who were often as young as 5 or six years old, work in the mines. Breaker boys were subjected to large quantities of coal dust while they sat on the edges of trough-like chutes in order to handpick debris from coal. 

They were not allowed to wear gloves in fear that they would inhibit the boys agility or the boss would beat them. Skin conditions were contracted because of long exposure from sulfur. Their fingers often became cracked, bloody, and swollen from sorting. The above-ground machines caused loss of hearing, maiming, or serious injury. Working conditions underground were even more severe. Poisonous gases were often naturally released. The build up of gases often led to explosions that killed many people. Mining tunnels sometimes collapsed, paralyzing or crushing people to death. Sometimes a young miner would be crushed so severely that his body would have to be scraped from the floor with a shovel.  Rat infestation caused many diseases. Nippers, boys who opened doors for incoming mining cars filled with up to four tons of coal, were often run over and killed when they forgot to open the passageway way for incoming cars. Spraggers, boys who kept the mining cars motion by using a long sticks in order to keep the wheel turning, often got an arm or leg entangled and cut off by the spokes of the wheel.

Child Labor Laws

Reform for child labor during the industrial revolution wasn't an immediate success. It took several years for Congress to pass a national law designed to improve working conditions and raising the legal age to work. In 1904, the National Child Labor  Committee was formed. The majority of the public desired reform, whereas the business community refused to acknowledge that child labor was a serious issue. After a great deal of protest, the first federal child labor law was passed in 1916. In 1918, the supreme court declared the 1916 law unconstitutional. After a long, frustrating legal struggle, congress passed the Fair Labor standards act in 1938. 

Major Inventions

As American political and economic power grew in the mid-nineteenth century, the impact of the countries technology began to grow as well. Eli Whitney was an inventor who was best known for making the cotton gin. The cotton gin was one of the key inventions of the industrial revolution and helped shape the economy of the Antebellum South. The cotton gin was a mechanical device that removes the seeds from cotton, a process that had previously required a lot of labor. The cotton gin was a wooden drum stuck with with hooks that pulled the cotton fibers through a mesh. The cotton seeds would not fir through the mesh and fall outside.

A single cotton gin could generate up to 55 pounds (25 kg) of cleaned cotton daily. This contributed to the economic development of the Southern states, a prime cotton growing area. Whitney received a patent for his cotton gin on March 14, 1794, but it was not validated until 1807. Whitney and his partner, Miller, did not intend to sell the gins. They expected to charge farmers for cleaning their cotton two-fifths of the value, paid in cotton. Resentment at this scheme, the mechanical simplicity of the device and the primitive state of patent law, made infringement inevitable. Whitney and Miller could not build enough gins to meet demand, so gins from other makers found ready sale. In the end, patent infringement lawsuits consumed the profits and their cotton gin company went out of business in 1797. While the cotton gin did not earn Whitney the fortune he had hoped for, it did give him fame. 

Another famous inventor was Samuel Finley Breese Morse who invented the telegraph. He was a co-developer of the Morse code, and helped to develop the commercial use of telegraphy. Morse code is a method of transmitting text information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that can be directly understood by a skilled listener or observer without special equipment. While returning by ship from Europe in 1832, Morse encountered Charles Thomas Jackson of Boston, a man who was well schooled in electromagnetism. Witnessing various experiments with Jackson's electromagnet, Morse developed the concept of a single-wire telegraph. 

Morse encountered the problem of getting a telegraphic signal to carry over more than a few hundred yards of wire. With Gale's help, Morse introduced extra circuits or relays at frequent intervals, and was soon able to send a message through ten miles (16 km) of wire. Morse made his last trip to Washington, D.C., in December 1842, stringing "wires between two committee rooms in the Capitol, and sent messages back and forth" to demonstrate his telegraph system. Congress appropriated $30,000 in 1843 for construction of an experimental 38-mile (61 km) telegraph line between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore. On May 24, 1844, the line was officially opened. In May 1845 the Magnetic Telegraph Company was formed in order to build telegraph lines from New York City toward Philadelphia, Boston, Buffalo, New York and the Mississippi.

Other Major Inventions During the Industrial Revolution

1. James Watt, Steam Engine -  was the first type of steam engine to make use of steam at a pressure just above atmospheric to drive the piston helped by a partial vacuum.
2. Robert Fulton, Steamboat - made the first steamboat that could commercially travel from place to place.
3. Elias Howe, Sewing Machine - He was not the first to come up with the idea of a sewing machine, but he did come up with significant refinements to it.
4.  Alexander Graham Bell, Telephone - was a scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone.
5. Thomas Edison, Phonograph -  a device introduced in 1877 for the mechanical recording and reproduction of sound. 
6. Nikola Tesla, Induction Motor - an AC electric motor in which the electric current in the rotor needed to produce torque is obtained by electromagnetic induction from the magnetic field of the stater winding.
7. Rudolf Diesel, Diesel Engine - an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel that has been injected into the combustion chamber is initiated by the high temperature which a gas achieves when greatly compressed.
8. The Wright Brothers - First Airplane
9. Henry Ford - the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production.

Why Child Labor is Bad

        Working conditions that decent for adults could terribly affect the conditions of children because of their physical differences. Risks are greater for children because their bodies are still developing, they are unskilled, and do not have a proper education. Economically active children suffer injuries or illnesses while working. Many Children lose their lives every year. Many of the industries that employ large numbers of young workers in the United States have higher-than-average injury rates for workers of all ages. Jobs that require skill and are labor intensive can cause harm to children. Accidents can occur because training and supervision may be inadequate and work may be illegal and inappropriate.

Low-income youth are more likely to work in high-risk occupations. Poverty-related health problems (malnutrition, fatigue, anemia) increase the risks and consequences of work-related hazards and may lead to permanent disabilities and premature death. 

Why Child Labor is Good

        Child labor has a dark history around the world. But banning child labor may not work in countries with systemic, widespread poverty. There are few positive sides of child labor which can be discussed alongside its negative impact.  Family income that is below poverty level and lifestyle are the worst and most uncomfortable situations.Children can contribute to family income. Income from children can be a huge support for poor families. Owners can reduce the cost of production.

Editorial: Ultimately, did the Industrial Revolution contribute positively or negatively to society?

        The Industrial Revolution brought many changes. Some of them benefited society, while others caused harm. The people who were mostly affected by these changes were the working class. The working people experienced a lot of pain. But their sacrifice is what helped make America how it is today. Ultimately, the industrial revolution contributed positively to society.

Citations

1. http://www.victorianweb.org/history/hist8.html
2. http://www.schoolshistory.org.uk/IndustrialRevolution/lifeduringindustrialrevolution.htm
3. The Industrial Revolution: Technology and Effects