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The First Industrial Revolution brought deep changes to economy, the way in which goods were produced, how the population was distributed, society and transportation. Starting on Great Britain on the 18th century, among the most important changes that it brought there are new chemical manufacturin and processes for manipulate metals like iron, the increased use of water and steam power, the switch of hand production methods to using machines, mass production and the development of machine tools. The iron, coal and textiles industries were the more important and developed during the Revolution. The job opportunities, the massive production and the economic benefits generated by the new industries, as well as improvement on transportation with the invention of trains and steamboats, favored and encouraged massive migration from the rural areas to the cities.

However, all of this generated many problems for the labourers. Their employment and subsistence became depndent of costly means and job security was lacking (this because displacement of workers by machines and a large labour pool). Job conditions were miserable as well, with low wages, many hours of work, unsanitary coonditions, explotaition, lack of compensation for accidents, firing or incapacity to work, child labour, abuses for part of the employers, etc. Additionally, the new factories generated plenty of pollution on the air near the cities and the increase in urban population caused unsanitary conditions and increased on diseases.

Many of this issues would be progressively attended and solved through time, but the initials stage of the Industrial Revolution were difficult for the majority, despite of the positive aspects of it. The conditions in which most people lived added to the indiference of their employers and the slow response of the authorities, give us an idea of how low valued was the life of most individuals during those years. In many cases, the workers weren't very different from the machines of the Revolution, they served a purpose, but if they "fail" or "break", they were replaced and wasted without second thoughts.

Sources:

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2025). The first Industrial Revolution. Encyclopaedia Britannica, website: Industrial Revolution - Technology, Factories, Change | Britannica

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Since the First Industrial Revolution, an important percentage of British population, specially on the urban areas, start working at factories in which all kind of commodities were produced in mass. This however, despite some benefits, came with many abuses and difficulties for the workers of the factories (which included men, women and children). In response to this, a series of laws, known collectively as the "Factories Acts", were approved through the years on attempts to improve the labor conditions on British factories, starting with the Althorp's Act of 1833. A little later, already in Victorian Era, there were even more advances.

Starting with the Factory Act of 1844, which is considered the first health and safety act in Britain, it made mandatory that all dangerous machine should be securely fenced off, that no child should clean mill machinery while it was in motion, as well as establishing a limit of 6.5 hours of work for children (plus 3 hours of schooling) and a maximum of 12 hour day for women and everyone between 13 and 18 years old. This time would later be reduced to 10 hours on Anthony Ashley-Cooper's Factory Act of 1847.

On 1867, a new Act passed that extended the existing legislation to more kind of factories and brought regulation to other industries like blast furnaces, tobacco, steel and iron, glass, mills, bookbinding and paper. This act have issues on it enforcement, since it considerably increased the number of places liable to official inspection.

Further Factory Acts were passed on 1878, 1891 and 1895, which considerably extended earlier safety regulations and put additional limits to women and children employment on factories. The most relevant of this changes came with the 1891 Act, which raised the minimum age of factory's employment to 11.

The history of these regulations acts, help us to appreciate how the value given to people, particularly the factory workers changed with the years. From giving them very few importance on the early Industrial Revolurtion, particularly from the factories owners, to having more consideration by the government before the start of Victorian Era, and then a progressive increase of concerns for their safety and well being as this period advances, getting a relatively humanitarian approach, closer to modern legislations as they were getting close to the 20th century.

Sources:

UK Parliament Living Heritage. (20225). Later factory legislation. UK Parliament, website: Later factory legislation - UK Parliament

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