Reform Factories During the Industrial Revolution

There are many reasons why people wanted to reform the factories in the industrial revolution. The factories were very dangerous to work in, there were a lot of accidents, punishments and the food was horrible.A lot of children worked very long shifts in tightly packed conditions under the machines, which they had to clean and oil. This resulted in the children growing up with deformed bodies. According to a supervisor working in a factory in 1833 he found it very hard to keep his workers awake in the last few hours of their shifts and this is extremely dangerous because it can lead to you cutting of your limbs.

If you arrived late for work there were some strict punishments such as being fined for 5 minutes 2d and the later you were the more you had to pay. Also because of the amount of hours you spend in the factory working you would be deathened by the humongous amount of noise coming from all the machines and as a result of this you would probably have to retire at a very young age. You had to start work at 5 o clock in the morning and finish at 8 pm and you were only aloud to have a half an hour breakfast and half an hour for dinner. This is a very important factor because working hours leads to everything else like punishments for example if you were late and accidents if you were tired.The accidents in the factories were horrendous they mainly consisted of people cutting their arms, legs and hands of because of the powerful machinery. When the children fall asleep on the job they usually get their hands caught in the machinery and will never be able to work again.

In the rooms it could get very dusty and the dust would get into your lungs which leads to serious breathing problems. The children would have to stand throughout their shifts so if they fell because they were tired they would again get caught in the machinery. According to one hospital that every year they treated nearly a thousand people for wounds and mutilations caused by the machines in the factories. This is also a vey important factor because you don’t want to grow up deformed and not have a job again and not live a good lifestyle.The punishments in the factories were vey strict, for example if you were late you were fined and the later you were the more you were fined. The fines that you were given were very hard to pay but normally the workers would just not get paid for a few days.

You were fined for a lot of offences like dropping bobbins, waste, oil spilled, bad language and not washing. If you flagged one little bit u were strapped up and the girls regulary had black marks on their skin which the parents were not happy about but they wouldn’t complain because they don’t want their children to lose their jobs and lose money for the family. If you did something wrong or broke the string you would be beaten. This is an important factor because England should be a free country and not one where you are forced to work and beaten for something you do wrong.

The food in the factory was revolting according to the factory workers. The common food was oatcake, it was thick and coarse and put into cans with boiled milk and water poured into it. That was their breakfast and lunch. Their dinner was potato pie with boiled bacon in it with so much fat but they were so hungry that they ate it anyway. They only had cheese and brown bread once a year. In most textile factories the workers were still eating their meal whilst working, this meant the food got covered in dust resulting in sickness and this is also linked with accident because you could drop your meal and you would reach to get it and could injure yourself in the process.

This is an important factor because without much food they don’t have enough energy to work and could once again cause trouble.I think this statement is partly true and partly not because if it wasn’t for all the other reasons, I don’t think we would of reformed the factories because all of these reasons link together. So without one I don’t think there would be any problems. I do think it is an important reason but I don’t think that that is the only reason why we reformed the factories.