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Assessment 1: Planning for effective learning lesson sequence

Rationale:
The following lesson sequence has been devised for a year nine
classroom in order to promote historical thinking about the Industrial
Revolution amongst students. It deals specifically with the depth
study of Making a Better World and is designed to be a part of a
larger unit focussed on the substantive concept of Revolution, which
will be investigated using the procedural concept of Continuity and
Change (Roberts, 2013). This lesson sequence sits towards the
beginning of the unit and works to consolidate and introduce their
knowledge as the foundation of the origins and workings of the
industrial revolution has already been taught, yet the effects to social
structure has not. The consolidation aspect to the sequence can be
seen through the first lesson where students need to use a KWL chart
to consolidate previous ideas and content learned and identify what
they hope to learn through moving onto including social aspects of
society into their understanding of the industrial revolution, and how
people influence the concept of revolution.
A conceptual approach for this unit has been adopted as it promotes
greater engagement and challenges knowing the mere facts of
history, prompting a deeper level of understanding and therefore
creating higher order thinking (Husbands & Kitson, 2010; Erickson,
2007). Through using historical thinking concepts such as continuity
and change, students can detect the uses and abuses of history as
they learn to think historically (Centre for the study of Historical
Consciousness, n.d.). There is a vital distinction between thinking
historically and knowing the facts and it is important that students
know the difference, as only through thinking historically will students
be able to discover new understandings (Husbands & Kitson, 2010;
Short et al, 1996). That is why this lesson sequence encourages
students to explore the ways in which the past has evolved, and
invites students, mainly through the summative assessment and to

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make connections with their own lives, drawing connections to

continuities to aid in the development of their own ideas (Husbands &
Kitson, 2010). As conceptual learning takes place differentially, it was
important to consider learner needs and plan included tasks and
assessments carefully (Taylor, Fahey, Kriewoldt & Boon, 2012; Handa,
2013). It is for this reason that both individual inquiry and group
inquiry was included, along with the variety of options for set
assessment tasks.
As mentioned above, getting students to think historically was a
major influence in the formulation of these lessons, hence the
inclusion of a source analysis task. Through including a source
analysis task that is scaffolding and guiding by including questions
that promote richer discourse, it is envisioned that students will be
able to identify sources as contestable, rather than just evidence and
see how all evidence is limited in what it provides/depicts for
historians (Taylor, Fahey, Kriewoldt & Boon, 2012; Husbands & Kitson,
2010). The inclusion of a jigsaw method into the source analysis
promotes collaborative learning as students can then teach each
other about what they learnt about a specific social class. This also
creates deeper discourse as they contest each others thoughts and
opinions.
Through using formative assessments in this lesson sequence,
students are able to get the most out of their learning, as teachers
are able to give them feedback and guide their learning without
disturbing their inquiry process with a piece of work that needs to be
submitted. While summative assessments, naturally have their place
in a unit of work; it is not ideal to place one so early in a unit. It is for
this reason that I have alluded to what they will be required to do, but
not included it. Naturally all content should be targeted at the final
outcomes, which is why students have been required to analyse
primary sources. The formative assessments, therefore, were created
with an historical method approach in mind. This was so students

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would learn how to question the past, and the reliability of evidence,
in order to create their own ideas on the topic of revolution (Duquette,
2015). However, in order to have the assessment work, the students
need to understand what is expected of them, which is why the
source analysis task is structured using Wineburgs framework.
Through structuring their learning they are able to understand what is
needed of them, therefore providing the framework for VanSledrights
pillars of assessment; cognition, observation and lastly interpretation,
while also adhering to the standards based assessment expected
(VanSledright, 2015).
While content is naturally important for any historian, in order to
properly guide students, one must first develop and understanding of
the bigger ideas present within history. It is for this reason that this
lesson sequence focuses on developing personal ideas and skills in
order for students to be able to critically view history and create their
own hypotheses about Revolution through thinking about continuity
and change, therefore developing into young historians.

Lesson Sequence:
Stage 1: Desired Results
Established Goal(s)/Content Standards(s):

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Explain key patterns of change and continuity over time for

example; the impact of changes in technology during the
Industrial Revolution that led to the development of cities and

the factory system.

Design questions or hypotheses to frame an inquiry about a

particular event, person or development.

Analyse and record information from sources which provide
evidence to answer particular inquiry questions.

AusVELS Curriculum Links:

-

The technological innovations that led to the Industrial

Revolution, and other conditions that influenced the
industrialisation of Britain (the agricultural revolution, access to
raw materials, wealthy middle class, cheap labour, transport

system, and expanding empire) and of Australia (ACDSEH017).

The population movements and changing settlement patterns

during this period (ACDSEH080).

The experience of men, women and children during the
Industrial Revolution, and their changing way of life

(ACDESH081).
Use historical terms and concepts (ACHHS165).
Identify and select different kinds of questions about the past to

inform historical inquiry (ACHHS166).

Identify the origin, purpose and context of primary and

secondary sources (ACHHS169).

Process and synthesise information from a range of sources for

use as evidence in an historical argument (ACHHS170).

Evaluate the reliability and usefulness of primary sources

(ACHHS171).
Develop texts, particularly descriptions and discussions that use
evidence from a range of sources that are referenced

(ACHHS174).
Select and use a range of communication forms (oral, graphic,

written) and digital technologies (ACHHS175)

Understanding(s):
Essential Questions(s):
This lesson sequence aims to
consolidate and extend students

What were the changing

features of the movements

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knowledge on the Industrial

of people from 1750-1918?

revolution, specifically in regards

to the ideas of continuity and

contribute to change in this

will already have an

-

industrial revolution, and previous

period? (VCAA, 2015)

What was the biggest/most
influential change the

knowledge of what society was

Industrial Revolution

like before the industrial

revolution. As such, students will

(VCAA, 2015)
How did new ideas and
technological developments

change and revolution. Students

understanding the origins of the

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presented to society?
Was the Industrial

develop and understanding of

Revolution really

continuity and change in regards

advantageous to the lower

to society and life by exploring

how revolution alters societal
structure.

classes of society?
How did the Industrial
revolution shape our
modern society?

Student Objectives (outcomes):

Students will be able to:
-

Demonstrate an understanding of how life changed for different

social classes as a result of the industrial revolution.

Interpret how the evolution of technology created a new society

through primary sources.

Draw upon the ideas of continuity and change when exploring
the revolution in order to demonstrate an understanding of the

evolution of modern society.

Analyse differing perspectives, both primary and secondary, on

the revolution and evaluate their reliability and usefulness.

Create an historical discourse presenting individual ideas on the
Industrial Revolution.
Stage 2 Assessment Evidence

Performance Task(s):

Other Evidence:

Students will demonstrate the

Students will also demonstrate

desired understandings through

achievement of the desired

both formative (presented in this

results through classroom

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lesson sequence) and summative

discussion, particularly through

assessment tasks (to be

the use of historical concepts and

completed at the end of this unit).

terms, therefore presenting

In the first lesson students will be

historical discourse; and through

required to create a piece that

the teacher walking around

demonstrates their understanding

thorough the students individual

on what they have learnt so far

and collaborative historical

and a sophisticated approach to

inquiry tasks.

what they want to get out of what

they are still to learn. This will
take the form of a concept map,
of sorts, using Padlet and will be
looked at by the teacher to
formatively assess how well they
understand the concepts being
presented to them. In the two
following lessons (a double)
students will be required to
analyse primary sources and
present their findings in groups,
providing another formative
assessment. At the end of this
unit students will be required to
produce their own narrative on
the concept What is Revolution?
Through the lens of continuity
and change, using primary and
secondary sources to do so. This
can be presented as a mini essay,
oral (i.e. podcast), or visual
presentation.
In regards to the formative

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assessments, students will be

assessed in regards to their
understanding of the content in
regards to the concepts
scaffolding their learning. The
summative assessment will be
assessed by how effectively they
have used primary and secondary
sources to frame their own
original view on the Industrial
Revolution.
Stage 3 Learning Plan
Learning Activities:
Lesson 1 (60 Minutes):
Discussion:
Recap over what students have learnt so far. Specifically looking at
-

The Industrial Revolution

o What factors led to its creation?
o What movement/ideas influenced its rapid hold on
society?
o How did it change society?
o What similarities/differences can you see to our society?
Student are required to present more than just mere facts and
content, but show an understanding of greater ideas, therefore
creating deeper discussion. Teacher to help with this through
framing leading questions such as What was the agricultural
revolutions role in creating the industrial revolution? and how
did the movement of people influence the industrialisation of
Britain?

Activity: KWL and Alphabet Brainstorm (Facing History and Ourselves,

2015)
Students to first work individually and create a KWL chart on what
they already know about the industrial revolution, what they want to

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know (in regards to society and life during the industrial revolution),
and at the end of the lesson students will complete the what did you
learn? component through the creation of an alphabet brainstorm,
using the internet to research answers to their what do you want to
know? questions.
-

While the KWL charts will be done individually, the alphabet

brainstorm will be done in groups in order to allow students to

confer and aid each other in their findings

These alphabet brainstorms will be created using Padlet, so

that collaborative learning can take place

Student responses should be more than just one word

Discussion and close of class:

Teacher to lead discussion on student expectations for the progression
of the unit and explain the set up of the next class, which is to be on
source analysis. Students will be split into three groups:
-

Child Labour
The Working Class
Factory Owners

In order for the analysis activity to work properly it is expected that

students do a little bit of research for homework to discover what
their topic entails so they may be prepared to enter the classroom the
next day in the mindset of their given group.
Lesson 2-3 (120 Minutes):
Class instruction:
Teacher explains how the class is going to progress after first quickly
recapping what they went over in the previous lesson, highlighting
the importance of people in a movement such as the industrial
revolution.
-

Class to be focussed on source analysis

Students will analyse three sources in their groups, first

analysing individually, then discussing in their groups

Then students will jigsaw into new groups and discuss the
advantages and disadvantages of the industrial revolution to

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their given group. In new groups students will then hypothesise

which social class benefited the most from the industrial
revolution. This will frame the end of class discussion
Source Analysis Jigsaw Task: (Facing History and Ourselves, 2015)
Students to split into their three groups, each investigating a different
class of society. Students will then analyse their respective sources
(appendix 1) and use the internet and their own opinion to judge the
reliability of each source. Students should be thinking about the
effects the industrial revolution had on each given social group and
how important they were to the movement.
Students will use Wineburgs source analysis framework in order to do
this (they already understand this process) (2001).
-

Sourcing
Contextualising
Close Reading
Corroboration

Once students have analysed the given sources and discussed finding
with their groups they will then jigsaw into new groups. In these new
groups students are to present their findings and discuss who
benefited the most from the industrial revolution, based on the
sources they have been given, and who they believe was the most
important and why.
Class discussion and close of lesson:
Students will now come together as a class and discuss their findings
and what conclusion they came to in their jigsaw groups. They will be
invited to create links between the movement and modern society, to
see if they can make connections between ideas and content in
regards to continuity and change.

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References:
Brady, L., & Kennedy, K. (2001). Celebrating Student Achievement:
Assessment and Reporting. Frenchs Forest, N.S.W.: Pearson
Education Australia
Centre for the Study of Historical Consciousness. (n.d.). Historical
Thinking Concepts. Retrieved from
http://historicalthinking.ca/historical-thinking-concepts.
Duquette, B. (2015). Relating Historical Consciousness to Historical
Thinking through Assessment. In K. Ercikan & P. Seixas, New
Directions in Assessing Historical Thinking (pp. 51-63). New York,
NY: Routledge.
Erickson, H.L. (2007). Concept-based Curriculum and Instruction for the
Thinking Classroom. Heatherton, Victoria: Hawker Brownlow
Education.
Facing Histories and Ourselves. (2015). Teaching Strategies: Jigsaw.
Retrieved from https://www.facinghistory.org/foreducators/educator-resources/teaching-strategies/jigsawdeveloping-community-d.

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Facing History and Ourselves. (2015). Teaching Strategies: KWL.

Retrieved from https://www.facinghistory.org/foreducators/educator-resources/teaching-strategies/k-w-l-chartsassessing-what-w.
Facing History and Ourselves. (2015). Teaching Strategies: Alphabet
Brainstorm. Retrieved from https://www.facinghistory.org/foreducators/educator-resources/teaching-strategies/alphabetbrainstorm.
Handa, M.C. (2013). Leading Differentiated High Performance Learning.
Australian Educational Leader, 35 (3), 22-26
Husbands, C., & Kitson, A. (2010). Teaching History 11-18. Berkshire,
GBR: McGraw-Hill Education.
Roberts, P. (2013). Revisiting historical literacy: Towards a disciplinary
pedagogy. Literacy Learning: The Middle Years, 21 (1), 15-24.
Short, K.G., Schroeder, J., Laird, J., Kauffman, G., Ferguson, M.J. &
Crawford, K.M. (1996). Learning Together Through Inquiry: from
Columbus to Integrated Curriculum. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse
Publishers.
Taylor, T., Fahey, C., Kriewoldt, J., & Boon, D. (2012). Place and Time:
Explorations in Teaching Geography and History. Frenchs Forest
NSW: Pearson Australia.
VanSledright, B. (2015). Assessing for Learning in the History Classroom.
In K. Ercikan & P. Seixas, New Directions in Assessing Historical
Thinking (pp. 75-88). New York, NY: Routledge.
Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority. (2015). History standards
and progression points examples. Retrieved from
http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/auscurric/progressionpoints/

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AusVELS-HistoryProgressionPoints.pdf.
Wineburg, S. (2001). Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts:
Charting the Future of Teacher the Past. Philadelphia: Temple
University Press.

Appendices:
Appendix 1: Primary Source Activity
Child Labour Sources
1.Child Labour in Cotton Factories, 1807
Although this extract was written in 1807 it illustrates that there had
been concern among some elements of society about the
employment of children in factories and the long hours to which they
were subjected.
A conversation between Southey and a Manchester
gentleman who is showing him over the cotton factories.
Mr. -------- remarked that nothing could be so beneficial to a country as
manufacture. 'You see these children, sir,' said he. 'In most parts of
England poor children are a burthen to their parents and to the parish;
here the parish, which would else have to support them, is rid of all
expense; they get their bread almost as soon as they can run about,
and by the time they are seven or eight years old bring in money.

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There is no idleness among us: they come at five in the morning; we

allow them half an hour for breakfast, and an hour for dinner; they
leave work at six, and another set relieves them for the night; the
wheels never stand still.'
I was looking, while he spoke, at the unnatural dexterity with which
the fingers of these little creatures were playing in the machinery, half
giddy myself with the noise and the endless motion; and when he told
me there was no rest in these walls, day or night, I thought that if
Dante had peopled one of his hells with children, here was a scene
worthy to have supplied him with new images of torment.
'These children then,' said I, 'have no time to receive instruction.'
'That, sir,' he replied 'is the evil which we have found. Girls are
employed here from the age you see them till they marry, and then
they know nothing about domestic work, not even how to mend a
stocking or boil a potato. But we are remedying this now, and send
the children to school for an hour after they have done work.' I asked
if so much confinement did not injure their health. 'No' he replied,
'they are as healthy as any children in the world could be. To be sure,
many of them as they grew up went off in consumptions, but
consumption was the disease of the English. ...'
'We are well off for hands in Manchester,' said Mr. ------;
'manufacturers are favourable to population, the poor are not afraid of
having a family here, the parishes therefore have always plenty to
apprentice, and we take them as fast as they can supply us. In new
manufacturing towns they find it difficult to get a supply. Their only
method is to send people round the country to get children from their
parents. Women usually undertake this business; they promise the
parents to provide for the children; one party is glad to be eased of a
burden; and it answers well to the other to find the young ones in
food, lodging and clothes, and receive their wages.' 'But if these
children should be ill-used', said I. 'Sir,' he replied, 'it never can be the
interest of the women to use them ill, nor of the manufacturers to

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permit it.'
It would have been in vain to argue had I been disposed to it. Mr.
------- was a man of humane and kindly nature, who would not himself
use any thing cruelly, and judged of others by his own feelings. I
thought of the cities in Arabian romance, where all the inhabitants
were enchanted: here Commerce is the Queen witch, and I had no
talisman strong enough to disenchant those who were daily drinking
of the golden cup of her charms
Robert Southey, Letters from England (1807).
Bloy. M. (2013). Child Labour In Cotton Factories, 1807.
Retrieved from
http://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/factmine/southey.htm.
2. Report of the Commissioners on the employment of children
in Factories (1833) p. 1418
This section of the Report concerns parental collusion in the
employment of children for long hours in the textile workshops of the
north of England. The 1833 Factory Act sought to restrict the working
hours of children and young persons.
From the causes already assigned, namely the irregularity with which
the operative is supplied with material for his work, irregularity of the
power by which the machinery is driven, and the dissipated habits of
the workers, favoured, if not induced, by the occasional idleness
growing out of the two first causes, it appears that in the carpet
factories it is the constant practice, and in the clothing district the
frequent practice, to work extra hours:
"It is very much the case with some sort of men to go idle part of the
week and to work extra hours the rest. In such cases I have known
men to work from three o'clock in the morning till ten o'clock at night;
the drawers must work the same hours; they must always go

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together; they can't do without one another."

"It is the practice for the weavers to be idle and dissipated part of the
week and to work extra hours the rest. We abound with that evil; we
witness it every week round; even the regular workmen must often
be idle part of the week, from the irregularity of the work coming in. It
is very oppressive indeed to the children."
"I have known instances, in the depth of winter, of drawers being
called up to work by four o'clock in the morning, and earlier. I believe
it is the common practice for the idle weavers to place their drawboys in the looms, and to employ younger boys or girls as drawers, to
make up for their own laziness or dissipation. The weavers are in
general idle the early part of the week and they afterwards work from
eighteen to twenty hours to make up their lost time, during which the
draw-boy or draw-girl must attend them. I have known frequent
instances of their commencing work at two or three o'clock in the
morning."
In the clothing district both workmen and masters agree in stating
that if extra work for extra pay were refused when a press of business
comes, the workmen so refusing would lose their situations; both also
concur in the statement, that it is the constant practice for parents,
and even for children themselves, to apply to the masters for extra
work for additional wages, and cases have been detailed in which
children have worked upwards of fourteen hours.
It appears that parents encourage their children to make the
extraordinary efforts, of which we have given some examples, by
leading them to consider the wages which they thus earn as
peculiarly their own, although a cheat is often practised upon them
even with regard to these extra wages. While all the witnesses agree
in the statement, that whatever the child earns by its regular hours of
labour is uniformly appropriated by the parent, it appears that a large
portion of the additional wages earned by extra hours is also taken by
the latter.

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Bloy. M. (2013). Report of the Commissioners on the

employment of children in Factories (1833). Retrieved from
http://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/factmine/parents.htm.
3. Minutes of the evidence taken before the Committee on the
Factories (1833)
The Select Committee investigating the working conditions of children
in textile factories and collected evidence from witnesses who had
first hand experience of those conditions. One such witness was
Samuel Coulson, whose daughters worked in a textile mill. The
original questions are numbered 5044-5065 and 5080-5084
The evidence of Samuel Coulson, 4 July 1832.
Have you any family?
Yes.
Have any of them worked in a mill?
Yes, three daughters.
At what age did they begin to work?
The elder was going 12, and the middlemost going 11 and the
youngest going 8 when they went to the mill first; they are older now.
At what time in the morning, in the brisk time, did those girls
go to the mills?
In the brisk time, for about six weeks, they have gone at 3 o'clock in
the morning and ended at 10 or nearly half past at night.
What sort of mills were those?
The worsted mills.
What intervals were allowed for rest or refreshment during
those 19 hours of labour?
Breakfast a quarter of an hour, and dinner half an hour, and drinking a
quarter of an hour.
Is that all?
Yes.

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Was any of that time taken up in cleaning the machinery?

They generally had to do what they call drying down; sometimes this
took the whole of the time at breakfast or drinking, and they were to
get their diner or breakfast as they could; if not, it was brought home.
Sometimes they could not get their breakfast at all?
Sometimes they could not.
How long ago was this?It is better than a year since.
Had you not great difficulty in awakening your children to this
excessive labour?
Yes, in the early time we had them to take up asleep and shake them,
when we got them on the floor to dress them, before we could get
them off to their work, but not so in the common hours.
What were the common hours?
Six o'clock in the morning till half past eight at night.
Supposing they had been a little too late, what would have
been the consequence during the long hours?
They were quartered in the longest hours, the same as in the shortest
time.
What do you mean by quartering?
A quarter [of a day's pay] was taken off.
If they had been how much too late?
Five minutes.
What was the length of time they could be in bed during
those long hours?
It was near 11 o'clock before we could get them into bed after getting
a little victuals, and then at morning my mistress used to stop up all
night, for fear that we could not get them ready for the time:
sometimes we have gone to bed, and one of us generally woke up.
What time did you get them up in the morning?
In general me or my mistress [wife] got up at 2 o'clock to dress them.
So that they had not above 4 hours sleep at this time?
No, they had not.

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For how long was that?

About six weeks it held; it was only done when the throng was very
much on; it was not often that.
The common hours of labour were from 6 in the morning till
half past eight at night?
Yes.
With the same intervals for food?
Yes, just the same.
Were the children excessively fatigued by this labour?
Many times; we have cried often when we have given them the little
victualling we had to give them; we had to shake them, and they
have fallen to sleep with the victuals in their mouths many a time.
*******
What were the wages in the short hours?
Three shillings a week each [15p]
When they wrought those very long hours, what did they get?
Three shillings and sevenpence halfpenny. [18p]
For all that additional labour they had only 7d [4p] a week
additional?
No more.
Could you dispose of their wages, when they had received
them, as you wished?
They never said anything to me: but the children have said, "if we do
not bring some little thing from the shop I an afraid we 'shall lose our
work'": and sometimes they used to bring a bit of sugar or some little
oddment, generally of their own head.
Bloy. M. (2013). Minutes of the evidence taken before the
Committee on the Factories (1833). Retrieved from
http://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/factmine/coulson.htm.
Industrial Workers Sources

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1. The physical condition of textile workers

[P. Gaskell, The Manufacturing Population of England.
(London, 1833). pp.161-162, 202-203.
Any man who has stood at twelve o'clock at the single narrow
doorway, which serves as the place of exit for the hands employed in
the great cotton-mills, must acknowledge, that an uglier set of men
and women, of boys and girls, taking them in the mass, it would be
impossible to congregate in a smaller compass. Their complexion is
sallow and pallid - with a peculiar flatness of feature, caused by the
want of a proper quantity of adipose substance to cushion out the
cheeks. Their stature low - the average height of four hundred men,
measured at different times, and different places, being five feet six
inches. Their limbs slender, and playing badly and ungracefully. A
very general bowing of the legs. Great numbers of girls and women
walking lamely or awkwardly, with raised chests and spinal flexures.
Nearly all have flat feet, accompanied with a down-tread, differing
very widely from the elasticity of action in the foot and ankle,
attendant upon perfect formation. Hair thin and straight - many of the
men having but little beard, and that in patches of a few hairs, much
resembling its growth among the red men of America. A spiritless and
dejected air, a sprawling and wide action of the legs, and an
appearance, taken as a whole, giving the world but "little assurance
of a man," or if so, "most sadly cheated of his fair proportions..."
Factory labour is a species of work, in some respects singularly
unfitted for children. Cooped up in a heated atmosphere, debarred the
necessary exercise, remaining in one position for a series of hours,
one set or system of muscles alone called into activity, it cannot be
wondered at - that its effects are injurious to the physical growth of a
child. Where the bony system is still imperfect, the vertical position it
is compelled to retain, influences its direction; the spinal column
bends beneath the weight of the head, bulges out laterally, or is

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dragged forward by the weight of the parts composing the chest, the
pelvis yields beneath the opposing pressure downwards, and the
resistance given by the thigh-bones; its capacity is lessened,
sometimes more and sometimes less; the legs curve, and the whole
body loses height, in consequence of this general yielding and
bending of its parts.

Bloy. M. (2013). The Physical Conditions of textile workers.

Retrieved from
http://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/factmine/deterior.htm.
2. Hours of Labour
The Curse of the Factory System: John Fielden, M.P. (London, 1836)
pp. 34-35.
Here, then, is the "curse" of our factory-system; as improvements in
machinery have gone on, the "avarice of masters" has prompted
many to exact more labour from their hands than they were fitted by
nature to perform, and those who have wished for the hours of labour
to be less for all ages than the legislature would even yet sanction,
have had no alternative but to conform more or less to the prevailing
practice, or abandon the trade altogether. This has been the case with
regard to myself and my partners. We have never worked more than
seventy-one hours a week before Sir John Hobhouse's Act was passed.
We then came down to sixty-nine; and since Lord Althorp's Act was
passed, in 1833, we have reduced the time of adults to sixty-seven
and a half hours a week, and that of children under thirteen years of
age to forty-eight hours in the week, though to do this latter has, I
must admit, subjected us to much inconvenience, but the elder hands
to more, inasmuch as the relief given to the child is in some measure
imposed on the adult. But the overworking does not apply to children
only; the adults are also overworked. The increased speed given to

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machinery within the last thirty years, has, in very many instances,
doubled the labour of both.
Bloy. M. (2013). Hours of Labour. Retrieved from
http://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/factmine/cursefac.htm.
3. Industrial Conditions in Manchester
At the time of writing this account, Greville was a guest of Sir Francis
Egerton at Worsley. Egerton was the heir of the Duke of Bridgewater
who had developed the mines and built underground canals in his
mines. He was also responsible for the Bridgewater Canal.
I have passed these few days in seeing this place and some of the
manufacturing wonders at Manchester. ... On Wednesday I went
through the subterraneous canal, about a mile and a half long, into
the coal-pit, saw the working in the mine, and came up by the shaft; a
black and dirty expedition, scarcely worth the trouble, but which I am
glad to have made. The colliers seem a very coarse set, but they are
not hard worked, and, in fact, do no more than they choose. There are
many miles of this underground canal. On Thursday I went to
Manchester, and saw one of the great cotton and one of the great silk
manufactories; very curious even to me, who am ignorant of
mechanics, and could only stare and wonder, without being able to
understand the niceties of the beautiful and complicated machinery
by which all the operations of these trades are performed. The heat of
the rooms in the former of them was intense, but the man who
showed them to us told us it was caused by the prodigious friction
and the room might be much cooler, but the people liked the heat.
Yesterday I went to the infant school, admirable managed; then to the
recreation-ground of the colliers and working-hands - a recent
establishment. It is a large piece of ground, planted and levelled
round about what is called the paying house, where the men are paid

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their wages once a fortnight. The object is to encourage sports and

occupations in the open air, and induce them not to go to the alehouse. There are cricket, quoits, and football, and ginger-beer and
coffee are sold to the people, but no beer or spirits. This had only a
partial success. Afterward to Patricroft, to see Messrs Nasmyth's great
establishment for making locomotive engines, every part of which I
went over. I asked at all the places about the wages and habits of the
workpeople. In Birley's cotton factory 1,200 are employed, the
majority girls, who earn from ten to fourteen shillings a week. At
Nasmyth's the men make from twenty to thirty-two shillings a week.
They love to change about, and seldom stay very long at one place;
some will go away in a week, and some after a day. In the hot factory
rooms the women look very wan, very dirty, and one should guess
very miserable. They work eleven hours generally, but though it
might be thought that domestic service must be preferable, there is
the greatest difficulty in procuring women-servants here. All the girls
go to the factory in spite of the confinement, labour, close
atmosphere, dirt, and moral danger which await them. The parents
make them go, because they earn money which they bring home, and
they like the independence and the hours every evening, and the
days from Saturday to Monday, of which they can dispose.
Greville, Memoirs, 1845.
Bloy. M. (2013). Industrial Conditions in Manchester. Retrieved
from http://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/social/grevman.htm.
Factory Owners Sources
1.Conditions in the mines: "Captial and Labour" 1843

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This cartoon was published in Punch on 29 July 1843. The

comment was
'It is gratifying to know that though there is such misery in the coal
mines, there is a great deal of luxury results from it'.
Bloy. M. (2013). Conditions in the Mines: Captial and Labour,
1843. Retrieved from
http://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/factmine/cruik.htm.
2. A Wise Factory Owner
As to the conclusions I have come to from the working of my mill for
11 instead of 12 hours each day, as previously, I am quite satisfied
that both as much yarn and cloth may be produced at quite as low a
cost in 11 as in 12 hours. It is my intention to make a further
reduction to 10 hours, without the slightest fear of suffering loss. I
find the hands work with greater energy and spirit; they are more
cheerful, and happy. All the arguments I have heard in favour of long
time appear based on an arithmetical question - if 11 produce so

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much, what will 12 or 15 hours produce? This is correct, [for] the

steam-engine, but try this on the horse, and you will find he cannot
compete with the engine, as he requires time to rest and feed.
There is more bad work made the last one or two hours of the day
than the whole of the first nine of ten hours. About 20 years ago, we
had many orders for a style of goods. We had about 30 young women
in our Manchester warehouse; I requested that they would work
[instead of 11] 12 hours. At the end of the week, I found they had not
a mere trifle more work done' but, supposing there was some
incidental cause for this, I requested they would work 13 hours the
following week, at the end of which they had produced less instead of
more work. The overlooker invited me to be in the room with them the
last hour of the day. They were exhausted and making bad work and
little of it. I therefore reduced their time two hours, as before. Since
that time I have been an advocate for shorter hours of labour.
Parliamentary Papers 1845, XXV, pp. 456-7
Bloy. M. (2013). A Wise Factory Owner. Retrieved from
http://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/factmine/progress.htm.
3. Modern History Sourcebook: Andrew Ure: The Philosophy of
the Manufacturers, 1835
Andrew Ure (1778-1857), a professor at the University of Glasgow,
was an enthusiast for the new manufacturing system. Here he
represents the views of a new class: the manufacturers whose wealth
derived from ownership of factories.
This island is pre-eminent among civilized nations for the prodigious
development of its factory wealth, and has been therefore long
viewed with a jealous admiration by foreign powers. This very preeminence, however, has been contemplated in a very different light
by many influential members of our own community, and has been

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even denounced by them as the certain origin of innumerable evils to

the people, and of revolutionary convulsions to the state. If the affairs
of the kingdom be wisely administered, I believe such allegations and
fears will prove to be groundless, and to proceed more from the envy
of one ancient and powerful order of the commonwealth, towards
another suddenly grown into political importance, than from the
nature of things....
The blessings which physio-mechanical science has bestowed on
society, and the means it has still in store for ameliorating the lot of
mankind, have been too little dwelt upon; while, on the other hand, it
has been accused of lending itself to the rich capitalists as an
instrument for harassing the poor, and of exacting from the operative
an accelerated rate of work. It has been said, for example, that the
steam-engine now drives the power-looms with such velocity as to
urge on their attendant weavers at the same rapid pace; but that the
hand-weaver, not being subjected to this restless agent, can throw his
shuttle and move his treddles at his convenience. There is, however,
this difference in the two cases, that in the factory, every member of
the loom is so adjusted, that the driving force leaves the attendant
nearly nothing at all to do, certainly no muscular fatigue to sustain,
while it procures for him good, unfailing wages, besides a healthy
workshop gratis: whereas the non-factory weaver, having everything
to execute by muscular exertion, finds the labour irksome, makes in
consequence innumerable short pauses, separately of little account,
but great when added together; earns therefore proportionally low
wages, while he loses his health by poor diet and the dampness of his
hovel....
The constant aim and effect of scientific improvement in
manufactures are philanthropic, as they tend to relieve the workmen
either from niceties of adjustment which exhaust his mind and fatigue
his eyes, or from painful repetition of efforts which distort or wear out
his frame. At every step of each manufacturing process described in

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this volume the humanity of science will be manifest....

In its precise acceptation, the Factory system is of recent origin, and
may claim England for its birthplace. The mills for throwing silk, or
making organzine, which were mounted centuries ago in several of
the Italian states, and furtively transferred to this country by Sir
Thomas Lombe in 1718, contained indeed certain elements of a
factory, and probably suggested some hints of those grander and
more complex combinations of self-acting machines, which were first
embodied half a century later in our cotton manufacture by Richard
Arkwright, assisted by gentlemen of Derby, well acquainted with its
celebrated silk establishment. But the spinning of an entangled flock
of fibres into a smooth thread, which constitutes the main operation
with cotton, is in silk superfluous; being already performed by the
unerring instinct of a worm, which leaves to human art the simple
task of doubling and twisting its regular filaments. The apparatus
requisite for this purpose is more elementary, and calls for few of
those gradations of machinery which are needed in the carding,
drawing, roving, and spinning processes of a cotton-mill.
When the first water-frames for spinning cotton were erected at
Cromford, in the romantic valley of the Derwent, about sixty years
ago, mankind were little aware of the mighty revolution which the
new system of labour was destined by Providence to achieve, not only
in the structure of British society, but in the fortunes of the world at
large. Arkwright alone had the sagacity to discern, and the boldness
to predict in glowing language, how vastly productive human industry
would become, when no longer proportioned in its results to muscular
effort, which is by its nature fitful and capricious, but when made to
consist in the task of guiding the work of mechanical fingers and
arms, regularly impelled with great velocity by some indefatigable
physical power. What his judgment so clearly led him to perceive, his
energy of will enabled him to realize with such rapidity and success,
as would have done honour to the most influential individuals, but

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were truly wonderful in that obscure and indigent artisan....

The principle of the factory system then is, to substitute mechanical
science for hand skill, and the partition of a process into its essential
constituents, for the division or graduation of labour among artisans.
On the handicraft plan, labour more or less skilled was usually the
most expensive element of production.... but on the automatic plan,
skilled labour gets progressively superseded, and will, eventually, be
replaced by mere overlookers of machines.
By the infirmity of human nature it happens, that the more skilful the
workman, the more self-willed and intractable he is apt to become,
and, of course, the less fit a component of a mechanical system, in
which, by occasional irregularities, he may do great damage to the
whole. The grand object therefore of the modern manufacturer is,
through the union of capital and science, to reduce the task of his
work-people to the exercise of vigilance and dexterity, - faculties,
when concentred to one process, speedily brought to perfection in the
young. In the infancy of mechanical engineering, a machine-factory
displayed the division of labour in manifold gradations - the file, the
drill, the lathe, having each its different workmen in the order of skill:
but the dextrous hands of the filer and driller are now superseded by
the planing, the key groove cutting, and the drilling-machines; and
those of the iron and brass turners, by the self-acting slide-lathe....
It is, in fact, the constant aim and tendency of every improvement in
machinery to supersede human labour altogether, or to diminish its
cost, by substituting the industry of women and children for that of
men; or that of ordinary labourers for trained artisans. In most of the
water-twist, or throstle cotton-mills, the spinning is entirely managed
by females of sixteen years and upwards. The effect of substituting
the self-acting mule for the common mule, is to discharge the greater
part of the men spinners, and to retain adolescents and children. The
proprietor of a factory near Stockport states, in evidence to the
commissioners, that, by such substitution, he would save 501. a week

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in wages in consequence of dispensing with nearly forty male

spinners, at about 25s. of wages each....
Steam-engines furnish the means not only of their support but of their
multiplication. They create a vast demand for fuel; and, while they
lend their powerful arms to drain the pits and to raise the coals, they
call into employment multitudes of miners, engineers, shipbuilders,
and sailors, and cause the construction of canals and railways. Thus
therefore, in enabling these rich fields of industry to be cultivated to
the utmost, they leave thousands of fine arable fields free for the
production of food to man, which must have been otherwise allotted
to the food of horses. Steam-engines moreover, by the cheapness and
steadiness of their action, fabricate cheap goods, and procure in their
exchange a liberal supply of the necessaries and comforts of life
produced in foreign lands.
Improvements in the machinery have a three-fold bearing: lst. They make it possible to fabricate some articles which, but for
them, could not be fabricated at all.
2nd. They enable an operative to turn out a greater quantity of work
than he could before, - time, labour, and quality of work remaining
constant.
3rd. They effect a substitution of labour comparatively unskilled, for
that which is more skilled.
From Andrew Ure, The Philosophy of Manufactures (London: Chas.
Knight 1835), pp 5-8, 14-15, 20-21, 23, 29-31.
Halsall, P. (1997). Andrew Ure: The Philosophy of the
Manufacturers, 1835. Retrieved from
http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1835ure.asp.

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