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Before the 1770s most goods were made at home. A weaver worked at their own pace, in their own cottage, on their own small machine.
The factory system changed everything. It gathered workers, machines and a single power source together under one roof.
The big shift: The factory did not just make more cloth — it changed how people worked. Instead of choosing their own hours, workers now followed the machine and the factory clock.
The engine that turned the machines never stopped, so the workers could not stop either. This new idea is called time discipline.
Owners also split each job into tiny repeated steps. This division of labour meant an untrained person could do one simple task quickly.
Concentrate
Bring hundreds of workers and machines into one big building instead of scattered cottages.
Power
Drive all the machines from one source — first a water wheel, later a steam engine.
Discipline
Set fixed hours by the clock, with fines for lateness, so the whole workforce runs like the machine.
Divide
Split the job into small repeated steps so cheap, unskilled labour can be trained fast.
Concentrate, Power, Discipline, Divide — the four moves that make a factory.
What it felt like: A cotton-mill worker might tie broken threads on one machine for twelve hours. Boring and exhausting — but the mill produced far more cloth than any cottage ever could.
For centuries, skill lived in people's hands. A master weaver spent years learning the craft, and that skill made them valuable.
Mechanisation moved that skill into the machine instead. Now the machine did the clever part, and a worker only had to feed and watch it.
Why it mattered: When machines did the skilled work, owners no longer had to pay for years of training. Cheaper, less-skilled workers — often women and children — could run the machines for lower wages.
- Spinning jenny (1764) — let one worker spin many threads at once instead of one.
- Water frame (1769) — a stronger, water-powered spinning machine built for the factory, not the home.
- Power loom (1785) — mechanised weaving so cloth could be woven by machine, not by hand.
Skilled artisans saw their trade destroyed. Some fought back — the Luddites broke machines because those machines had taken their livelihoods.
Hand production (before)
- Made at home at your own pace
- Years of skill needed
- Skilled workers well paid
- Small output, one item at a time
Mechanised production (after)
- Made in a factory to the clock
- Skill sits in the machine
- Cheap unskilled labour used
- Huge output, made in bulk
Link cause to effect: In an essay, don't just say 'machines were invented'. Explain the effect: mechanisation cut costs and de-skilled work, which is why output soared and old crafts collapsed.
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Industrialisation did not spread evenly. A few key industries pulled the whole economy forward.
The first wave was led by cotton textiles, then coal and iron. These are the classic industries of the early Industrial Revolution.
- Cotton textiles — the pioneer industry, first to fill factories with powered machines.
- Coal — the fuel that powered steam engines and heated the furnaces.
- Iron — used to build the machines, rails and bridges of the new age.
Industries feed each other: No industry stood alone. Coal powered iron-making and steam engines; iron and steam built the railways; railways carried more coal. This chain is called interdependence.
From about the 1850s a second industrial revolution took over, led by steel and chemicals.
The key breakthrough was the Bessemer process. By blasting air through molten iron it produced strong, cheap steel — perfect for rails, ships and machines.
Bessemer = cheap steel = heavy industry: The Bessemer process (1856) made steel cheap for the first time. Cheap steel fed a boom in engineering and heavy industry — the backbone of modern factories, ships and skyscrapers.
The entrepreneurs who organised it all
Machines alone build nothing. Someone had to raise the money, hire the workers and sell the goods.
These organisers were the entrepreneurs.
Richard Arkwright
Built water-powered cotton mills and pulled together capital, machinery and a disciplined workforce. He is often called the 'father of the factory system' for organising production at scale.
Josiah Wedgwood
A pottery maker who used division of labour in his workshops and was a pioneer of marketing — using catalogues, showrooms and royal endorsement to build demand for his goods.
Three jobs of the entrepreneur: Capital (raise the money), labour (organise the workers) and marketing (sell the product). Arkwright mastered capital and labour; Wedgwood mastered marketing. Together they show what entrepreneurship meant.