The Pros And Cons Of Industrialization

The Unit 5 readings and the British National Archives say that industrialization were good for some stuff and terrible for others. For example production began increasing, but jobs started to decrease, most prominently due to machinery. Industrialization showed many critiques with better than ever ways of running things. Major critiques that I believe has the most reactions to are: no jobs, worker conditions, and pollution.

No jobs, this idea began to churn in the minds of lower class individuals. Machines started eliminating jobs some examples were the spinning wheels and weaving machines. These machines, single handedly started a coalition group against them, the Luddites. The Luddites began in Nottinghamshire around 1811. This group of
The people who did have a job in the factories were often treated very poorly and inhumanely. Workers were also sent into coal mines working for a very low minimum wage. They were used for labor and nobody cared otherwise. Not only were adults working to try to make money, but their children were as well. Children even worked in coal mines with their fathers. Business owners and corporations could set the price of wages as low as they wanted because there was always a long line of people who needed to work. The working hours in factories and coal mines were crazy, one article states “People worked fourteen to sixteen hours a day for six days a week. However, the majority were unskilled workers, who only received about $8-$10 dollars a week, working at approximately 10 cents an hour.” (“Working and Living Conditions.” The Industrial Revolution, firstindustrialrevolution.weebly.com/working-and-living-conditions.html.) Not only were the overworked but they were also underpaid. Ten dollars a week for an extreme amount of labor that's ridiculous! That just shows how some families really needed the money to live off of. It also shows how uncaring business owners and corporations are. There are many stories of how dangerous these factories and coal mines were. Back then there were no safety regulations or anything. Little kids would go into small crevices in machines and get their hands chopped off or even worse. This unfair
This repercussion is known as pollution. Pollution is a substance that is harmful to the environment and or the animals in the environment. Some examples of pollution that are caused by factories are smog, trash,and even acid rain. History.com states that, “By the late 18th century and first part of the 19th century, coal came into large-scale use during the Industrial Revolution. The resulting smog and soot had serious health impacts on the residents of growing urban centers.”(History.com Staff. “Water and Air Pollution.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2009, www.history.com/topics/water-and-air-pollution.) Working in these factories with all of the pollution caused serious health problems and side effects. An example of a harmful experience to workers had is the Phosphorus poisoning of 1898. Mentioned in the National Archives, Phosphorus poisoning arises when a worker inhales the fumes of yellow phosphorus used in the manufacture of matches. Inhaling this yellow phosphorus can cause a disease called “Phossy Jaw,” osteonecrosis of the jaw. Smog also became a huge issue. Smog is a fog or haze that is caused by a factory's emission. In lesson five critique five the article states, “In 1873, 700 deaths were attributed to the smog in London, and in 1879-1880, one fog lasted from November to March! The fog was not just water vapor, but also particulate that originated in the wood and coal burning fires of the city.”