Industrial Revolution 2

• 1750


  • Population: 11 million
  • Transport: 10 days = London > Edinburgh
  • Work: 20% of people lived in towns
  • Health = 28 deaths per 1000 per year
  • Politics = 5% of male adults could vote
  • Education = 7 universities
• 1900


  • Population: 40 million
  • Transport: 1 day from London > Edinburgh
  • Work: 80% of people worked in towns
  • Health = 18 deaths per 1000 per year
  • Politics = 60% of male adults could vote
  • Education = 17 universities
• Work out the difference between your guess and the actual figure for each. Add all these up.
• Discussion Points


  • Which is the most impressive change?
  • Are these changes connected in any way?
  • What was your score? (The lower the better!)
• What do these statistics indicate?
• Highlight similarities and differences – use numbers, letters or colours to show different features.
• Population Sizes
• Towns and cities grew up around particular industries

  • Swindon – the railways
  • Northampton – boots and shoes (the football club was known as 'the Cobblers')
  • Burton-on-Trent – brewing
  • Nottingham – lace-making (and later the bicycle industry)
  • York – sweets and chocolate
  • Luton – hat-making (the football club was 'the hatters')
• The new world – suburbia – and what made it possible…
• Reforms


  • 1833 Factory Act (textile mills only) – no children under 9 allowed to work in textile mills, 9-13 year olds limited to 9 hour day
  • 1842 Coal Mines Act – women and children under 10 banned from working in mines
  • 1847 Ten Hour Act – Women and 13-18 year olds limited to working 10 hours a day, and a maximum 58 hour week
  • 1850 Factory Act – mills to open maximum 12 hours a day, to close at 2pm on Saturdays, and to provide 90 minute meal breaks
  • 1874 Factory Act – maximum 56 hour working week for all workers
  • 1875 Public Health Act – enforced drainage, sanitation and water supplies
• Any other benefits..?
• The darker side…
• Why do we need to study it?

  • The modern world was created by the Industrial Revolution
  • It transformed human society forever – and continues to do so
  • The big questions facing politicians NOW can only be answered by studying what happened THEN: What do we gain by industrialisation? What do we lose? What are the dangers? What are the benefits?
• How it began...


  • First Industrial Revolution (1750-1850) = steam, factories, trains and towns
• How it developed...


  • Second industrial Revolution (1850-1900) = electricity, sound, film and cars
• How it continues today...

  • 1900-1950 - spread to other countries (USA, Germany, France)
  • 1950-now – spreading across the globe (Japan, China, Russia, India)
  • 1970-now – a new nuclear / technological revolution (global!)
• We cannot understand the world we live in today and where it's heading without studying how we got here!
• "What were the consequences of the Industrial Revolution (c.1700-1900) for life in Britain?"

  1. Use your work on this topic, and your rough notes from the various film clips, to create an answer (on Word, not Powerpoint)

  2. You have two weeks to do this

  3. You may want to include illustrations – these could be photographs, but also you might use tables, charts, graphs, etc

  4. Think about such things as working and living conditions and urbanisation – how did they change? Did they improve?