What was a working day really like in an early British factory?

A working day in an early British factory ran from dawn to dusk, six days a week. A bell, not the sun, said when it started. Most workers had no say in any of it.

Factories existed because the new machines, like Arkwright's water frame, were too big for a cottage. So work moved to the machines. Workers were gathered in one place, supervised, and each given a narrow task. Twelve-hour days stayed common until the late 1800s. Women were often paid little more than a quarter of what men earned. Children became a major part of the workforce.

Some workers fought back. From 1811 to 1816, the Luddites smashed machines in protest, first around Nottingham, then in the North West and Yorkshire. In 1812, Parliament made machine-breaking a capital crime. The poet Lord Byron rose in the House of Lords to oppose the law. He said he had seen less wretchedness in the 'most oppressed provinces of Turkey' than in England. Mill owners shot at protesters. Luddites led by George Mellor killed the mill owner William Horsfall, and three of them were hanged.

Change came slowly, from two directions. At his New Lanark mills, Robert Owen worked to improve conditions, and became a key thinker of early socialism. In 1832, Michael Sadler's report shocked the public with testimony from women and children. In 1833, a new law created professional factory inspectors. In 1847, millworkers finally won the Ten Hour Act they had long campaigned for. None of the disasters its opponents predicted came true.