system, the consequence of the mechanical discoveries of the time. Four great inventions altered [changed] the-
Passing to manufacturers, we find here the all-prominent fact to be the substitution of the factory for the domestic
character of the cotton manufacture; the spinning jenny, patented
Hargreaves in 1770; the water-frame, invented by
***
Arkwright the year before; Crompton's mule [spinning machine] introduced in 1779, and the self-acting mule, first
invented by Kelly in 1792, but not brought into use till Roberts improved it in 1825. None of these by themselves would
have revolutionized the industry. But in 1769-the year in which Napoleon and Wellington were born-James Watt took
out his patent for the steam-engine. Sixteen years later it was applied to the cotton manufacture. In 1785 Boulton and
Watt made an engine for a cotton-mill at Papplewick in Notts, and in the same year Arkwright's patent expired. These
fatal to
did not come into use for
two facts taken together mark the introduction of the factory system. But the most famous invention of all, and the most
several years, and till the powerloom was introduced the workman was hardly injured. At first, in fact, machinery raised
the wages of spinners and weavers owing to the great prosperity it brought to the trade. In fifteen years the cotton trade
trebled [tripled] itself; from 1788 to 1803 has been called "its golden age;" for, before the power-loom but after the
introduction of the mule [spinning machine] and other mechanical improvements by which for the first time yarn
sufficiently fine for muslin [a fabric] and a variety of other fabrics was spun, the demand became such that "old barns,
cart-houses, out-buildings of all descriptions were repaired, windows broke through the old blank walls, and all fitted up
for loom-shops; new weavers' cottages with loom-shops arose in every direction, every family bringing home weekly
from 40 to 120 shillings per week." At a later date, the condition of the workman was very different. Meanwhile, the iron
industry had been equally revolutionized by the invention of smelting by pit-coal brought into use between 1740 and
1750, and by the application in 1788 of the steam-engine to blast furnaces. In the eight years which followed this latter
date, the amount of iron manufactured nearly doubled itself....ventilation is greater than the loss from death or
wounds in any wars in which the country has been engaged in modern times. That of the 43,000 cases of widowhood,
and 112,000 cases of destitute orphanage relieved from the poor's rates in England and Wales alone, it appears that the
greatest proportion of deaths of the heads of families occurred from the above specified and other removable causes;
that their ages were under 45 years; that is to say, 13 years below the natural probabilities of life as shown by the
experience of the whole population of Sweden....