Respond Essay# 4 History 108 The factory system began in the late 18th century and the system arose in the course of the Industrial Revolution. The factory system replaced the domestic system, in which individual workers used hand tools or simple machinery. It became the characteristics method of production in industrial economies. This system helped to improve the working condition in the industry, on the other side, this system reduced worker’s wage which they depended on for their livelihood. The factory system emerged when technological advances transformed the British textile industry and most cotton production took place in factories.
The development of these technologies changed transportation, manufacturing, and even communication. These technologies also contributed to creating huge factories, through standardization, and thus furthering urbanization. The assembly line was a massive factor in industrialization, although it was invented pre-civil war; it allowed the mass production of goods and increased worker efficiency. People were now able to afford things that only the wealthy would have been able to afford in the past. On the other hand, the assembly line did indeed deskill many workers, and further reorganized how the people made a living.
The manufacturing opportunities grew for women and children who had limited productive possibilities. According to the text Bryant and Dethloff (1990), states that the cotton textile industry was the central to the story of development of manufacturing in the United States (pg. 61). As late as 1791, the United States only produced two million pounds of the fiber. By the dawn of the nineteenth century, however, the conditions for an unprecedented cotton boom had emerged: rapidly rising demand from British textile industry, following innovations in spinning, weaving, and steam power technologies; improvements in ginning technology which facilitated the easy separation of the fibers from the seeds; the availability of inexpensive land with soil and climate conducive to the growth of cotton; and strong legal and political institutions securing the maintenance of an enslaved labor force.
Was Government Technological Control Beneficial for American People? The government during the 19th Century was beginning to be involved in many on going projects. The steam engines were one of the first inventions that the Government regulated. Steam engines changed the relationships between the federal government, state governments, and private property owners for the future inventors. Governmental agencies became involved in the steamboats with Fulton and Livingston when their Monopoly took over waterways, restricting the travel up and down the Hudson Years after the Civil War saw major technological industrialization and advances like the railroad.
The USA started exporting and importing goods with other countries. So, to keep up with demand, we had to produce more, which led to factories and labor unions. Also, the Railway Act that President Lincoln signed helped spur the Industrial Revolution
Also the iron and textile industries benefited greatly with the revolution. Before the revolution, I had mentioned that manufacturing was done in private homes, the revolution expanded factories and then instead of making products at home which took several months, factories could produce a mass production. The Revolution also boosted the transportation, communication and banking systems. How did the Industrial revolution transform families? The industrial revolution improved the standard of living for some people; however it also made employment and living conditions for the poor and working classes very tough.
The Labor Movement in America has made much progress since the beginning in the 1800’s. Along with a higher standard of living, labor unions came into being from this movement. Labor unions had a rough start in the beginning; and even today are not perfect. Labor unions have had a great effect on the Labor Movement and continue to make an effect today. One theory about the origin of labor unions is that workers formed them because the Industrial Revolution gave employers too much power [1].
Just as an example, when a clothing designer creates a fall collection, they employ numerous seamstresses and pattern makers to translate their drawings into clothing. Designers rent or purchase equipment to make the clothes. They purchase fabric and thread to make their creations. Because of the designers business, they supply other business with work and wages for employees and profits for the owners. Now if we look at what happens when the designer down the street creates their fashion line that is manufactured overseas.
Industrial hemp has been in use around the world since the Stone Age. China and Taiwan have both been recorded to have used hemp to make clothes, shoes, rope, and paper as long as ten thousand years ago (Wikipedia). Germany and Italy were then introduced to hemp during the medieval period and first started using it for cooking (Wikipedia). Hemp eventually made its way to the United States during the Napoleonic Era where Thomas Jefferson later drafted the Declaration of Independence on hemp paper. As hemp started becoming more and more popular, big industries started fearing the possibility of hemp cornering their markets.
The Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw the advent of gross urbanization of factory towns and cities. Due to advancements in areas such as textiles and machinery, many people flocked from the country sides of Europe (particularly Britain) to cities where they sought work was factory operators and machinists. To accommodate the tremendous influx of people, cheap and cramped housing was built, with communal wells provided for water. However, as there were few facilities for removing sewage, and the living conditions were deplorable, disease became rampant. Typhoid fever, cholera, tuberculosis, smallpox and rabies were infectious agents which followed the bubonic plague, and found easy hosts in the unclean slums