Industrial Revolution: Impact On Modern Society

The Industrial Revolution had a profound impact on modern society and the ways in which one lives and completes everyday tasks. When the Industrial Revolution began, a major change was imposed upon the people of Britain. Although it created more efficient ways of manufacturing and an increased average life expectancy, it contributed to the fall and vast poverty of the working class causing them to fight for political power and socialist movements. Those who worked in factories, coal mines, and cotton mills faced terrible and sometimes inhumane working conditions due to their employers’ disregard to their well-being. Many of the workers were young children for their smaller bodies could fit into smaller spaces, and employers could crowd more workers in a limited amount of space. Even adults worked in crammed spaces with little light. In the coal mines, individuals had to deal with the poisonous dust they breathed. Most hand-loom weavers worked in cool and damp cellars as it was required for

The roots of these problems are the creations of new inventions that eventually replaced the ordinary worker such as the power loom. In the same time needed for a mere child using a power loom to produce about three pieces of material, a skilled handloom weaver could only create one. The demand for cloth made by a handloom weaver plummeted and so did their wages. In 1809, the average weekly income of a weaver dropped from twenty-one shillings in 1802 to fourteen shillings. This trend continued until in 1832 it had decreased to about only five shillings a week. One couldn’t support a family with this low of a salary, and as the population fluctuated, up to ten people might have lived in a single room home. Families were forced to sell their basic necessities such as their furniture or even their clothes. No matter how hard working parents were, starvation was sometimes