Domestic System versus
Factory System
BEFORE the industrial revolution, there was a
domestic system of production where families would stay at home to work and
weave cotton as shown below:
Business people delievered raw materials to
homes and families made goods from these raw materials. The businesspeople then
picked up finished goods and paid workers $$$ based on the number of items they
made. This method of production was SLOW and people could not survive on the
money they were given.
AFTER the industrial revolution however, the
factory system of production came about. In a factory system, the factory owner
bought MANY popular cloths and workers would create many dresses from these
large amounts of cloth. Many dresses and clothes were sold, allowing workers to
earn large amounts of $$$.
The table below is a comparison on both
production systems:
Transportation: Walking
versus Travelling in vehicles
BEFORE the
industrial revolution, people travelled by using animals or by foot which were
very slow ways of moving from one place to another. Morevoer, conditions of the
road were bad and dangerous.
AFTER the industrial revolution, three main
transportation methods increased: waterways, roads and railroads. During that
time, transportation by water was the cheapest way to move heavy products like
coal and iron. Thus, canals were widened and deepened to allow more boats to
pass. A man named Robert Fulton made the first steam-powered engine to power a
steamboat! It was able to carry raw materials across the Atlantic ocean.
George Stephenson also invented the
Russian locomotive which could carry large amounts of coal around from place to
place.
Improvements in the Textile
Industry
The textile industry was greatly
improved during this period of time. Many brilliant men built upon each others’
inventions and made production of cotton and textile very efficient!
First it was John Kay who invented
the flying shuttle, a hand-operated machine that increased the speed of
weaving. Then it was James Hargreaves who made Spinning Jenny, a machine that
spun thread 8 times faster than by hand. Then followed by Richard Arkwright who
made a water-powered spinning machine that was too large to be used in homes,
leading to creation of factories!
