Industrial Britain

Food

• Improvements in agriculture meant that British food supply increased ( 6 million - 1750, 21 million - 1850, 37 million - 1900)

• poorer families were unable to acquire adequate food

• Some poorer families bought and ate diseased meat

Industrialisation

• The use of steam engines increased, by 1800s they were used for textile mills

• Factories produced lots of smoke which formed smog

• In the early modern period, steam engines were only used for transporting water

Working Conditions

• Children were used in factories, starting at 5am and finishing at 6pm

• Accidents from the machinery were common

• People breathed in dusty air and chemicals

• Noise was deafening

Urbanisation

• Railroads in 1850s meant that the population of the cities increased

• Cramped living conditions

• Issues accessing water

• Issues with the disposal of waste

Changing Beliefs

• Society became more secular

• Less people went to church

• Charles Darwin published the origin of species in 1859