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Factories and the factory system
1771 (Arkwright's Cromford Mill)· Idea, religion or movement· Tools, energy & materials
Well documentedSolid records, physical evidence or scientific consensus.
Work moved from homes and workshops into mills where powered machines, central supervision and fixed hours set the pace.
See it on the Technology & Medicine map →How it works
In 1771 Richard Arkwright opened a water-powered spinning mill at Cromford, Derbyshire, ran it day and night in shifts, and built housing for his workers. Lombe's silk mill in Derby (1721) had tried the idea earlier. One wheel or engine drove rows of machines through shafts and belts. Owners hired wage workers, many of them children, and enforced rules and hours. Britain's Factory Act of 1833, the first enforced by inspectors, limited child labor.
Why it mattered
Factories created wage labor, industrial towns and mass production, raising output enormously but also bringing long hours, child labor and the labor movement.
Think of it like
Like a building's central plant: one waterwheel or engine fed every machine through overhead shafts, as one boiler heats every unit.
How we know
Surviving mills of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site, company records, and parliamentary inquiries such as the 1832 Sadler Committee, which recorded workers' testimony.
Still unknown or debated
Did factories win because machines needed central power, or because owners wanted control over workers? Economists and historians still argue.
Connections (4)
▸Mechanical clock set the time discipline of Factories and the factory systemMostly agreed
The connection
Mechanical clocks spread through European towns from the 1300s, putting work on hours rather than daylight and tasks. Factories pushed this further: workers started by bell or clock, were paid by time and fined for lateness. Keeping costly machines running meant everyone had to arrive and work on the same schedule.
When and how
European town clocks from about 1300; British mills from the 1770s, where owners such as Arkwright ran fixed shifts.
How sure are we?
Mill rules, fines for lateness and workers' complaints about tampered clocks are recorded; historian E. P. Thompson's 1967 essay 'Time, Work-Discipline and Industrial Capitalism' made the case.
Debates and open questions
Historians debate how sharp the break was: some argue clock time already governed much work before factories and Thompson's picture is too stark.
▸Watt's steam engine drove the machinery of Factories and the factory systemWell documented
The connection
The first factories ran on water wheels, so they clustered by fast rivers. Watt's rotary engines, from the 1780s, let mills turn their shafts anywhere coal could be delivered. Factories moved into towns like Manchester, close to workers, canals and markets, and grew far larger.
When and how
Britain, from 1785, the first steam-driven cotton mill at Papplewick, Nottinghamshire; Manchester mills from the 1790s.
How we know
Boulton & Watt order books record engines sold to cotton mills; later surveys show steam overtaking water in textiles around 1830–1850.
Debates and open questions
Water power was often cheaper, so why owners switched, for location, reliability or access to urban labor, remains debated.
▸Textile machines (jenny, water frame, mule, power loom) drove the rise of Factories and the factory systemWell documented
The connection
Hargreaves's spinning jenny could be worked at home, but Arkwright's water frame needed waterpower and was too big for a cottage. He housed rows of them in a mill at Cromford, staffed by shifts of workers, many of them children. Spinning, then weaving, moved out of homes and into factories.
When and how
Cromford, Derbyshire, 1771, by Richard Arkwright; copied across Lancashire and Scotland, including New Lanark (1786).
How we know
Cromford Mill survives in the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site; Arkwright's patents and court cases document his system.
Debates and open questions
Whether Arkwright invented the water frame or took ideas from Thomas Highs and John Kay was argued in court; he lost his patents in 1785.
▸Factories and the factory system were streamlined into the Moving assembly line (Ford)Well documented
The connection
The factory system gathered workers and machines under one roof and split work into steps. Ford's line pushed that logic further: interchangeable parts, machines placed in process order, and the work itself moving on a conveyor at a set pace, so the line, not the worker, set the speed.
When and how
From Arkwright's Cromford Mill in England (1771) and the 'American system' of interchangeable parts at US armories, to Ford's Highland Park plant in Michigan, 1913.
How we know
Ford's engineers and 1910s trade journals described what they borrowed from earlier factories, armories and meatpacking plants; plant layouts show the step-by-step evolution.
Debates and open questions
Historian David Hounshell and others debate how truly interchangeable earlier 'American system' parts were, and so how new Ford's precision really was.