The textile, manufacturing, and agricultural industry, along with the new forms of transportation drastically transformed Great Britain. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, Great Britain was a farm based society meaning people resided in small, rural communities and their daily lives revolved around farming. Change began when people discovered that making textiles by hand was much more time consuming and much less profitable than manufacturing such things with the use of machines. Because of this discovery, urbanization began. Life in Great Britain was beginning to change drastically and the World was following in its’ footsteps. Up until the mid-eighteenth century, most textile production occurred in small workplaces or in the homes of spinners, weavers, and dyers; however, the textile industry significantly began to grow during the Industrial Revolution. Demand for cloth grew. Merchants had to compete with each other for the supplies to make it, which caused the prices of products to rise. These high costs raised problems among consumers. This is when people found the solution to manufacture textiles with machinery, due to the fact that it was much more efficient and less costly. Manufacturing and urbanization begins!
John Kay invented the first Flying Shuttle, and improvement to looms, in 1733. This large machine enabled weavers to weave faster and was able to be operated by only one weaver, compared to the much larger loom, which required two weavers. More textiles being produced meant more profit for business owners. Factories began to develop and urbanization strikes. People from rural communities were moving to the city in order to work in factories to make enough money for living. Populations soared profusely; therefore, more factories were built in order to employ the people. Moving to the city seemed to be the best choice to people, but it was too good to be true. Working condition became very poor. Factories were crowded with men, women, and young children employed at extremely low wages in unhealthy and dangerous environments. Because of the poor wages people could not even afford proper living! The cities transformed into urban slums. The pollution from factories filled the air and young children were dying at work. These horrid conditions led to laws protecting workers which included minimum age limits for workers and building schools for children whose mother and father were both employed in factories. Workers