Evaluation Essay: The Best and Worst Times During the Industrial Revolution

Most people have their ups and downs in life. This is just like the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution had some of the best and worst times. As Charles Dickens said, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom…”(Dickens 1). Even though Dickens was talking about the French Revolution, the quote remains true for the Industrial Revolution. This is because some inventions, like the assembly line and the railroad, made it easier for people. On the other hand, the working conditions and the child labor did not make it easy. The assembly line changed the car industry forever with how it made the car-making process much quicker and less expensive. The making of the railroad helped millions of people by being cheap and fast for people to travel instead of having to walk or pay a lot of money. Child labor in the sweatshop workplace was extremely cruel and even killed children. The working conditions were so bad that people could work 16 hours a day for 6 weeks and still not be able to provide for their families. This era had its ups and downs when it came to the amazing and awful experiences people had.    

It was a great time to be alive during the Industrial Revolution with the assembly line and how it made the automobile cheaper and quicker. The assembly line made the making of cars about 10 hours faster. In the first year of the introduction of the assembly line, the time it took to be made went from twelve hours, twenty-eight minutes to two hours, thirty-eight minutes (DiBacco 125). In its first year in 1908, there were ten thousand Model T cars sold. Just a year after that, eighteen thousand Model T cars were sold. (Nardo United States 62). The vehicle became even more popular after the price was reduced to $575 by the year 1912 (Nardo United States 62).  Because of the assembly line, there were almost 740,000 Model Ts that were sold in just one year. In the year 1916, 739,000 Model Ts were assembled and sold, which was around one-half of all the new cars made (Nardo United States 63). After Model Ts stopped being made in 1927, there were more than 15 million sold (Nardo United States 63).  Acar producer named Alex Y. Malcomsen demanded that his luxury cars should be high-priced, ranging from $1,000 to $2,000, depending on the type of model it was. Because of this, Ford made his cars cheaper, resulting in Malcomsen going out of business not even a year later in 1916. Ford made a $1,250,000 profit off of this idea (DiBacco 125). In the year 1913, the maximum daily wage was $2.34 for the Ford Motor Company workers and nine-hour workdays. Henry Ford made a solution in January 1914 where he announced a $5-a-day wage plan and reduced the workday from nine to eight hours (DiBacco 129). In 1915 around 10,000 men created a mob scene hoping to gain employment. This plan worked, and it increased Ford profits from $24 million to $60 million in 1916 (DiBacco 129). This invention helped make the Industrial Revolution better and more affordable.

Another amazing thing about this era was the making of the railroad. The making of the railroad made it possible for people to move to cities and newer places. In major European cities, the travel time was reduced by four-fifths between the years 1750 and 1830. The travel time also became faster by one-half between the years 1770 and 1830. (The Railroad’s Effect on Time and Distance). Around 9,000 miles of railroad track had been laid down to the east of the Missouri River by the year 1850 (Transcontinental Railroad-Construction, Competition & Impact). In 45 years, Britain increased its railway by over 10,000 miles. Britain went from having 27 miles of railway in 1825, to 10,443 miles of railway in 1870 (The Railroad’s Effect on Time and Distance). Traveling overland by stagecoach cost about $1,000 dollars before the railroad was completed. It also took five to six months to travel and consisted of crossing deserts and mountains. The only other ways before the railroad was to cross the Isthmus of Panama, then go on a ship to get to California, or travel by sea around South America, which has a distance of 18,000 miles. After the railroad was made, people could make that trip in five days with a cost of only $150 (Building the Transcontinental Railroad-Digital History).

Even though there were good parts of the Industrial Revolution, there were some bad times, such as the labor children went through. Children had to work for countless hours, for barely any money. A study shows that 55% of the mill workers by the year 1830 in the state of Rhode Island were kids (Nardo Workers 58). A survey from 1835 states that the proportion of children in the British mills was 43 percent (Nardo Workers 58). In the year 1788, about two-thirds of Britain's mill workers were under the age of 18 (Nardo Workers 58).  In a family including a grandmother, mother, father, and four kids ages four, three, two, and less than one, the only ones exempt from working are the father, the 2-year-old,  and one month old (Woog 35). During the year 1790 in Rhode Island, most of the workers were children that were between the ages of 7 and 12 (Nardo Workers 58). In 1833 and 1844 Britain’s Parliament passed the Factory Acts which banned children under nine from working and also banned workdays over twelve hours for children under eighteen. Even with these acts, it didn’t stop child labor, as it continued into the twentieth century in Britain (Nardo Workers 65). In the workshops, children were often injured due to their lack of stamina, lower attention spans, and smaller size (Woog 44). Also, most child injuries and accidents happened in the afternoon after three o’clock due to the dangerous and big machines that they would work on top of hours of working (Woog 44). Children lost fingers in the big machines and some even got their entire bodies taken into the big machine (Nardo Workers 60). Child labor was a terrible part of the Industrial Revolution.

The working conditions that people were put through also contributed to the terrible times of this era. The wages that people had was barely enough to support a family because of how low they were. On March 25, 1911, there was a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, which is in New York City. This fire killed 146 people and is known as the worst disaster in the history of sweatshops (Woog 49). In some sweatshops, people worked about 12 hour days and made about $1.20 per day. They would earn around $7.00 a week and they had no work from April and October (Woog 36). Most workers in the sweatshop industry worked 12 to 16 hours a day, for six days a week, and were also not given paid vacations or holidays (Industrial Revolution Working Conditions-History on the Net). About 20 percent of British people lived in rural areas in the year 1800. That rose to about 50 percent by the middle of the 1800s (Industrialization, Labor, and Life | National Geographic Society). In 1910, women working six or seven days a week, ten- to twelve hours a day, was $5 per week, making it $250 per year. Sometimes, an experienced worker would make from $350 to $400 a year (Woog 34). This era incorporates bad working conditions for people trying to make a living.

In conclusion, the Industrial Revolution had its highs and lows when it came to people’s experiences. The quote from Charles Dickens, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom…”(Dickens 1). corresponds with the Industrial Revolution in many ways. The railroad was an upside of this era, as it made traveling a lot easier, faster, and cheaper. On top of that, the assembly line invention helped cars be made hours faster and be less expensive for the buyers. On the other hand, children were being forced through ruthless work and some even died while on the job. Also, the working conditions for employees were so poor, it barely gave employees enough to provide for their families because of how low the wages were. The industrial revolution will go down in history as having exceptionally good times, as well as vastly bad.