The Factory Inspectorate

Assembled from 31 blocks · 2 evidence · 19 related

1. Story
2. Created by the Factory Act of 1833, initially as a handful of inspectors — four is the number usually given — with superintendents under them, and made responsible for the whole of Britain's textile industry. The staffing was absurd against the task and the inspectorate was nonetheless one of the most consequential administrative inventions of the century, because it established three things at once: that central government could send an official into private premises as of right; that the official reported publicly and periodically; and that the resulting reports would themselves become evidence for the next round of legislation. The published Reports of the Inspectors of Factories are, in consequence, both an instrument of regulation and the best single source on what actually happened on mill floors — including the evasions, the falsified time books, the relay systems used to disguise over-long hours, and the accident returns. Marx drew heavily on them, and so does every subsequent historian of the subject.
3. Knowledge
4. The British textile industry
5. The Factory Acts
6. The Factory Inspectorate
7. Connections
8. The Factory Acts
9. The British textile industry
10. The Factory Act creates an inspectorate
11. The Ten Hours Act limits the working day for women and young persons
12. Industrial child labour
13. The Factory Inspectorate
14. The first factory statute is passed and largely ignored
15. The Factory Act creates an inspectorate
16. The Ten Hours Act limits the working day for women and young persons
17. The spinning jenny
18. Raw cotton
19. The Engels pause
20. The Factory Inspectorate
21. Parliament bans the use of printed calicoes
22. Hargreaves devises the spinning jenny
23. Crompton completes the spinning mule
24. The rotative engine turns a shaft
25. Cartwright patents the power loom
26. Arkwright's patents are overturned
27. The handloom weavers are displaced
28. The Great Exhibition
29. Evidence
30. Supports the existence and working method of the inspectorate created in 1833, and stands as the principal contemporary record of hours, evasions, relay working and accidents on mill floors. V55 verification basis: NOT consulted in this session; the series is real and widely digitised but no volume was opened here.
31. Supports the prohibition on employing children under nine in textile mills, the graduated hour limits for children and young persons, and the creation of a salaried factory inspectorate with powers of entry. V55 verification basis: NOT consulted — legislation.gov.uk is blocked from this session, so the regnal chapter citation is deliberately not given and the hour limits are stated only in summary.