The Ten Hours Act limits the working day for women and young persons
After more than a decade of campaigning by the Ten Hours movement, Parliament limited women and young persons in textile mills to ten hours a day. Because mills could not easily run adult men separately from the rest of the workforce, the limit propagated in practice well beyond the categories it named — an early demonstration that regulating part of a workforce regulates the whole shift.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- The Factory Acts · regulation · United Kingdom · not located
- The Factory Inspectorate · organisation · United Kingdom · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent. This is the standing of the weakest source, not an average.
Factories Act 1847 (the Ten Hours Act)
Supports the ten-hour limit on the working day of women and young persons in textile mills. V55 verification basis: NOT consulted; the regnal citation is omitted for the same reason as the 1833 Act.
Parliament of the United Kingdom · 1847 · Partly verified
Factories Act 1847, UK Public General Acts — text held at legislation.gov.uk
Reports of the Inspectors of Factories
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.
UK Parliamentary Papers, HMSO · from 1834 · Partly verified
Reports of the Inspectors of Factories to Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, UK Parliamentary Papers, published periodically from 1834
Recorded on The Factory Acts
- The first factory statute is passed and largely ignored
- The Factory Act creates an inspectorate
- The Ten Hours Act limits the working day for women and young persons
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.