English Factory the middle of the 18th century the first English factory, in the present sense of the word, was built by Lombe Brothers. It was a silk-mill and the first in which the motive power was sup 'plied from the outside and machinery did the work heretofore supplied by human hands. The power used was a water wheel. Ark wright came to the front with his water-frame, so-called, because water was the motive power. There began a rapid development in spinning machines, which were first applied to cotton, and in this industry we have the explanation how the earlier triumphs of the factory system were won. In the beginning of the 19th century, the modern factory system became established and the child-labor question arose. As the mills were first established by the streams, so that wheels might be moved by water power, it often hap pened that labor could not be had in the vicin ity. Application was made to the almshouse for children who were indentured or bound out at a fixed rate and for a certain length of time. Forced to work whether sick or well, often 16 hours a day and given nothing for breakfast but water porridge, these children were visited with serious epidemics and the attention of the public was thus aroused. In 1802 the first fac tory act for the "Preservation of the health and morals of apprentices in cotton mills" was in troduced by Sir Edward Peel, one of the large manufacturers of that time. All mills employing three or more apprentices, or 20 other persons, were subject to this act. The most important clause was that which fixed 12 hours as a work ing day and prohibited work altogether from 9 P.M. to 6 A.M.
First United States Cotton Factory.— In the earlier years of the factory in the United States, each home had its spindles and loom to fill the needs of its own members, the flax and cotton being grown, spun and woven by the in dividual householder, or the slaves on the plantations. England frowned upon all manu factures in her colonies and would allow no machinery or parts of machinery to be brought to them. However it could not fetter the brain, nor forbid the inventive genius; and Slatter and his associates, who came to America in the latter part of 1700, brought with them the knowledge which in 1803 built in Massachusetts the first American cotton-mill. The first mill to take cotton in its crude state and pass it through the different processes to the woven cloth was erected in Waltham, Mass., in 1813. The first type foundry was built in Philadelphia in 1794. The first glass-house was constructed in Pittsburgh in 1796. Other factories followed in rapid succession between 1796 and 1810.
Inspection Began in England.— The first factory inspection law was adopted in England about the beginning of the 19th century, as a re sult of the agitation caused by epidemics among children and women in factories, but it was nOt until 1819 that the law was made effective.
The abuses became so great that the govern ment was at last compelled to interfere in the interests of humanity. This began by asserting the right of the state to control industrial es tablishments where women and children were employed, but this necessarily involved the freedom of men in making contracts. The law was intended more particularly to meet the evils of the apprentice system, but it did not extend to factories, where children residing in the neighborhood were employed. From time to time this act has been amended and the author ity of government extended, so as to make it generally effective for the protection of all labor. It was thus in England that the value of factory inspection was first determined by experience. Subsequently it was introduced into America. Massachusetts was the first American State to adopt a law of that character.
To-day there are factory laws in the United States based on the Massachusetts laws, for the examination and approval of plans of factories and tenement-houses, also for proper fire-fight ing, means of egress and sanitary provisions; regulating the employment of labor of women and minors in manufacturing, mechanical and mercantile establishments and workshops; guarding of machinery; the construction of safety appliances of elevators; ventilation of factories and workshops; provision of toilet con veniences for the use of each sex employed in factories and workshops and various other sani tary regulations; uniform hours for meals for women and young persons; communication be tween the engineer's room and each room where machinery is run by steam; proper safeguards at hatchways, elevator openings and well-holes in public buildings, factories and mercantile estab lishments; competent watchmen and red lights in hotels; prohibiting during working hours the locking of any inside or outside door of any building where operatives are employed; weekly payment of wages; and sundry other matters; the granting of licenses to make, alter, repair or finish coats, vests, trousers or wearing apparel of any description in a room or apartment in a tenement or dwelling house; the examination of engineers and firemen and the inspection of boilers, granting of licenses and steam power to be used. Women are protected by law from overwork by their employers and children are excluded from factorie3 until of proper age and Massachusetts has been from the first, and con tinues to be, in the advance in factory inspec tion and under this system her industrial estab lishments have become models for all the other States. It is a marked illustration of what such a law accomplishes for a community.