SKILLED WORKERS LOST JOBS

22 December 2009 - 02:00
By unknown

THE Industrial Revolution took place between 1750 and 1850 and transformed the lives of people.

THE Industrial Revolution took place between 1750 and 1850 and transformed the lives of people.

Power-driven machines changed the way work was done in Britain, Europe and the US. Before the Industrial Revolution, most people worked as farmers in fields and the spinning and weaving required to make cloth was done at home.

The changes angered skilled textile workers, who were often pushed out of work because machines could be used by unskilled, and therefore cheaper, workers.

One group of textile workers, known as the Luddites, was so angry that they destroyed the machines in cotton and woollen mills. - The New Children's Encyclopedia, Dorling Kindersley