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FACTORIES
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ABOUT
FACTORIES IN THE
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
The first factories were called mills, and were built along rivers because they used water power to move their machines. But the 1800s factories no longer needed water power because James Watt developed a steam engine.
Many men, women, and children left the countryside to live and work near factories where they hoped to earn higher wages then what they received in agriculture. And so cities like Boston and Chicago grew, because of the factories that were built there
The factories needed fuel to work. So they got a large deposit of coal that came from Britain and the United States. Coal was used to fuel steam engines and make iron that was used for machines, tools, bridges, trains, and ships.
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