ob67---An Act to regulate the Labor of Children and Young Persons in the Mills and Factories of the United Kingdom, 1833

The earliest 'factories' were places provided by an employer to execute the work of spinning and weaving through the utilization of water power to a mill-wheel. Thus cloth production tended to be located in places, generally the countryside, where the water of rapid streams was available. With James Watts' refinement of the steam engine in the 1780s, factories could henceforth be located in the urban environment of towns and cities, thus creating the familiar steam-powered cotton mills of the industrial revolution. The proliferation of such factories and knowledge of the working conditions therein, prompted many persons of humanitarian bent to attempt to correct the abuses that were the natural concomitant of unregulated labor. It was this concern that eventually provided the impetus to legislative action on the part of the British parliament.

The first Factory Act was passed in 1802 and was entitled the Health and Morals of Apprentices Act to ameliorate the deplorable conditions under which 'apprentices' (children from the age of seven) were transferred by the managers of pauper institutions to the tender mercies of cotton-mill owners; no provision being made for those same unfortunates working in woolen mills. Further legislation was enacted in the following decades, including the 1833 Act outlined below and which applied to all textile establishments excepting those processing silk and lace. It should be noted, however, that no protection was extended at this stage to children working in other factory establishments (metal, glass, paper, etc.) nor to the numerous small workshops throughout Britain. In 1842 the Mines Act prohibited underground work in mines to children under ten years, and two years later it became illegal to employ children between eight and thirteen years for more than 6½ hours per day. Not until 1847, however, was the general workday for women and children in textile factories set at ten hours, though another thirty years were to pass before that benefit was extended to labor in all factories and workshops.

. . . Be it enacted that no person under eighteen years of age shall be allowed to work in the night-- that is to say, between the hours half-past eight o'clock in the evening and half-past five in the morning--in or about any cotton, woolen, worsted, hemp, flax, tow, linen, or silk mill or factory, wherein steam or water or any other mechanical power is or shall be used to propel or work the machinery . . .

And be it further enacted that no person under the age of eighteen years shall be employed in any such mill or factory more than twelve hours in any one day, nor more than sixty-nine hours in any one week. . . . And be it further enacted that there shall be allowed in the course of every day not less than one and a half hours for meals to every such person . . .

And be it enacted that it shall not be lawful for any person whatsoever to employ in any factory or mill as aforesaid, except in mills for the manufacture of silk, any child who shall not have completed his or her ninth year of age.

And be it further enacted that, from and after the expiration of six months after the passing of this act, it shall not be lawful for any person whatsoever to employ, keep, or allow to remain in any factory or mill as aforesaid for a longer time than forty-eight hours in any one week, nor for a longer time than nine hours in any one day any child who shall not have completed his or her eleventh year of age; or, after the expiration of eighteen months from the passing of this act, any child who shall not have completed his or her twelfth year of age; or, after the expiration of thirty months from the passing of this act, any child who shall not have completed his or her thirteenth year of age. Provided, nevertheless, that, in mills for the manufacture of silk, children under the age of thirteen years [after a medical certificate of approval] shall be allowed to work ten hours in any one day."

And be it further enacted that all children and young persons whose hours of work are regulated and limited by this act shall be entitled to the following holidays, viz.: on Christmas Day and Good Friday, the entire day; and not fewer than eight half-days besides in every year. . . .

And be it . . enacted that it shall be lawful . . to appoint during his majesty's pleasure four persons to be inspectors of factories and places where the labor of children and young persons under eighteen years of age is employed . . . ;. . . And such inspectors or any of them are hereby empowered to enter any factory or mill, and any school attached or belonging thereto at all times and seasons, by day or by night, when such mills or factories are at work; and, having so entered, to examine therein the children and any other person or persons employed therein, and to make inquiry respecting their condition, employment, and education. . . .

And be it further enacted that every child hereinbefore restricted to the performance of forty-eight hours of labor in any one week shall, so long as such child shall be within the said restricted age, attend some school. . . .

And be it further enacted that every inspector shall keep full minutes of all his visits and proceedings, and shall report the same to one of his majesty's principal secretaries of state twice in every year, and oftener if required. . .

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