Though clocking into work may never be fun, a day in the office could always be worse. Just ask the smog-breathing, soot-covered workers of the Industrial Revolution, who found themselves faced with the intense realities of capitalism during the English and later, American factory booms.
From tenement housing to children working in factories, here are 22 smog-tinted photos from the Industrial Revolution.
1
Workers attempting to mine for tin, 1893.
2
“Medical lab during the Industrial Revolution, 1810s.”
3
“Newsboys during the Industrial Revolution, early 1900s.”
4
The inside of a factory, 1891.
5
Workers at a woolcombing factory, 1899
6
“Before alarm clocks became widely affordable in the 1940s and 1950s, there were people - called ‘knocker-uppers’ - who had the job of waking up workers during the Industrial Revolution, often by shooting dry peas from a pea shooter at their windows.”
7
“The Weavers Triangle, Burnley Lancashire, 1910. The town's cotton mills at their peak of their prosperity with 99,000 power looms in operation.”
8
“Industrial revolution, 1908-1912. Spinner in Whitnel Cotton Mill, NC. Worked in the mill one year, sometimes at night, 48 cents a day. When asked how old she was, she hesitated, then said, ‘I don't remember,’ then added confidentially, ‘I’m not old enough.’”
9
Workers toil away at a button factory, 1899.
10
The exterior of Otis Steelworks, 1895.
11
A photograph of a fuse factory, circa the late 1800s.
12
Smog coats a town during the industrial revolution, date unknown.
13
The interior of a women’s lodging room, 1888.
14
Workers stand for a photograph at Dominion Corset, 1898.
15
Factory workers locking in, 1911.
16
Workers living in a tenement, 1889
17
A child at work at what appears to be a textile mill, date unknown.
18
Men working at an undergarment factory in Hudson, New York. 1917.
19
Kids working in a Georgia factory, date unknown.
20
Mine workers push carts out of a shaft in Virginia City, Nevada, circa 1867.
21
A “Sun and Planet” steam engine, circa the late 18th century
22
Smokestacks spewing smoke in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, circa 1890.
