Friedrich Engels noted that around 30% of people treated at the Manchester Infirmary in 1843 were injured mill workers like this young power-loom hand.
Image: Science Museum/SSPL
Industrial diseases
Industrial diseases were common among mill workers. Years of irritation by cotton dust in unventilated rooms could gradually develop into a fatal illness. In 1824 Richard Cobbett stated:
'Well constitutioned men are rendered old and past labour at forty..., and children are rendered decrepit and deformed, and thousands... slaughtered by consumptions, before they arrive at the age of sixteen.'
What were the responses to these problems?
