edHelper.com
European History: 1600s-1800s
Labor Day
 Hazardous Duty - Factory Work During the Industrial Revolution

Hazardous Duty - Factory Work During the Industrial Revolution
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 5 to 8
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   7.74

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    tedious, hazardous, inward, finding, machinery, mills, affected, textile, especially, better, running, particularly, injury, jobs, medical, during
     content words:    Industrial Revolution

Print Hazardous Duty - Factory Work During the Industrial Revolution
     Print Hazardous Duty - Factory Work During the Industrial Revolution  (font options, pick words for additional puzzles, and more)

Quickly Print - PDF format
     Quickly Print: PDF (2 columns per page)
     Quickly Print: PDF (full page)

Quickly Print - HTML format
     Quickly Print: HTML

Proofreading Activity
     Print a proofreading activity

Feedback on Hazardous Duty - Factory Work During the Industrial Revolution
     Leave your feedback on Hazardous Duty - Factory Work During the Industrial Revolution  (use this link if you found an error in the story)

Hazardous Duty - Factory Work During the Industrial Revolution
By Sharon Fabian 		  
1     Working in the factories of the Industrial Revolution was hazardous. The factory workers faced safety hazards, health hazards, and cruel treatment.
 
2     Factory machines were the latest technology, and factory owners were anxious to get their machines up and running. Safety was not a major concern. Dangerous parts of machines were not screened off. Machines were not equipped with features to make them shut off in case of an accident.
 
3     Machine operators in textile mills, many of them young women, often had to reach over and around operating machinery as they did their job. Children hired as scavengers had to crawl under the machines to retrieve loose bits of cotton. Slightly older children hired as piecers had to step up onto the machines to tie loose threads back together. Injuries to these workers were frequent. In mill towns, many workers could be seen who had lost an arm or a leg to the machinery.
 
4     Workers in the factories developed medical problems, too. The pollution and dust that were constantly in the air led to the illness known as mill fever. It was a dreaded disease, and it took many lives.
 
5     Factory work caused physical deformities which especially affected children since their bones were still forming. The constant stooping under machines wore out the arches of the children's feet. Many found that after a few years of factory work, their arches simply gave way.

Paragraphs 6 to 11:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable
Copyright © 2009 edHelper