Editing Shift work (section)

==History==
The shift work system in modern industrial [[manufacturing]] originated in the late 18th century.

In 1867, [[Karl Marx]] wrote on the shift work system in ''[[Das Kapital, Volume I|Capital, Volume 1]]'':
<blockquote>Capitalist production therefore drives, by its inherent nature, towards the appropriation of labour throughout the whole of the 24 hours in the day. But since it is physically impossible to exploit the same individual labour-power constantly, during the night as well as the day, capital has to overcome this physical obstacle. An alternation becomes necessary, between the labour-powers used up by day and those used up by night ... It is well known that this shift-system, this alternation of two sets of workers, predominated in the full-blooded springtime of the English cotton industry, and that at the present time it still flourishes, among other places, in the cotton-spinning factories of the Moscow ''gubernia''. This 24-hour process of production exists today as a system in many of the as yet 'free' branches of industry in Great Britain, in the blast-furnaces, forges, rolling mills and other metallurgical establishments of England, Wales and Scotland.<ref>Marx, Karl. "The Working Day" ''Capital: Volume 1'', 1867.</ref></blockquote>

The [[Cromford Mill]], starting from 1772, ran day and night with two twelve-hour shifts.{{sfn|Cooper|1983|p=68}}