Editing Factory (section)

=== Industrial Revolution ===
{{Main article|Factory system}}
{{see also| Industrial Revolution}}
[[File:Cromford 1771 mill.jpg|thumb|[[Cromford mill]] as it is today.]]
[[File:Työpäivä päättyy Tampellassa.jpg|thumb|Working day ends at [[Tampella]] factory in [[Tampere]], Finland in 1909]]
One of the earliest factories was [[John Lombe]]'s [[Derby Industrial Museum|water-powered silk mill]] at [[Derby]], operational by 1721. By 1746, an integrated [[brass mill]] was working at [[Warmley]] near [[Bristol]]. Raw material went in at one end, was [[Smelting|smelted]] into brass and was turned into pans, pins, wire, and other goods. Housing was provided for workers on site. [[Josiah Wedgwood]] in Staffordshire and [[Matthew Boulton]] at his [[Soho Manufactory]] were other prominent early industrialists, who employed the factory system.

The factory system began widespread use somewhat later when [[cotton]] [[spinning (textiles)|spinning]] was mechanized.

[[Richard Arkwright]] is the person credited with inventing the prototype of the modern factory. After he patented his [[water frame]] in 1769, he established [[Cromford Mill]], in [[Derbyshire]], England, significantly expanding the village of [[Cromford]] to accommodate the migrant workers new to the area. The factory system was a new way of organizing [[workforce]] made necessary by the development of machines which were too large to house in a worker's cottage. Working hours were as long as they had been for the farmer, that is, from dawn to dusk, six days per week. Overall, this practice essentially reduced skilled and unskilled workers to replaceable commodities. Arkwright's factory was the first successful cotton spinning factory in the world; it showed unequivocally the way ahead for industry and was widely copied.

Between 1770 and 1850 mechanized factories supplanted traditional artisan shops as the predominant form of manufacturing institution, because the larger-scale factories enjoyed a significant technological and supervision advantage over the small artisan shops.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=  Marglin|first1= Stephen A.|date= Jul 1, 1974|title= What Do Bosses Do?: The Origins and Functions of Hierarchy in Capitalist Production|url= https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/marglin/files/review_of_radical_political_economics-1974-marglin-60-112_0.pdf|journal= Review of Radical Political Economics|volume= 6|issue= 60|pages= 60–112|doi= 10.1177/048661347400600206|s2cid= 153641564|access-date= 2 February 2019}}</ref>  The earliest factories (using the [[factory system]]) developed in the cotton and wool textiles industry. Later generations of factories included mechanized shoe production and manufacturing of machinery, including machine tools. After this came factories that supplied the railroad industry included rolling mills, foundries and locomotive works, along with agricultural-equipment factories that produced cast-steel plows and reapers. Bicycles were mass-produced beginning in the 1880s.

The [[Nasmyth, Gaskell and Company|Nasmyth, Gaskell and Company's Bridgewater Foundry]], which began operation in 1836, was one of the earliest factories to use modern materials handling such as cranes and rail tracks through the buildings for handling heavy items.<ref>{{cite book |title=Science and Technology in the Industrial Revolution  |url=https://archive.org/details/sciencetechnolog00aemu  |url-access=registration  |last=Musson |author2=Robinson |year=1969 |publisher =University of Toronto Press |pages=[https://archive.org/details/sciencetechnolog00aemu/page/491 491–95]|isbn=9780802016379 }}</ref>

Large scale [[electrification]] of factories began around 1900 after the development of the [[AC motor]] which was able to run at constant speed depending on the number of poles and the current electrical frequency.<ref>{{cite book|title=A History of Industrial Power in the United States, 1730–1930, Vol. 3: The Transmission of Power|last1=Hunter|first1=Louis C.|last2=Bryant|first2=Lynwood|author3=Bryant, Lynwood|year=1991|publisher=MIT Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts, London|isbn=0-262-08198-9|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofindustr00hunt}}</ref>  At first larger motors were added to [[line shaft]]s, but as soon as small horsepower motors became widely available, factories switched to unit drive. Eliminating [[line shaft]]s freed factories of layout constraints and allowed factory layout to be more efficient. Electrification enabled sequential [[automation]] using [[relay logic]].