Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a time of great change in how people lived and worked that started in Great Britain in the late 1700s. Goods that had been made by hand were now mass-produced on machines in factories. Machine-made cotton cloth was one of those products.

In Lowell, the thirty-foot drop of the Merrimack River at Pawtucket Falls provided plenty of water that in the early 1800s was diverted to power cotton textile mills. Lowell’s founders dammed the river, and canals brought the water to factories that used the water’s kinetic energy to run machines for cloth production. Lowell’s first mill opened in 1823, and within 25 years, ten mills operated in the city. In 1848, Lowell was the largest industrial center in America. Fifty thousand miles of cotton cloth – enough to circle the world twice – was produced in the city that year.

The emergence of factories in Lowell, Lawrence, and other cities around the country initiated a period of great change – including increased industrial waste, urbanization, and large-scale deforestation – contaminating our land and waterways. All of these processes interacted to change our ways of life and even our planet, resulting in unhealthy environmental conditions. Some of these polluting actions, like dumping toxic waste, have been made illegal by federal or state laws, but some continue to worsen, like carbon emissions or sewage overflow. Humans must work together – both locally and globally – to address pollution and support human health, justice, and economic and social stability.

As a result of nearly 200 years of industrialization, "all surface waters in Massachusetts contain enough mercury deposited from air pollution to make fish consumption unwise for children and women of childbearing age. Mercury contamination from the former Nyanza chemical plant in Ashland has made all fish in the Sudbury River downstream of the plant too contaminated to eat." The Sudbury River flows into the Concord River, which joins the Merrimack River.

Industrial Revolution Timeline in Lowell and Beyond

1771 – First successful water-powered spinning mill opens in England

1790 – First successful water-powered spinning mill opens in Rhode Island

1793 – Cotton gin patented

1796 – Completion of the Pawtucket Canal in East Chelmsford, MA (now Lowell)

1807 – First successful steamboat service in United States

1813 – Boston Manufacturing Company opens first integrated textile mill in Waltham, MA

1821 – First textile mill opens in Lowell, MA

1835 – Boston and Lowell Railroad begins service

1844 – Vulcanized rubber patented

1856 – Bessemer process allows for mass production of inexpensive steel

1870s – Coal-fired steam power begins to replace water power in Lowell’s mills

1882 – First coal-fired power station in London, England.

1885 – First gas-powered car engine

1913 – Introduction of assembly line for mass production of cars

1918-1932 – Eight of Lowell’s original eleven textile companies move to the southern part of the United States or go out of business

1950s – Last three of Lowell’s original eleven mills close

1978 – China begins to drastically industrialize by building millions of small-scale factories throughout the country

Resources

Who Polluted the Merrimack (activity): https://www.uml.edu/docs/who_polluted_complete_lesson_tcm18-230466.pdf
The Merrimack: The River at Risk: Looks at one of the country's most threatened watersheds and the towns and cities that have relied on it throughout history. (documentary, 56:15): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62mWQcQvM3w

Quote: EcoHealth Report Cards, https://ecoreportcard.org/report-cards/sudbury-assabet-concord-rivers/issues/.

Page updated

Report abuse