Adventures in Time and Place

Adventures in Time and Place
Grade 6: World
Infographic #11: Inventions of the Industrial Revolution
Page 503

1. See some of the inventions that led to the factory system of production. Meet the people and study the processes. Go to Industrial Revolution.
http://www.woodberry.org/acad/hist/irwww/index.html

Read the introduction; then click Textiles.
Scroll down to "Technologies and Processes." Click and read The Cotton Gin.
Click Back to return to the topics. Read about each invention in the same way.
Go to "Production." Click and read Cottage Industry, The Factory System, The Growth of Textile Centers, and Labor Unrest During the Textile Revolution.

Online Activity: Machine Power
Match Industrial Revolution terms or inventions with their descriptions. If you need to, go back and reread sections of the Web site.
Click two cards. Wait to see them turn over. Try again until you find all of the matches!

2. Find out what many workers thought about the inventions of the Industrial Revolution. Read this 1786 petition. Go to Leeds Woollen Workers Petition, 1786.
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1786machines.html

Read the petition.
Write down three arguments that the petitioners have against the use of the machines.
Click and read Letter from Cloth Merchants, 1791.
Write down arguments the merchants make in favor of the machines.

Offline Activity: Takes Sides
Reread the two letters at the Web site. Then take sides in the controversy. Write your own letter to a newspaper in 1791. State whether you support the workers or the merchants, and give your reasons.