Development+in+Cities+prior+to+1877

= Development of cities =

Prior to 1877, there were many cities that had many problems with things like filth, pollution, ways of the factories, transportation and the many problems in the mines. These were hard times, but people were still able to make a living, and expand the cities. There was many improvements that happened to for the better of the country and for the people and there health and piece of mind. **Pollutants**

One of the new changes in the cities was the pollutants not only in the air but on the ground to and around all of the houses. One of the problems with the air pollutants was that the air was dirty and all of the pollutants was blocking the light for the cities people. A problem with the filth around the houses and buildings was that there was no sewer system and drains. So all of the waste would go onto the streets and there was nowhere for the waste and water to drain.

Improvements with Pollution
Some improvements that happened were great changes that helped the city, the environment, and the health of the people that lived there. Some things that improved was things like sewers were put in along with drains and lighting for the night. The lighting was needed for the night the most and also because the factories produced that dirty, dark smoke from the coal. Most of this happened because of the health for the people around the city, and there was a law that was passed in 1848 that allowed the city councils to clean up the streets from garbage and pollutants. Also not dealing with the pollution but there was pavement put in and new housing was made from the slums (old homes that held four to five rooms and this happened in 1875).

Different jobs and their workers
The factories were a bad part of the environment, the lighting of the city, the people’s health. The workers that worked for the factories and for the town, were mostly children that started as early as four years of age to work, were normally treated badly by the supervisors no matter their age, and got payed just enough for food. The most dangerous job that was the coal mining job and this was because the roofs caved in periodically, there was many explosions that went on (which caused many injuries), and there was very few safety rules to save injuries and fatalities. Everyone worked in the mines including women, girls, men, and boys. Another dangerous job was milling. This was dangerous because children (mostly orphans) worked the job and could have been killed from the machines, had their hands crushed from working there with the machines, and could have been scalped (hair being ripped off) from getting their hair caught in the machines. Some other things that happened was things like the children hardly got any fresh air out of the milling factories and even on Sundays were stuck cleaning the machines, and little to none exercising.

Improvements with jobs
One of the many improvements that were made was in the coal mines and that was // The Mines Act. // This was enforced in 1842 and said that any women, young lady, and boy that was under the age teen was forbidden to work in the coal mines. Then later on it was added to that law that boys under twelve was illegal to be employed. Some improvements that were made with the milling factories was that the children weren’t forced to work them and they had laws against children working period. Also the city started to move outward and get larger because of more and more factories and so the people migrated to the cities for better pay.

Improvements overall
The main improvements in the cities and jobs and everything all together was choice. The government thought that children should be protected by laws. Also people felt that people should be left alone to help themselves with things such as jobs and be able to protect themselves. Lord Shaftesbury and Sir Robert Peel, persuaded the public that it was wrong for the children to get sick and suffer health problems with working and miss out on school because of it.

Interesting facts
There was actually two different kind of children, city and country children, which were actually. The city children were the bad ones and they went around, no one caring for them, stealing items for food for themselves, not having to work for food or have to be within their families sight for protection, and wore raggedy tore clothes that were filthy because of lack of money and no home to go to. They did have some jobs that were available to them and did things like sweeping horse dung (horse waste) for people or sold things. Country children were different in many ways. They had to work in fields and work from something like four o’ clock in the morning to maybe seven or eight at night. They were also sent to find work in the cities by their family and were more protective of them then the city children.

Links
[|www.nettlesworth.durham.sch.uk/time/victorian/vindust.html]