#industrial revolution

Tagged industrial revolution · show all articles

A bright whitewashed engineering shop with a polished steel shaft running its length on cast iron hangers, leather belts descending to idle lathes, one belt carrying a travelling wave that has not yet reached the top pulley, a cast maker's plate on the nearest headstock catching the light edge-on

The Factory as a Control System

Why work was gathered under one roof remains genuinely disputed. Line shafts, clocks, gauges and time study each moved a decision somewhere new, and that relocation of control is the more durable story.

By Brecht Corbeel · August 9, 2026 · 21 min read

A hand-operated stocking frame in a whitewashed workshop with a partly knitted worsted web hanging from its needle bar, a cast lead weight swinging slightly on the web, a chalked slate of piece rates propped against the frame and a stool pushed back from the treadles

Labour & Technology

What the Machine Breakers Actually Wanted

The framebreakers of 1811 were not protesting machinery. They were protesting the use of machinery to evade apprenticeship, quality customs and agreed piece rates — and that is the part the word Luddite erases.

By Brecht Corbeel · August 8, 2026 · 17 min read

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