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Industrial Revolution: A Transitive Period
The document is part of a newspaper article dating to 1842. It served as almost a technological update for the greater community, describing the latest in sewage disposal.
The article introduces the new system in a favorable light, as funding for it almost certainly would have cost the local population. Consequently, its purpose and specifications were presented as universally applicable, its functionality and efficiency available for all to take advantage. The document presented is one that exemplifies the massive effects of the Industrial Revolution and their reach throughout all aspects of society. The article is not only historically valuable, but it also serves as a reliable historical source for the student of the Industrial Revolution.
From a historical perspective, the article came at just as the British Industrial Revolution began to grow in magnitude and pace. 1842 marked a time when the British Empire began to escalate its operations, using its colonies and territories to expand and evolve its domestic economy. With industrialization came the expansion of the middle class to include not only those between lower and upper classes, but also to accommodate an explosion in population. The economy was compartmentalized, changing the face of cities across the nation as technology both industrial and medical technologies broadened in scope and availability. From an ecological (not to mention hygienic) perspective, Britain could not support the burgeoning population explosion that occurred between the 19th and 20th century. With memories of the Black Plague instilled in the public conscience, the impetus of technological application and advancement would rarely be felt as urgently as in other areas of the Industrial Revolution. With the population exploding and birth fatalities reducing each year, sewage systems were a vital part in the sustenance of sanitation in the expanding population of British urban hubs. Sewage systems not only alleviated the concern of many for the facilitation of industrialization, it also reassured the people that they had equal footing in a newly-egalitarian society where class was increasingly diminished in importance. New advancements were usually only available to the upper class, and the sewage system represented a unifying force in the road to industrialization.
Several references in the text signify the process of industrialization and the advancement of technology. The 200 water closets and similar places gives the impression of a society implementing modern plumbing, a reflection of advancement and population expansion. The allusion to the common drains reflects the mass expansion of residences as well as the population explosion, suggesting a population that grows faster than commercial construction can accommodate. Common drains also were present in factories, agricultural collectives, and mills in which the growing middle class worked. That they shared common drains also suggests that the amount of people living in close proximity to each other increased. The sewage system mentioned also serves several different venues, ranging from the infirmary to slaughter houses and manufactories, reflecting a great diversity of industry in one area in a short span of time. Most notable of the service areas mentioned is the infirmary, a non-industrial compound itself but one whose sewage output warranted use of a significant sewage duct or system. If the sewage output from an infirmary could rival that of pig manure, dung-hills, slaughterhouses, and manufactories, there would have to be a huge growth in population and thus an increase in patient input to the hospital in question. Of the industrialized sources mentioned, the slaughterhouses and pig manure makes note of industrialization's spread to the agricultural domain as well as the centralization of industries in urban hubs as opposed to the rural section of the country.
The document proves to be reliable as an historical source in the depth of the areas it mentions. However, most of the useful facts one may draw from the article are purely speculative without academic resources or prior knowledge of industrialization to corroborate conclusions. The specific numbers listedthe 200 water closets and 30,000,000 gallons per annum of the mass filthare indicative of mass expansion both technologically and from a population consensus standpoint. However, the article serves less as a historical account as it does a representative literature focused on the transition between the feudal age (with reference to the medical leeches) and the Industrial Era.
The document is valuable to the student of the Industrial Revolution; however, it should be taken as a reflection of one aspect of a transitive period more than a description of the Industrial Revolution as a monolithic whole.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
More, Charles. (2000) Understanding the Industrial Revolution. London: Routledge.
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