larger groups of workers were concentrated in so-called "manufactories". Although this also applied to textiles, it was more common in glass and salt production, ironworks and hammer works. In France, Royal [...] start, and the workers had to keep to a strict discipline despite the fact that the majority were still working individually by hand. The decisive element which turned the whole world of work on its head [...] been the pride of hand workers. Since expert knowledge was hardly necessary, employers now preferred to employ women and children whom they could pay less than men. The workers were ruthlessly exploited
in eastern Lorraine. There, salt was manufactured from the saliferous spring water in the area. Workers filled the salty water, called "brine", in big ceramic pans and heated them until the bulk of water [...] shallow basins. Due to the intense sun and the wind, over time the water evaporated and in the end workers scraped up pure dried sea salt. These three traditional ways of salt production have already been [...] by the roman scholar Pliny the elder in his "Natural History". The beginnings of many famous salt works which flourished for centuries lie in the early Middle Ages: Wielicka in Poland for instance, Lüneburg
industrial landscape took shape in this region, termed “Donbass” for short, as ever more coal mines, iron works and settlements were established. The heart of this region was the city of Donezk, which developed [...] was thus originally called Yuzovka. The capital for this boom came mainly from abroad, while the workers mostly came from Russia. At this time, the agricultural industry in the western Ukraine was also
Daugavpils, with Riga added in 1861. In the following years, the Russo-Balt Wagon Factory and machinery works were founded in the suburb Bolderai. Once the rail links to the breadbaskets of southern Russia and [...] large-scale reconstruction and industrialisation programme, as Latvia possessed a stock of well-trained workers and an infrastructure that was still relatively intact. As natural resources were lacking, Moscow [...] bind the Baltic more closely with the USSR at the same time through the mass settlement of Russian workers. Particularly in Riga, plant equipment and metalworking operations were founded: in 1947, the company
metalworking, and the country’s industrialisation was completed. 1946 saw the founding of the tractor works in Minsk, whose Belarus brand tractor remains the country’s most prominent export item. This was followed
labour and charcoal as fuel were available in abundance, Swedish iron ore was refined in Finnish iron works. However, the use of wood as fuel, in saw mills and for the production of tar, was economically more
was now available. However, far too many people sought work in the burgeoning industrial cities, as mechanisation put millions of artisans out of work, and many farmers sought new employment as their farms [...] many people looking for work, factory owners could afford to pay poverty wages. Working hours ranged from 12 to 16 hours, 6 days a week. Violations of the strict time and work discipline resulted in immediate [...] wage deductions, if not dismissal. A skilled worker, perhaps operating a mechanical loom, might earn enough to live on, but usually the whole family had to work: Women for half the wage, children for even
the British in particular, who after the abolition of slavery in the 19th century, took countless workers from India and China as indentured labourers and deported them to colonies on other continents. In [...] labourers under certain conditions, but as they could not decide on the nature and duration of their work in the German Reich, their employment was considered forced labour. German authorities initially tried [...] at the end of 1916, not least on the initiative of entrepreneurs. However, most of them refused to work in Germany and the deportations were largely stopped in early 1917. The recruitment of civilians in
combination of the words 'smoke' and 'fog' to form 'smog'. As the number of coal mines and smelting works increased, black smoke became a widespread phenomenon in the British Isles, eventually covering the [...] of rivers and the damage to forestry and agriculture led to growing protests. The health risks to workers, who were exposed to chlorine, sulphur and hydrochloric acid gases with virtually no protection, [...] metropolis - during the "Great Stink" of 1858, even the honourable Members of Parliament had to stop work. Taller chimneys for factories and power stations, now widely required, improved the air in the immediate
that he wanted to look for a gas that was easy to obtain and could be used without any construction work. In September, the murderous effects of Zyklon B, a pesticide based on hydrogen cyanide, were tested [...] 1000 Jews at a time. Up to 90% were sent to the gas chambers at the railway station as "unfit for work". Already deprived of their civil rights, they were immediately stripped of their valuables, then [...] ovens to cope with the large number of victims, the engineer Fritz Sander designed a model that would work continuously with an even supply of corpses: a cremation conveyor belt. "Topf and Sons“ applied for
site from coal, then for street lighting: cities built huge cylindrical gas tanks in central gas works, from which "town gas" was distributed through cast-iron pipe networks. Later, long-distance pipelines
needed more and more capital for mechanisation, synthetic inputs and expansion, while the number of workers has fallen inexorably. Countless farmers have given up, unable to cultivate ever larger areas and
05-06-2025 | ERIH project Shine4Future: Project Management Group met in Terrassa, Spain Implementing seven work packages by 2028 is the target set by the EU funding… more 11-05-2025 | ERIH Annual Conference 2025: [...] Industrial Heritage founded, followed by the ERIH Germany Dialogue After three years of preparatory work, largely driven by ERIH, Germany launched a… more 13-02-2025 | Shine4Future: strategic ERIH project
Italy Minett Tour The steel industry shaped the landscape, factories and blast furnaces rose, and workers formed an unfamiliar kind of settlements. more Regional Routes in the Netherlands Silesia Silesian
association. Partnerships should address at least one of the following topics: education, improving future work opportunities, succession planning, cooperation and exchange of experience and good practice. The [...] Priority will be given to members who have participated in ERIH projects (Industrial Heritage Barometer, WORK it OUT, ...). Applications to participate in the exchange programme should be sent informally to the
on a variety of topics, with open discussion. A new format is 'My day at work', where ERIH site staff present their day-to-day work and raise interest in industrial heritage as a potential career option
demanded a different image of the world of work, based on the ideas of self-responsibility and the market economy. This meant the concept of the "free worker" instead of the slave economy and free trade [...] of the new era: slavery had to be banned in order to raise the status of industrial workers. Even if they had to work 12 hours a day, received miserable wages and lived in damp mass quarters - they were [...] historians have argued about the role that slavery and colonialism played in industrialisation. The key work on this subject was published in 1944 by the historian Eric Williams, who, significantly, came from
