'Cotton Factories, Union Street, Manchester', 1835.

The mechanisation of textile machinery throughout Britain and Europe in the early 19th century revolutionised cotton manufacturing. The cost of cotton production fell, while demand for cotton products rose, and workers were increasingly driven from the fields into the new cotton mills and factories. The buildings here look surprisingly modern. Illustration from 'History of the cotton manufacture in Great Britain: with a notice of its early history in the East, and in all the quarters of the globe' by Edward Baines (1800-1890), published in London in 1835.