Venice was mass-producing ships on assembly lines centuries before steam
The factory seems a child of the Industrial Revolution, yet the Venice Arsenal, founded in 1104, was already building ships on assembly lines from standard parts. What changed in the 18th century was machinery so costly and bulky that home workshops could no longer hold it.
Factories took over when capital and space needs outgrew cottage industry. The earliest ones, with a spinning mule or two and under a dozen workers, have been dismissed as glorified workshops. John Lombe's water-powered silk mill in Derby was running by 1721, and by 1746 a brass works at Warmley near Bristol took in raw material at one end and sent out pans, pins and wire at the other. The factory system really spread once cotton spinning was mechanised. Richard Arkwright, who patented his water frame in 1769, is credited with the prototype of the modern factory at Cromford Mill in Derbyshire, enlarging the village to house incoming workers.
Between 1770 and 1850 mechanised factories displaced artisan shops as the main way goods were made, thanks to their advantages in technology and supervision. By 1836 the Bridgewater Foundry of Nasmyth, Gaskell and Company was moving heavy items through its buildings on cranes and rails. The word mill lingers from an older age, when grinding grain and later spinning, rolling iron and making paper ran on water or wind before steam took over in the 19th century.
Where to draw the line is debated. The sociologist Max Weber argued that ancient and medieval production never deserved the name. Others point to large workshops at Kerma in Nubia around 2000 BC, Roman plants making the fish sauce garum, and the Barbegal mills in Roman Gaul. In medieval Islamic cities such as Baghdad, whose population reached 1.5 million, big milling complexes arose to feed the crowds.
Modern factories range from assembly halls turning out discrete goods, whether finished products or parts for somewhere else, to chemical plants, refineries and paper mills where streams of raw material flow continuously through tanks, reactors and pipes. Large ones cluster where rail, road and water transport meet.
Source: Factory
