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Life in a railway factory
Life in a Railway Factory By Alfred Williams. Originally published in 1915. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Obscure Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. Contents include: Labour Unrest - The Stamping - The Shunters - The Old Canal - The Field - The Smithy - Fitters - Getting to Work - First Operations in the Shed - Stamping - Forging and Smithing - First Quarter at the Forge - The Night Shift - Inferiority of Work Made by the Night Shift - Sickness and Accidents - Cold and Heat - Getting a Start - Short Time and Overtime - Table of Wages Paid at the Works.
- GenresHistory
288 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 1, 2021
I have read this twice , and on each occasion I was left wondering quite why it was so lauded in the past. Williams worked for 23 years at the Great Western Railway's locomotive and carriage works at Swindon, and it is quite clear that he did not enjoy it. The book starts with a long rant about the exploitation of labour by capital, and throughout the communist leanings are obvious. Everyone in management, however junior , was regarded by Williams as dishonest , and the chip on the shoulder becomes well-nigh unbearable as time goes on. The question which begins to nag insistently in the reader's mind is why, if it was so awful, did he - as a plainly quite intelligent and even learned man - stick it out for 23 years . It is interesting in its first half, but becomes tediously repetitious as time goes on, so that I found myself reading down the middle of the page after the half way mark.
June 15, 2026
Swindon, in the English county of Wiltshire, is a town of near city proportions which came into being due to the Great Western Railway company; before that, it was just a village (you can read the eminent naturalist and local man, Richard Jeffries, about rural life in those times).
This book is a fairly comprehensive account of factory life in Victorian-Edwardian times, by Alfred Williams who, from the age of 15 and the 23 years after, worked on the factory floor, mostly operating the heavy steam hammer. It ultimately destroyed his health and, despite a talent for writing, he endured the rest of his years in poverty and subsistence living.
I found some chapters a tad dry - his need to describe the different “sheds” within the factory, their ambience and the workings of the machines within - and repetitive, going over the same information again elsewhere in the book.
The better parts are dealing with the workings of conditions - horribly abject, cruel and exploitative - and the characterisation of some of his fellow workers; their traits, acquired nicknames and vernacular language.
It begins and ends with his thoughts on employment politics of the time and how the system held back the lower classes; though not overly explicit, he was a progressive, leaning towards socialism. Interesting that much of what he proposed became reality in modern Britain: workers’ rights, shorter hours, five day week etc., though some conditions remain entrenched albeit not nearly as severe.
The backstory which isn’t told here is the biography of the writer himself; an extraordinary one of self-education - he read literature extensively and taught himself Latin and classical Greek. You can read in the prose this isn’t the words of a common man without intellect or education, yet it’s at odds with the work he had to do just to get by.
Not a page turner but interesting nevertheless. Three stars!
This book is a fairly comprehensive account of factory life in Victorian-Edwardian times, by Alfred Williams who, from the age of 15 and the 23 years after, worked on the factory floor, mostly operating the heavy steam hammer. It ultimately destroyed his health and, despite a talent for writing, he endured the rest of his years in poverty and subsistence living.
I found some chapters a tad dry - his need to describe the different “sheds” within the factory, their ambience and the workings of the machines within - and repetitive, going over the same information again elsewhere in the book.
The better parts are dealing with the workings of conditions - horribly abject, cruel and exploitative - and the characterisation of some of his fellow workers; their traits, acquired nicknames and vernacular language.
It begins and ends with his thoughts on employment politics of the time and how the system held back the lower classes; though not overly explicit, he was a progressive, leaning towards socialism. Interesting that much of what he proposed became reality in modern Britain: workers’ rights, shorter hours, five day week etc., though some conditions remain entrenched albeit not nearly as severe.
The backstory which isn’t told here is the biography of the writer himself; an extraordinary one of self-education - he read literature extensively and taught himself Latin and classical Greek. You can read in the prose this isn’t the words of a common man without intellect or education, yet it’s at odds with the work he had to do just to get by.
Not a page turner but interesting nevertheless. Three stars!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews