#HISTORY OF AUTOMATION TIMELINE LUDDITES MANUAL#

The systematic combination with which the outrages were conducted, the terror which they inspired, and the disposition of many of the lower orders to favour, rather than to oppose them, made it very difficult to discover the offenders, or to obtain evidence to convict those who were apprehended.

'A considerable regular military force was now went to Nottingham, and in January 1812, two of the most experienced police magistrates were dispatatched from London to that place for the purpose of assisting the local authorities in their endeavours to restore tranquillity in the disturbed districts. In several villages, the rioters not only destroyed the frames, but they levied contributions for subsistence, which rapidly increased their number, and enlarged their sphere of action. The terror of this force seemed for a time to allay the spirit of insurbordination but before the end of the month of November, the outrages were renewed, and assumed a more serious systematic character. In consequence of the resistance opposed to the outrages of the rioters, in the course of which one of their number was shot, on the 11th of November, at Bullwell, magistrates found it necessary to call in the assistance of a considerable armed force, which was promptly assembled, consisting, at first, principally of local militia and volunteer yeomanry, to whom were added about four hundred special constables. The men engaged in the disturbances were at first principally those thrown out of employment by the use of the new machinery, or by their refusal to work at the rate of wages offered by the manufacturers, and they particularly sought the destruction of frames owned those hosiers, or worked by those men who were willing to work at the lower rates. These disturbances, which had now attracted the attention of parliament, and excited apprehensions of the most alarming nature, first manifested themselves by the destruction of a great number of newly-erected stocking-frames, by small parties of men, principally stocking-weavers, who assembled in various places round the town of Nottingham.

#HISTORY OF AUTOMATION TIMELINE LUDDITES MANUAL#

'The avowed and immediate object of the Luddites was the destruction of certain articles of machinery, the use of which had superseded or diminished manual labour, in the manufacture of the articles to which they were applied. In each district where the disaffection prevailed, the most aspiring man assumed the local superiority, and became the General Ludd of his own district.

There is no reason, however to believe that there was in truth any one leader. The insurgents, who assumed the name of 'LUDDITES,' probably with a view of inspiring their adherents with confidence, the malcontents gave out that they were under the command of one leader, whom they designated by the factitious name of Ned Ludd, or General Ludd, calling themselves Ludds, Ludders, or Luddites. 'Towards the close of the year 1811, a spirit of riot and insubordination manifested itself in the country of Nottingham, which, in the course of that year, extended to the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lancashire, Cheshire, and Yorkshire, and in some degree, pervaded all the manufacturing districts of England. As a result of continued opposition to mechanization, the Frame Breaking Act 1812Р’В made destruction of means of production, such as power looms and steam engines, but also a wide range of other equipment, subject to the death penalty. Struggling in the depression caused by bad harvests and the Napoleonic Wars, and concerned about the loss of jobs due to mechanization in the textile industry, towards the end of 1811 workers and craftmen founded the Luddite movement to oppose the factory system by destroying power looms and other means of factory production.Р’В Machine-breaking had been criminalized in England as early as 1721, the penalty being penal transportation.

History of automation timeline luddites