Most families could not afford to live with just working parents, so children over the age of eight worked alongside their parents in factories for over 12 hours a day day. The working conditions that children were forced to endure sparked the initiation of reform laws. In 1833 the Factories Act was passed which limited the amount of hours a child could work based on age (Mack, 2005). ConclusionThe industrial revolution that began in Britain in the early 18th century brought us many scientific discoveries. The mechanization of the cotton textile industry, reducing the need for manual labor, new iron production techniques, the introduction of steam powered machinery combined with improved transportation methods led to the expansion of trade in Europe. This was the result of technological progress in many different fields coming together and not a single invention. These scientific discoveries were the basis of the West's qualitative leap