The installation of the first Watt steam engines in factories began in 1785, revolutionizing industrial production in Britain. Boulton and Watt's engines powered cotton mills and other industries, significantly increasing efficiency and output. This technological advancement was a key factor in the Industrial Revolution, transforming the landscape of manufacturing.

Factory mechanization altered working lives, providing backdrop for poetry critiquing child labor and industrial pollution by writers like Shelley. Poets such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Alfred Lord Tennyson addressed the human cost of industrial progress, using their platforms to advocate for social change.