Short answers, pulled from the story.
John Lombe opened a water-powered silk mill in Derby in 1721. This facility employed over two hundred workers under one roof and used machinery too large for any single cottage to house.
Richard Arkwright patented his water frame in 1769 to power textile machinery more efficiently than human hands could manage. Cromford Mill in Derbyshire became the first successful application of this technology.
Portsmouth Block Mills reached an annual output of 130,000 sailing blocks by 1808. Marc Isambard Brunel achieved mass production using interchangeable parts alongside Henry Maudslay and Simon Goodrich at this location.
Irish immigrants arrived in large numbers following the famine between 1845 and 1850 to seek work in English and American factories. Depression years from the late 1830s to early 1840s worsened conditions for displaced rural families.
Friedrich Engels published The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 describing extreme poverty and lack of sanitation. By late 1880s Engels noted conditions had largely disappeared compared to earlier reports.