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About a hundred years ago, around the time of the First World War, there was a growing

concern in Britain about working conditions, in factories, mines and elsewhere.

Here's how the historian Anthony Wall described working conditions during the Victorian era.

For industrial workers, the working day meant early starts, long hours, and often physically

demanding labor in conditions that would have challenged even the strongest constitutions.

To start work at 6 a.m., perhaps after walking through sleep or rain, and to continue at it

all day in overheated, drafty or elementalated workrooms, meant for many, a slow process

of physical decline or a life lived continuously on the brink of exhaustion.

This exhaustion was worrisome for the workers, of course, but also for their employers and

for Britain, because exhaustion presumably meant lower productivity, and nobody wanted that.

So, Britain forms the industrial fatigue research board.

...