When I was younger I was intrigued by steampunk/gaslamp fantasy works because it looked cool. But as I got older I learned that the Industrial Revolution which is the real life basis for steampunk had a dark side:
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Unsafe workplaces: Since there were no regulations regarding workplace safety working conditions during the Industrial Revolution were bad. Prime examples included places like the Textile Mills and Coal Mines. In a textile mill the entire place would be warm and humid leading to workers having lung problems and workers would often suffer from stress injuries and physical deformities from doing jobs over and over everyday. And in some cases like the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory a lot of flammable materials weren’t stored properly so if a fire happened they wouldn’t be able to put out because there is no sprinkler system. In a coal mine workers had to work places that were no higher than 30 inches and they had to breathe in coal dust and gases like methane. And like the textile workers the men, women, and children also suffered from stress injuries and physical deformities from backbreaking work. Assuming of course they didn’t die from an explosion which was the result of a buildup of methane and they also had to worry about the roof caving in on them. To top it all off workers in both places had to work 12 -16 hour a days with no overtime pay, endure corporal punishment, have no paid vacations or holidays, if they got injured on the job they wouldn’t get any medical attention, and their wages could be arbitrarily cut, docked, or suspended.
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High Pollution and environmental degradation: In addition to contributing to global warming the Industrial Revolution also lead to a lot of environmental degradation. Since there were no air pollution controls and regulations, the sky would be clouded with smog and soot from factories. Deforestation also increased either to harvest more wood, increase settlement, or to mine or drill the land for natural resources. If it was to mine the land miners would often use heavy metals like mercury to separate the minerals from the rock which resulted in contaminating the soil and the water. And when plumbing came along this led to a lot of cities dumping their waste into natural lakes and rivers like what London did.
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No sanitation: As I said above when plumbing was introduced this led to a lot of people dumping their waste into natural rivers and lakes. In addition the streets would also be a dumping ground for waste (animal/human), garbage, and they would often be covered in soot that spewed from the factories. This often resulted in the spread and outbreak of diseases like cholera, typhus, and TB.
To be fair nobody back then anticipated that theses problems would arise from Industrialization.
Though in any case are there any steampunk and gaslamp fantasy works that show the downsides of the Industrialization?
Sources:
https://www.history.com/news/industrial-revolution-negative-effects
https://www.britannica.com/story/the-rise-of-the-machines-pros-and-cons-of-the-industrial-revolution
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/industrial-revolution.asp
https://www.thoughtco.com/gold-mining-mercury-usage-2367340
https://www.historyonthenet.com/industrial-revolution-working-conditions
https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/triangle-shirtwaist-fire
https://www.grunge.com/319516/the-truth-behind-the-great-stink-of-london/
https://www.thoughtco.com/public-health-in-the-industrial-revolution-1221641
https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2183/the-textile-industry-in-the-british-industrial-rev/
https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2201/coal-mining-in-the-british-industrial-revolution/
https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2212/trade-unions-in-the-british-industrial-revolution/