Beginning about 1760, with the invention of improved spinning and weaving machines and with the successful application of steam to machinery, English industry soon underwent radical changes. Home manufactures gave way to the factory system with its hum and noise, its long and steady hours, its discipline, and its deadening influence. The old-type capitalists became owners. The independent weavers and spinners became operatives, being compelled as a result of the change to leave their little plots of land with their gardens, poultry, and hogs, and to crowd about the factories in poorly built hovels. A similar change took place in all other lines of manufacturing. Workers gave up their tools and machines, and whatever hereditary rights they had in the land, thus cutting themselves off from a great deal of their traditional independence.