factory whistle

There were no wagons rumbling on the streets, no factory whistles, no hum of electricity in the air, no passing of street cars, no cries of news-boys--nothing but persons who at rare intervals went by like furtive ghosts, themselves oppressed and made unreal by the silence.

"End of the day, factory whistle cries/ men walk through these gates with death in their eyes/ and you just better believe, boy somebody's gonna get hurt tonight," Springsteen sings in "Factory."

The working class relied on the factory whistle and the town hall clock.

Among these traditions was the sound of the factory whistle. The local townspeople complained to the council and requested that the manager install a factory whistle and blow the whistle at key times during the day because it gave them a sense of time and space.

Like a factory whistle blown, cutting the still air,

The bank employee laughed and told the man that the bank set its clocks by the factory whistle.

Children as young as 5-years old worked in factories and to train them as efficient workers was a tough challenge for this new world, where the work environment was composed of indoor toil, noise, smoke, machines, high temperature, collective discipline, crowded living conditions where time was strictly regulated by the factory whistle and the clock.