Industrialisation started early in Switzerland - even by around 1800 it was one of the most industrialised countries in the world - and it continued to develop rapidly throughout the 19th century. Nevertheless, there was little heavy industry, and many workers continued to work at home rather than in factories.

The important cotton industry was the first to become mechanised. Spinning machines appeared in Switzerland in 1801 when the first spinning mill was opened in St Gallen; by 1814, manual spinning had practically disappeared throughout the country. Switzerland's numerous rivers provided the energy to drive the machinery.

Textiles were the speciality of the north and east of the country. The French-speaking Jura concentrated on clock-making, where the work was done in the villages rather than in large factories.

Industrialisation of the textile industry and the know-how of clockmakers combined to help develop the machine-tool industry. The need for dyes for textiles lay at the basis of the chemical industry, and the chemical industry in turn give rise to the paper industry at a time when the demand for paper was on the rise.

Some well-known Swiss food manufacturers sprang up in response to industrialisation and the disastrous impact it had on the nutrition of factory workers and their children. Women workers had no time to cook and not enough money to buy decent food. As a result disease was rife and infant mortality high.

The Nestlé company was founded by a German political refugee, Henri Nestlé, who in the 1860s developed a way of combining flour with milk for babies whose mothers were unable to breastfeed them. Maggi (now part of Nestlé) was launched in the 1880s, when miller Julius Maggi - the son of an Italian immigrant father - working with factory inspector Fridolin Schuler, developed nutritious instant soups, using peas, beans and lentils.