The Industrial
Revolution which also began in Britain
during the 18th century and it was spread too much in the Northern
Hemisphere throughout the 19th and early part of the 20th
centuries.
Also the advent of
mechanized mass production heralded the transformation of Europe and its
countries and also the North America. England
was the place filled with series of events which changed the world.
THE BEGINNINGS OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
The reason why
Industrial Revolution started in Britain is because it had the
advantage to be a united country which is also stable in internal political
situations, free from internal customs duties and with well-established banking
and insurance facilities.
In the 18th
century Britain
become as a dominant international trading power. Many merchants had accumulated
large sums of capital. England
was the first country to pass from an agricultural to industrial economy and
this period is consequently known as the Industrial Revolution.
The mainspring of
the change was the discovery of a new source of power—steam. At first this was used in mining and then it
was taken to textiles factories, and finally it was applied to transport when
the Railway Age opened in 1832.
As I am doing this, I thought to myself how can I
imagine England
in the middle of the eighteenth century.
I would imagine a picture, a landscape without railways and very few roads or
canals. There were no coals mines in South Wales and Yorkshire.
There were no big factories or mills or blast furnaces. Infect the chief fuel used
at this time was still wood and charcoal. This was some expensive to employ in
such industries as existed.
Thanks to the
genius George Stephenson, the steam engine entered on its final triumph.
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George Stephenson
|
 |
| Steam Engine by George Stephenson |
The Stockton-Darlington
railway was opened in 1823. During the next decade railway lines were laid down
with feverish energy and within two years it was invested a lot of money in contraction.
 |
| The Stockton-Darlington Railway |
Now the
English landscape changed and the Industrial
Revolution, as it is generally understood, was over and a new age dawned in
which England become the richest and the
most powerful nation of the world.
THE INVENTION OF THE STEAM
ENGINES
The production of
cheap cast iron stimulated the invention of various kinds of machinery. By far
the most important was the discovery of James Watt of a steam engine which
could employed for pumping coal-mines. Steam engines were soon in demand for
all mining districts in England
and orders came from different countries, such as France,
Russia and Germany.
In my research I discovered that in the early days of
railways there were many claims that a horse and carriage were faster than a
train. One such claim was put to the test and in 1830 the horse and carriage
won, though it was not long before speed of the trains increased
Later, Britain
became vitally in other matters as in other powers, so as to provide markets
and raw materials. The Development of the new technologies that depended on raw
materials found mostly in remote places, example the motor car depended on oil
and rubber, and copper imported from Africa and South
America.
It is the one of the great turning points in
the history of civilization.
In my research about the Industrial Revolution I found
such interesting buildings which were built by ordinary people. During the
Industrial Revolution iron was used
to make engines, boats trains and bridges.
Interested that the first bridges were logs, slabs of
stone or intertwined vines of ropes across narrow streams. The Romans were the
first great bridge builders. The sane types of bridges were built in Europe
until the end of the 18th century, when iron and steel construction
began. Infect the world’s first iron bridge was build at Coalbrookdale in
England in 1779.
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The Coalbrookdale Bridge
|
THE AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION
In addition the Agricultural Revolution produce
huge of profits for some farmers, so new schemes were to be financed at very
low rates of interest.
 |
Farmers
|
The English
farming was also undergoing a great change in this period. The smaller farms
were unable to compete with improved but more costly methods of agriculture
which required capital. Villagers, who had made use of common lands, lost their
rights which they had held by custom from time to time. Gradually an army of
unemployed was created and they naturally turned to the new industries that
were in need of unskilled labor.
In addition the new mass of
consumption of sugar,tea,coffee,cocoa and fruit led at the development of
tropical plantations economies.
EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN IN WORKHOUSES
People in that era who had no money or couldn't work
were sent to live in places called workhouses. These locations were like almost
like prisons. Once you are in a workhouse this means that you have to work very
long hours. It means to that it was hard to get out again. The sad thing was
that families were split up hardly ever allowed to see each other.
It is strange and
bitter irony that a period which vastly increased the wealth of this country
should also have in testified the poverty of so many people. And because labor
was plentiful it was cheap, and although prices rose steeply wages were
virtually at starvation level.
Another sequel was
the creation of workhouses, a large proportion of the inmate’s not which were
children, they were taught a trade and then sent to the mills of Lancashire. There,
were entirely defenseless and compelled to work long hours under strictly
conditions.
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| Children Working in Workhouses |
WORKING IN THE MINES
The life of these
people was not easy and they also believed that life can smile to them. In fact
more than 6,500 coal mines in the United States, were small operations. More
than 195,000 persons are employed directly in the coal industry.
Early coal mines were dark and dreadful places
where men and boys worked long hours pick and shovel in damp, dusty cramped
quarters. Woman and children were sometimes used to pull the heavy coal carts.
THE BEGINNING OF MASS PRODUCTION
Before the 1800
and the introduction of steam power in the English manufacturing, a factory
ordinarily was defined as a commercial establishment under the absentee
ownership and in charge of an agent. The beginning of the factory system largely
replaced the cottage system in which workers made goods in their own tools
although the materials were supplied by the merchant from whom the work was
done.
The success of the
modern factory was build on mass
production
That means that
the production of goods in large quantities.
So, with the
coming of the industrial revolution, however things changes in their appearance.
Inventors were active in the Textile industry. Weaving and spinning were handicrafts
largely carried out in the homes of individual workers on a small scale. In the
18th century, a series of English inventions revolutionized spinning
and weaving techniques. This made England the leader of the textile industry.
During the
centuries before written records primitive man invented the basic devices and
such techniques that assured the future. These inventions include such things
such as tools, weapons and traps. Also include the wheel, the raft, pottery,
the marked stick for measuring and the ways of making fire and smelting copper
and iron.
Also without iron and steel the way of life of
civilized people would be entirely different. These metals are used in
thousands of ways. They serve everybody in homes, public, automobiles, trains, ships, machinery, mines, farm equipment
and also bridges and buildings.
In fact the
unknown inventors who helped create the early civilizations of Mesopotamia,
Egypt and other famous ancient lands invented improved tools.
THE MACHINE AGE
The invention of
the steam engine started in the 18th century in England. This century
designed for spinning, thread and weaving textiles. This opened the modern era
of invention. The 19th century brought a steady stream of devices
and processes that are today granted.
There is a saying
that says “Necessity is the mother of
invention”
This is often true
because when there is a need of something new, or for an improvement of an
existing device or process inventors in many parts of the world will begin
working to fill that need. As a result of this , history has many instances of
several men independently inventing different inventions.;
Inventors
Until the 20th
century, most inventions were the work of individual inventors. Along the time
as the technology become more complex, invention become more and more a group
of effort financed by the government or such foundations.
 |
| FAMOUS INVENTORS |
In fact the
first important invention was John Kay’s flying
shuttle(1733) a device for moving the shuttle across the loom by a set of
cords, instead of by hand. This made weaving so much faster that a yarn
shortage soon developed.
 |
| John Kay |
 |
The Flying Shuttle
|
Several inventors
designed the spinning machines to replace the spinning wheel.
The inventor James Hargreaves invented the
hand operated spinning jenny. He
invented this about 1764. His invention was able to spin a number of fine-but weak- yarns at the
same time.
 |
| James Hargreaves |
 |
| Spinning
Jenny |
Reference...
- D.A Girling 1983, New Age Encyclopedia, Seventh Edition in Thirty Volume, Bay Books, Sydeny London.
- Walter Miller, ma, Litt, LL.D formely Deanof Gradate School and Professes of classical Languages and Archaeology University of Missouri, Walter Eckart, The universal World Reference Encyclopedia.
- DE New Standard Encyclopedia Volume 4
- Virtue's, New Age Treasury, Volume1, A Pagent of History, London
- Usborne Publishing Ltd 2000, The USBORNE Internet- Linked Science Encyclopedia.
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