Historical Significance of the

Industrial Revolution
 An ancient Greek or Roman would have been
just as comfortable in Europe in 1700
because daily life was not much different –
agriculture and technology were not much
changed in 2000+ years
 The Industrial Revolution changed human
life drastically
 More was created in the last 250+ years than
in the previous 2500+ years of known
human history
What was the Industrial
Revolution?
 The Industrial Revolution was a
fundamental change in the way goods
were produced, from human labor to
machines

 The more efficient means of production

and subsequent higher levels of
production triggered far-reaching
changes to industrialized societies
The Industrial Revolution
 Machines were invented which replaced
human labor
 New energy sources were developed to
power the new machinery – water,
steam, electricity, oil (gas, kerosene)
Some historians place advances in atomic,
solar, and wind energy at the later stages of
the Industrial Revolution
 Increased use of metals and minerals
Aluminum, coal, copper, iron, etc.
The Industrial Revolution
 Transportation improved
Ships
○ Wooden ships → Iron ships → Steel ships
○ Wind-powered sails → Steam-powered boilers
Trains
Automobiles
 Communication improved
Telegraph
Telephone
Radio
Developments
 Mass production of goods
 Increased numbers of goods
 Increased diversity of goods produced
 Development of factory system of production
 Rural-to-urban migration
 People left farms to work in cities
 Development of capitalism
 Financial capital for continued industrial growth
 Development and growth of new socio-economic classes
 Working class, bourgeoisie, and wealthy industrial class
 Commitment to research and development
 Investments in new technologies
 Industrial and governmental interest in promoting invention, the
sciences, and overall industrial growth
Background of the Industrial
Revolution
 Commercial Revolution
15th, 16th, and 17th centuries
Europeans expanded their power worldwide
Increased geographic knowledge
Colonies in the Americas and Asia
Increased trade and commerce
Guild system could not meet the demands of
increasing numbers goods
Background of the Industrial
Revolution
 Scientific Revolution
17th and 18th centuries
Discoveries of Boyle, Lavoisier, Newton, etc.
 Intellectual Revolution
17th and 18th centuries
Writings of Locke, Voltaire, etc.
 Atmosphere of discovery and free intellectual
inquiry
Greater knowledge of the world
Weakened superstition and tradition
Encouraged learning and the search for better and
newer ways of doing things
Development of the Domestic
System of Production
 Domestic system developed in England
 Late 1600s-late 1800s
 Domestic system of production – “putting out”
system
Businesspeople delivered raw materials to workers’
homes
Workers manufactured goods from these raw
materials in their homes (typically articles of clothing)
Businesspeople picked up finished goods and paid
workers wages based on number of items
 Domestic system could not keep up with
demand
Factory System
 Developed to replace the domestic system of
production
 Faster method of production
 Workers concentrated in a set location
 Production anticipated demand
For example: Under the domestic system, a woman
might select fabric and have a businessperson give it
to a home-based worker to make into a dress. Under
the factory system, the factory owner bought large lots
of popular fabrics and had workers create multiple
dresses in common sizes, anticipating that women
would buy them.
England: Birthplace of the
Industrial Revolution
 No concrete start date for the Industrial
Revolution

 Marked by gradual, slow changes

 After 1750 – these changes were

noticeable first in England
Why the Industrial Revolution
Started in England
England’s Resources: Capital
 The Commercial Revolution made many
English merchants very wealthy

 These merchants had the capital to

invest in the factory system – money to
buy buildings, machinery, and raw
materials
England’s Resources: Colonies
and Markets
 Wealth from the Commercial Revolution spread
beyond the merchant class

 England had more colonies than any other nation

 Its colonies gave England access to enormous

markets and vast amounts of raw materials

 Colonies had rich textile industries for centuries

 Many of the natural cloths popular today, such as calico
and gingham, were originally created in India
 China had a silk industry
England’s Resources: Raw
Materials
 England itself possessed the necessary
raw materials to create the means of
production

 Coal – vast coal reserves powered steam

engines

 Iron – basic building block of large

machines, railroad tracks, trains, and
ships
England’s Resources: Workers
 Serfdom and guilds ended earlier in
England than other countries

 English people could freely travel from

the countryside to the cities

 Enclosure Acts – caused many small

farmers to lose their lands, and these
former farmers increased the labor
supply
England’s Resources: Merchant
Marine
 World’s largest merchant fleet

 Merchant marine built up from the

Commercial Revolution

 Vast numbers of ships could bring raw

materials and finished goods to and from
England’s colonies and possessions, as well
as to and from other countries
England’s Resources:
Geography
 England is the political center of Great Britain,
an island
 Great Britain (as the entire island was called
beginning in 1707) did not suffer fighting on its
land during the wars of the 18th century
 Island has excellent harbors and ports
 Damp climate benefited the textile industry
(thread did not dry out)
 Government stable
 No internal trade barriers
“Necessity Is the Mother of
Invention”
“Necessity Is the Mother of
Invention”
“Necessity Is the Mother of
Invention”
“Necessity Is the Mother of
Invention”

•The process of inventing never ends

•One invention inevitably leads to improvements upon it

and to more inventions
The Textile Industry

 Textiles – cloths or fabrics

 First industry to be industrialized

 Great Britain learned a lot about textiles

from India and China
The Birth and Growth of the
Textile Industry
The Birth and Growth of the
Textile Industry
Development of Steam Engines
 Early water power involved mills built over
fast-moving streams and rivers

 Early water power had problems

Not enough rivers to provide the power needed

to meet growing demand
Rivers and streams might be far removed from
raw materials, workers, and markets
Rivers are prone to flooding and drying
Steam Power
 Humans tried harnessing steam power
for millennia
Hero of Alexandria, Egypt – created a
steam-driven device in the 1st century B.C.E.
 Thomas Newcomen, England (1704)
Created a steam engine to pump water from
mines
 James Watt, Scotland (1769)
Improved Newcomen’s engine to power
machinery
Steam Engines
 By 1800, steam engines were replacing
water wheels as sources of power for
factories
 Factories relocated near raw materials,
workers, and ports
 Cities grew around the factories built
near central England’s coal and iron
mines
Manchester, Liverpool
Coal and Iron
 Vast amounts of fuel were required to smelt iron
ore to burn out impurities
 Abraham Darby (1709)
Discovered that heating coal turned it into more
efficient coke
 John Smeaton (1760)
Smelted iron by using water-powered air pumps to
create steam blasts
 Henry Cort (1783)
Developed the puddling process which purified and
strengthened molten iron
Increases in Coal and Iron
Production, 1770-1800
 Coal production doubled
6 million to 12 million tons

 Pig iron production increased 250%

1800 – 130,000 tons

 Great Britain produced as much coal and

iron as every other country combined
Bessemer Process and Steel
 Prior to the Industrial Revolution, steel was
difficult to produce and expensive
 Henry Bessemer, 1856
Developed the Bessemer process
Brought on the “Age of Steel”
Steel is the most important metal used over the past
150+ years
 Other improvements in steel production
Open-hearth furnace
Electric furnace
Use of other metals to produce various types of steel
Transportation

Before the Industrial Revolution

•Canal barges pulled by mules
•Ships powered by sails
•Horse-drawn wagons, carts, and carriages

After the Industrial Revolution

•Trains
•Steamships
•Trolleys
•Automobiles
Transportation Revolution
Steamboats

 Robert Fulton invented the steamboat in 1807

 The Clermont operated the first regular steamboat
route, running between Albany and New York City
 1819 – the Savannah used a steam engine as
auxiliary power for the first time when it sailed
across the Atlantic Ocean
 1836 – John Ericsson invented a screw propeller to
replace paddle wheels
 1838 – the Great Western first ship to sail across
the Atlantic on steam power alone, completing the
trip in 15 days
Macadamized Roads

 Strong, hard roads invented by Thomas Telford and

John McAdam

 Improvement over dirt and gravel roads

 Macadamized roads have a smooth, hard surface

that supports heavy loads without requiring a thick
roadbed

 Modern roads are macadamized roads, with tar

added to limit the creation of dust
Railroads
 1830 – Stephenson’s “Rocket” train traveled the
40 miles between Liverpool and Manchester in 1
½ hours
 1830-1870 – railroad tracks went from 49 miles
to over 15,000 miles
 Steel rails replaced iron rails
 1869 – Westinghouse’s air brake made train
travel safer
 Greater train traveling comfort – heavier train
cars, improved road beds, and sleeping cars
Communications Revolution
 Printing Revolution
 Printing – 1800-1830
 Iron printing press
 Steam-driven press
 Rotary press – 1870
 Invented by Richard Hoe
 Printed both sides of a page at once
 Linotype machine – 1884
 Invented by Ottmar Mergenthaler
 A machine operator could create a “line of type” all at
one go, rather than having to individually set each
letter
 Newspapers became much cheaper to produce
 Cost of a newspaper plummeted
 Number of newspapers increased
Review Questions
1. What was the Industrial Revolution?

2. Describe at least three developments of the Industrial

Revolution.

3. Compare and contrast the domestic and factory

methods of production.

4. Why did the Industrial Revolution begin in England?

5. Explain why one invention or development leads to

another.
Review Questions
6. Explain how developments in the textile industry
sparked the Industrial Revolution.

7. Describe at least three developments in the area of

transportation.

8. Describe at least three developments in the field of

communications.

9. Considering the conditions necessary for

industrialization to occur, how well equipped is the
undeveloped world for becoming industrialized? Are
modern undeveloped nations in a better or worse
position than 18th- and 19th-century England?