The+Industrial+Revolution



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In the early 1700’s, life in the countries was slow, quiet and simple. Mostly everyone lived in the country, farmed and made almost everything that they needed themselves. This included food, furniture, clothes and much, much more. Everything was natural, including power sources. The only power sources available were carts pulled by horses, mules or oxen. When one had to seed or harvest crops, they did it themselves, by hand. Everyday objects were made by hand or craftsmen, as industries were still few and far between. Then around the 1750’s, Great Britain started to change. The population grew by three times and more staples were needed for survival including food, clothing, etc. Many new inventions were beginning to take the place of hand-done craftsmanship. And farming was very closely scrutinized i.e. better soil, better systems of planting and harvesting, and irrigation processes.Smaller farmers could no longer survive in a world expanding so fast and factories becoming so powerful. This forced many workers out of their homes and from the jobs they enjoyed. Workers, including women and children, were now expected and often forced to work hard, long hours in unsafe and unbearable environments. However, the Industrial Revolution brought on many positive changes that stimulated the growth in our country. A few of these changes included the flourishment of factories and industries, more efficient farming techniques and better power sources. Good or bad, all changes lead to the change of our world from rural to urban Britain.

** Railroad and Transportation ** Products were being produced faster than people could deliver them. They needed the finished products to be moved quicker and cheaper. In the late 1700’s the British began to make improvements on their roads. John L. McAdam developed a **Macadam Road** which was a surface made of layers of crushed stone. Before there were asphalt **roads**, **macadam** **roads**, pulled civilization out of the mud and muck. Other improvements included canals to connect navigable rivers to factory and mining centres. The most important improvement was the railroad. This improvement was dramatic. Soon the production of iron grew, and iron railways were replacing wooden railroads. This made it easier to carry heavy loads.

** Social Classes ** England had two major social classes, the nobles and the peasants. The nobles were considered the upper class people and the peasants were the lower class. However, during the Industrial Revolution a new middle class evolved and flourished. This class was composed mainly of merchants. This class grew in numbers and wealth quickly. It was during the Industrial Revolution that the middle class, railroad, factory and mine owners, not only became wealthy, but they became as wealthy as the nobles. This new middle class changed many things in England, but of them all, the most important was the gaining of political power. Male members of this middle class gained the right to vote and be represented in Parliament. However, the Industrial Revolution did not benefit everyone. The Revolution not only created a middle class, but it created an industrial working class. This class was comprised of peasants who could no longer support themselves or their families by farming. The Industrial Revolution was a nightmare for these people. They had to work up to sixteen hours a day, six days a week, for low wages. Many were injured and killed due to unsafe working conditions. Even children were often injured and killed while doing difficult and unsafe work.

** Child Labor ** Children worked in dangerous factories, coalmines and other hard labor jobs. Children would start working as young as five years old and some times even younger. They had very long working hours, which would start as early as 3:00 a.m. and they were expected to work 12-16 hours a day. They were paid very little. Factories wanted children to work because they were cheaper then adults. The jobs that were expected of them were often very dangerous and difficult. Many boys had to guide ponies and donkeys through the mines. There were many dangers involved in working in the mine, such as explosions, floods, cave-ins and black lung. Black lung was a respiratory disease caused by breathing coal dust. Many girls worked hard in the factories. Most women worked in the textile industry. Children did not have the opportunity to attend school or even get to play with other children.

** Textile Industry ** Today a large number of fabrics are used and produced at a very fast pace. This process began back in England during the Industrial Revolution. In the past, production of clothing was being done in cottages, where families worked together. As technology advanced, the production of clothing needed to advance as well. How would we make the production faster? The workers would use hand-powered spinning wheels and looms; the workers would spin the threads and weave it into wool and cotton cloth. Inventor John Kay invented the **flying shuttle** in 1733, which made cotton spin much faster. This helped weavers turn yarn into cloth. But, this was just the beginning of inventions. This now created another problem, which was that the production of thread was not fast enough. The next invention was the **Spinning Jenny**, which was invented in 1765 by James Hargreaves. The Spinning Jenny was a machine that allowed a single spinner to spin eight threads simultaneously.

** The Luddities ** The creation of new technologies, new ideas such as interchangeable parts and the use of water first, and then steam-power, led one man do what was previously done by many and left many unemployed. Unskilled workers working on machines produced goods that formerly had to be produced by skilled workers. Although the Industrial Revolution created enormous amounts of wealth that increased the standard of living of the average individual, it caused a lot of pain and suffering for many of those who lived through it. Among those, were a group called the Luddites. In 1811 factory owners in Nottingham began to receive mysterious letters from General Ludd and his Army of Redressers, complaining about reductions in wages and the replacement of skilled workers with unskilled workers. These complaints soon turned to violence. Although General Ludd was a fictitious creation, the Army of Redressers were all too real. Now called Luddities these desperate workers broke into factors and destroyed the machines that were taking away their livelihood. In one period in 1811 an average of two factories were being attacked every night. The government was forced to intervene and a new law was passed: “The Combination Act”, which forbade associations of workers and imposed a death-sentence for machine breaking. Still the violence continued and many Luddities were killed during attacks on factories and more through capture and execution. The Luddite movement, and the associated violence, continued until 1817. In the end, it wasn’t the government’s brutal suppression that ended it; it was the will of society. The Industrial Revolution created numerous jobs for unskilled labourers, a group that far outnumbered their skilled counterparts. Slowly, the Luddites came to realize their fight could not be won. ** Inventions ** Industrialisation would never have happened so rapidly if it wasn't for the rapid development of new ideas, methods and machinery. This list briefly describes a number of these inventions. ** The Spinning Jenny ** The Spinning jenny was a machine that could spin threads of wool. It was invented by James Hargreaves in 1770 and initially could spin 8 threads at once. Hargreaves developed this machine to the extent that it could spin 120 threads at any one time (by hand a person can only spin one thread at a time). ** The Water Frame ** Richard Arkwright patented the Water Frame in 1769. The Water frame was a large wheel that was turned by running water. This was used to turn cogs inside factories, which then made the machinery work. ** The Steam Engine ** In 1778, James Wattcreated the modern steam engine. A steam engine uses the energy of steam to move machinery. James Watt first noticed that steam could force inanimate objects to move after noticing the pressure and energy from boiling water would lift the lid to a tea kettle. It is a fairly clean source of energy. The steam engine was central to the industrial revolution. Only through providing a convenient source of energy could major forms of transportation grow and prosper. Steamships and steam locomotives allowed for the quicker transportation of raw materials that could be used to produce finished goods. The steam engine is best associated with the invention of trains but also was used to power machinery in factories, to power lifts in mines and for many other purposes. The Watt - a unit of power familiar today when dealing with lightbulbs - was named after James Watt. ** The Locomotive (Train) ** In 1801 Richard Trevithick developed a steam powered carriage that carried passengers on roads, he developed this idea further and in 1804 created the first locomotive to run on rails (ie the first train). He then demonstrated an updated version of his locomotive in London in 1808. ** Interchangeable parts ** In the early 1800's, Eli Whitney came up with an idea that had a great impact on the way goods were produced. Before his idea of interchangeable parts, most goods were produced by skilled workers who made each item by hand from start to finish. Whitney's idea was to build a machines that made each separate part of the object. That way, all the parts would be exactly alike. If something broke, it could be easily replaced. Whitney's idea of interchangeable parts made it possible to put together and repair things quickly.This idea began with guns but soon spread to other industries.

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