The main features involved in the revolution were technological, socioeconomic, and cultural. The technological changes included the following:
- The use of new basic materials, primarily iron and steel
- The use of new energy sources, together with both fuels and motive power, such as coal, steam engine, electricity, petroleum
- The invention of new machines, such as the spinning jenny and the power loom, that permitted increased production with a smaller expenditure of human energy
- A new organization of work known as the factory system
- Important developments in transportation and communication, including the steam locomotive, steamship, automobile, airplane, telegraph and radio
- The increasing application of science to industry
Before the Industrial Revolution people made goods on a small-scale from their own homes, or in workshops beside their house. The whole family would be involved in producing and selling the product. It was safe to work at home as they only used hand tools and simple machinery, these worked by hand and foot. It was called the Domestic System. Later, it has moved aside for more complex machines and new methods were invented, which were powered by steam and gathered together in factories to produce more goods. It meant that people would work regular hours and not when they wanted to.
Before the invention of steam-engines, wind mills and water wheels were used for powering big machinary. The first steam engine in the early seventeen hundreds was mainly used in the mines for pumping out water. A Scottish engineer, James Watt, invented the first workable steam engine in 1782. This invention created a vast new source of power. It was a machine that could spin several threads at one time. Then a mechanical loom was perfected for weaving the thread. This newly invented machine made large quantities of a product quickly and very cheaply. This process became known as mass production. By that time a lot of factories had made up in England, particularly in the cotton industry, which took over from wool. In 1733 John Kay invented his ‘flying’ shuttle which made the making of clothes much faster.
The merchants who had grown rich from the domestic system began to buy the new machines. They built factories to house the machines, and employed workers to run them. The making of the machines themselves became a major industry. Large amount of iron was needed to make the new machines. The increased iron production made it possible to manufacture new machinery for other industries. No one see this more clearly than John Wilkinson, a man with a total belief in iron. He built the largest ironworks in the country (McDowall 2002; 121-129).
A method was soon discovered for making steel from iron. Much stronger and more accurate machines could be made from these new metal- manufactured goods and raw materials had to be transported to and from the factories. The shipping industry flourished. Railroads, canals and new roads were built. The telegraph was invented, quickly speeding up the communications industry.
As the Industrial Revolution spread throughout Europe and the United States, people’s life began to change. The factories created many new jobs. But they also took some jobs away, by replacing people with machines. People came from far away to work in factories, hoping to make more money than they could on the farms. They crowded into the new towns that were growing up around the factories. At that time England faced increasing pressure to produce more manufactured goods due to this population explosion – England’s population nearly doubled over the course of the century.
Living conditions were terrible in these towns. People had to work long hours, often in dangerous conditions. As the new machines were powered by horses, water and steam engines and did not need human strength, people thought that women and children could look after them. Children of the poor had always worked as soon as they could walk. Workhouse children were expected to learn a simple task from the age of three, and almost all would be working by the age of six or seven. So, many women and children were employed, even in the mines. Consequently, the industrial revolution brought severe impact on societies. The reason why the factory owners employed women and children was that they needed cheap labors to run the machines. By this they profited greatly. By the age of six, many children were already working 14 hours a day in factories. These children had no free time to do anything else and earned low wages. Some got sick and died because of the toxic fumes, while others were severely injured and sometimes killed working at the dangerous machines in factories. But, the displaced working classes thought, took it for granted that a family would not be able to support itself if the children were not employed.
The children of the poor were forced by economic conditions to work, as Dickens, with his family in debtor’s prison, worked at age 12 in the Blacking factory. In 1840 perhaps only twenty percent of the children of London had any schooling which had risen by 1860, when perhaps half of the children between 5 and 15 were in some sort of school the others were working. Many of these children worked 16 hours a day under atrocious conditions as their elders did. Then, quite suddenly at the end of the century, most of the people realized the shamefulness of child labor. This resulted from the increasing dislike of cruelty, and also from the fact that hard child labor became more visible and more systematic now that so many people worked in factories rather than in fields and cottages. Horrified by the suffering of children forced to sweep chimneys, parliament passed a Regulating Act in 1788 to reduce the brutality that has been involved (Mc Dowall 2002; 120).
When newer and more multifaceted machines were made, it became clear that they would need a skilled worker for the job. Later, when machines were able to make other machines, a great number of mechanics were needed. The workers began to take pride in their work and grouped up to improve the conditions to work in. this was the start of the ‘Trade Unions’.
Besides the bad conditions at work children needed to stand that, thanks to the lot of people who came to the towns to find work, the houses became crowded and new houses were built quickly and cheaply in small streets. For many years no proper water supply brought clean water to the people, and there were no proper drains. Life in the countryside had not been healthy but living in towns made people aware of the dangers to health. This awareness made the people feel something ought to be done to improve matters. After 1840 some improvement were made to some towns but many were still dirty (McDowall 2002; 121-129).
Another great result of the industrial revolution is the improvement in the transport, as goods needed to be moved from place to place. In the early eighteenth century roads were bad, the river was only available at certain points and times of the year. The horses that carried goods were slow and expensive. The first real improvement to transport was the building of better roads and bridges.
Canals followed this. One of the first canal builders was James Brindley. His first canal was built to carry coal from the west of Manchester to Manchester itself, and it is also reduced the cost of coal in growing industrial cities. In the 1790’s every town wanted a canal, but this was not a bad thing as it build up a network of canals joining all the important towns of England together (add).
Railways were made possible when George Stephenson built a steam engine that ran on rails and was able to pull or push along carts. Stephenson’s first achievement was the opening of his Stockton to Darlington railway in 1825 which he drove himself. In 1829, his most famous locomotive ‘The Rocket’ reached an amazing speed for its time, of twenty-one miles an hour. It cost more to send the goods by the railways than it did to send them by the canal, but people were willing to pay the extra amount as the product would arrive a lot quicker. Fewer people used the canals and this method of transport died out (add).
At sea, steamships were just beginning in the middle of the nineteenth century, when the old sailing ships were being replaced. Originally, steam engines were put into wooden ships. At that time, there was less wood, and in any case wood could not produce the heat essential to make iron and steel either in large quantities or of high quality. But at this time the use of coal for changing iron ore into good quality iron or steel was perfected, and this made Britain the chief iron manufacturer in Europe. This happened only just in time for the many wars in which Britain was to battle, primarily against France, for the rest of the century. In 1800, Britain was producing four times as much coal as it had done in 1700, and eight time as much iron (McDowall 2002; 121).
The industrial revolution changed a lot of lives for the better by improving a lot of work conditions and mass production helped to increase the amount of goods made. Steam engines made it possible to travel faster and also roads were improved. Before the industrial revolution the south of England was crowded but as factories grew up the population spread out across Britain. The way we work today is affected by the changes in industry and technology took place between 1750 and 1950. There were some bad points in the Revolution but overall they helped to improve the way we live.
References
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McDowall, David 2002 An Illustrated History of Great Britain
Sixteenth impression, Longman Group UK Limited 1989, England