The Advancement of Humankind Through the Industrial Revolution

The Advancement of Humankind Through The Industrial Revolution

The most revolutionary period of time in the eighteenth century, arguably, occurred between 1760-1840. North America was becoming the coveted place to live. The Industrial Revolution came with mass production and working lines, which made everything more accessible to others. There were certainly downfalls along the way such as the use of fossil fuels, hence contributing to global warming. The Industrial Revolution altered society, thus beginning to morph the world into the place that society is today.

The Industrial Revolution brought all those who were living in the rural areas into the cities because this was where all the work was being sent. The work was starting to be more in the cities than on the farms. The Industrial Revolution was creating less of a physical labour, and just having the employees maintain them as to making them do the physical labour, machines took over the labour that hurt those who wouldn’t be able to last as long as they should in the work force.

When the machines became more of a common entity, they started to assemble. Assembly lines of work with stations that had a specific job to do to assembling a specific product, this moved production fairly quickly which made the product more accessible to others in the community. The Industrial Revolution was the start of everything becoming more within

reach of ordinary people when James Meigs, the editor in chief of Popular Mechanics says: “As technology gets better as knowledges spreads it becomes more within reach of ordinary people in

ways that wasn’t seen in human history.”(Industrial Revolution). Everything now, in today’s society is more accessible to the human populace, the way it has never been before in history because of the Industrial Revolution.

Everything was becoming more accessible to everyone in society. Before the Industrial Revolution shops were not stuffed with goods waiting for buyers. They were full of craftsmen waiting to fulfil orders of what people wanted. The Industrial Revolution allowed people to wait less in the stores and the craftsman to work in the factories and product cesses of their products instead of order on order. Mass production during the Revolution was based on the principles of specialisation and the division of labour. This was first described in 1776 by Adam Smith, and first practiced in places like a gun factory in America in the 1790’s. With the starting of working lines the early businesses that used the working lines to produce their products were able to take those who worked on farms in agriculture labour to the factory and working on the floor. By doing this there was no significant retraining required because they worked with machines on the farm. One of the seminal events in the history of mass production was the appearance of the Model T automobile which the Ford Motor Company said: “chugged into history on October 1st 1908”. The automobile became so popular that near the end of 1913, Ford was making around half of the cars that were produced in the United States. With the invention technology and along with it the assembly line, it allowed to form an assembly line with people responsible for specific aspects of the product while building which made the production massive.

The Industrial Revolution started the advancement towards technology and developing what is in today’s society. “Ever since the Industrial Revolution, investments in science and technology have proved to be reliable engines of economic growth. If homegrown interest in those fields is not regenerated soon, the comfortable lifestyle to which Americans have become accustomed will draw to a rapid close.” (Neil deGrasse Tyson, BrainyQuote). The Industrial Revolution started everything that is now in today’s society. Society today is so dependant on technology and have gotten away from how we got here and how much easier everything became accessible. Technology has become so advanced and with the startup of machines in the Industrial Revolution that is what pushed technology to what it is today. Having every bit of information at our fingertips, and easier ways to communicate to each other then it was before and during the revolution. Although the technology came with easier access technology also helped create what we called global warming.

One of the downfalls of everything that came out of the Industrial Revolution was the fact that it contributed to global warming by using fossil fuels to run the machines and for our transportation for the longest time. Although now we are starting to use electric cars to help the environment, it is already affecting us as we see it with the weather changes. According to the article, “The Industrial Revolution kick-started global warming much earlier than we realised”(Mass Production) they have evidence that global warming has advanced to us now and truly operating in a greenhouse- influenced world. The Industrial Revolution during the 18th and 19th century spanned, and the global CO2 emissions were only a fraction of the current levels. The CO2 emissions kept climbing from the 18th century which was around 3 to 7 million tons per year to the early 19th century which rose dramatically to 54 million tonnes per year. Currently today with CO2 emissions we are emitting over 8 000 million tones per year. The Industrial Revolution was the kick start to emitting CO2 emissions with the development of machines and using fossil fuels to keep them running. The Industrial Revolution created the start of climate change but at the same time it also made great advances for humankind. James Gustave Speth and environmentalist and dean of the yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies says, “Climate change . . . is the single greatest threat that societies face today.”(ARC