The Industrial Revolution

The industrial Revolution

The industrial Revolution began in England and was a time in the 18th and 19th centuries when the use and production of machinery grew rapidly. During this time there were key advancements in technology that changed the way we manufacture produce, harvest food, and transport people and goods from then on. This new trend spread from Europe onto North America then Great Britain and on to the world. Industrialization changed the way people lived and changed many aspects of daily life of everyone. It changed the way people worked, the type of work they did, even the relationships people had with their bosses apparently. Having machines make goods dramatically dropped the price of the goods making them more affordable to less fortunate people, for example when the "Spinning Jenny" was created and cotton clothes were produced in massive quantities the price of cotton dropped from 18 cents a clothe to 2 cents a clothe.

possible causes for the Industrial revolution-- Some historians believe the reason why the spark of ingenuity spread and caused this wildfire of industrialization was ultimately because Britain quit their policy of feudalism. Then national border controls were improved and strengthened which lead to less foreign disease being brought into their country and lessened the death toll. The lessened death tolls then lead to a larger workforce which was also helped by a couple of events such as the Enclosure movement and the British Agriculture Revolution which made food production easier and more efficiently. With the surplus population, competitiveness in the agricultural work area became too extreme and forced people to find alternative jobs in factories and the cottage industry. Colonial expansion, development of international trade, and the accumulation of capital also helped industrialization grow to its maximum potential.

Steam Power-- The steam powered engine was attempted in 1698 by Thomas Savery but this steam powered engine couldn't be used for the operation of mechanisms. His engine was only used for pumping water out of deep mines and such. Although his was the first successful steam pump it did have many flaws because it was unreliable and had a possibility of exploding and getting steam leaks. The real advancement in steam engines came when Thomas Newcomen made a better version of the stationary steam engine that was quite a bit more reliable, efficient, smoother running, and a bit more fuel efficient.

The next big improvement to the steam engine was done by a man named James Watt with the help of Matthew Boulton made his first steam engine to be sold and used in 1776. He used Newcomen's idea but improved upon it in a way that it would instead of condensing air when the piston goes one way that it uses the pressure of the air when the piston goes both ways and eventually saving on cost and efficiency. They later developed more improvements so that the engines didn't rely on atmospheric conditions and by 1783 they created a double acting rotative so it could directly power machinery in factories and mills. Then a little after the 19 century began two engineers Richard Trevithick and Oliver Evans made a high pressure steam engine that you could put into automobiles and such that later will be used in rail locomotives and steam boats.

Textiles-- producing textiles in 1820-1860 became a very large industry and became America's leading industry in fact when textiles mills started being created all over the New England and Mid-Atlantic states. Those areas were popular for textile production because there were a large number of flowing streams for the textile mills to run off of. As the textile mills grew more and more popular, other inventions were created such as a power loom that could take raw cotton and weave it into clothes. This was invented in 1813 by Francis C. Lowell and Paul Moody. After that Francis Lowell got the idea to put the two processes of cotton producing and weaving together and made cloth even cheaper and more profitable. Through time people would make improvements to the machines to make them more efficient and last longer.

Canals--Canals were the first way of transporting a very large number of materials across country. This new invention helped lower High freight rates and virtually put the selfish utilization of resources to a halt. By 1840 the U.S. had over 3'000 miles of canals to ship raw materials and other heavy goods such as ores, grains, and even construction items. Canals were primarily located in the eastern and Mid-western states, such as the Erie Canal that linked the Hudson River to the Great lakes.

Railroads-- Railroads were the next great invention for transportation while canals were still in their glory. Before there were railroads people mainly lived in the east coast and didn't get news very quickly. Railways took off after Britain impressed the U.S. with its steam powered railways and made the flaws of the canals more noticeable, such as the rivers freezing and holding the canal horses and lack of flexibility of the