Industrial Revolution

1712: ♦ Thomas Newcomen invents the frst productive steam engine.

1719:♦ John Lombe opens the frst silk throwing factory in Great Britain in Derby.

1733:♦ James Kay invents a simple weaving machine called the Flying Shutle.

1755:♦ Professor William Cullen designs a small refrigerator machine at the University of Glasgow.

1764:♦ James Hargreaves invents the Spinning Jenny, which allows workers to produce multiple spools
of thread at the same time.

1769:♦ James Wat patents his revision of the steam engine, which features a separate condenser.

1779:♦ Samuel Crompton invents the spinning mule, which combines spinning and weaving into one
machine.

1785:♦ Edmund Cartwright invents the power loom, which replaces the fying shutle.

*Henry Cort invents iron refning techniques.

1787:♦ Beverly Coton Manufactory, the frst coton mill in America, opens in Beverly Massachusets
and is powered by horses.

1790:♦ On December 20, 1790, Samuel Slater opens his frst textile mill in Rhode Island, which is the
frst American factory to successfully produce coton yarn using water-powered machines.

1793:♦ Eli Whitney invents the coton gin which greatly increases the production of coton.

1799:♦ Combination Acts makes it illegal in Great Britain for workers to unionize in order to bargain for
higher pay or beter working conditions.

1801:♦ On December 24, 1801, Richard Trevithick test drives the world’s frst steam-powered
locomotive, called the “Puffing Devil” or “Puffer” on the streets of Camborne, England.

1802:♦ An American farmer, Thomas Moore, invents the frst wooden ice box.

♦ On March 24, 1802, Richard Trevithick patents his steam-powered locomotive called the “Puffer
Devil.”

1805:♦ American inventor Oliver Evans designs the frst refrigeration machine that uses vapor instead of
liquid to cool but never builds it.
1807:♦ Robert Fulton opens the frst public steamboat service in America on the Hudson River in New
York.

♦ Embargo Act of 1807 in the United States cuts off imports from Great Britain, forcing American
merchants to increase the amount of goods they manufacture.

1811:♦ Luddite Rebellion begins in Great Britain. Luddites atack factories and smash machines in
protest against the industry.

♦ American merchant, Francis Cabot Lowell, tours the textile mills in Great Britain and memorizes the
designs of the power loom in order to improve textile manufacturing in the United States.

1812:♦ Parliament passes a law making it illegal by penalty of death to destroy industrial machines.

1813:♦ On January 16, 1813, fourteen Luddites are hanged at York Castle in England for the murder of
manufacturer William Horsfall.

♦ Francis Cabot Lowell and several partners start the Boston Manufacturing Company in the United
States and introduce an improved version of the power loom.

1814:♦ The Boston Manufacturing Company builds its frst textile mill in Waltham, Massachusets and
introduces the Lowell System, in which every step of the manufacturing process is done under one roof
and is performed by adult women instead of children.

♦ George Stephenson patents a steam engine locomotive that runs on rails.

1822:♦ The Boston Manufacturing Company starts the frst large scale factory town in America and
names it Lowell after company founder Francis Cabot Lowell, who died in 1817.

1824:♦ Trade unions are legalized in Great Britain.

1825:♦ George Stephenson commissions a 30-mile railway to be built from Liverpool to Manchester.

♦ The Erie canal is completed which opens a water route from the Great Lakes to New York City and the
Atlantic Ocean.

1828:♦ On October 13, 1828, the defunct Beverly Coton Manufactory burns down.

1829:♦ On October 8, 1829, Stepehenson’s Rocket wins a speed contest, the Rainhill Trials, on the newly
built Liverpool-Manchester railroad.

1830:♦ On September 15, 1830, the Liverpool and Manchester railway opens to the public.

1831:♦ Cyrus McCormick invents the mechanical reaper, a mechanical horse-drawn reaping machine.
1832:♦ Sadler Commitee investigates child labor in factories in Great Britain and issues a report to
Parliament.

1833:♦ The 1833 Factory Act in Great Britain provides frst regulation of child labor in textile factories.

1834:♦ Poor Law creates “poorhouses” for the destitute in Great Britain.

1835:♦ On August 14, 1835, Jacob Perkins, now known as the “father of the refrigerator,” builds upon
Oliver Evans refrigeration machine idea and patents the frst vapor-compression refrigeration cycle.

1837:♦ A blacksmith, John Deere, invents the steel plow in Illinois.

1844:♦ Friedrich Engels publishes his observations of the negative effects of industrialization in his book
The Condition of the Working-Class in England.

♦ Samuel Morse invents the telegraph, which allows people to communicate quickly over long
distances.

♦ Charles Goodyear patents vulcanized rubber.

1846:♦ Elias Howe invents the sewing machine.

♦ On October 16, 1846, a Boston dentist named William Morton holds the frst public demonstration of
ether at Massachusets General Hospital.

1848:♦ The British government establishes the General Board of Health to investigate sanitary
conditions, setting up local boards to ensure safe water in cities.

1849:♦ 10,000 people die in three months in London from a Cholera epidemic caused by contaminated
drinking water.

1851:♦ John Gorrie patents a mechanical refrigeration system machine.

1853:♦ Elisah Otis invents a safety break for elevators. This paves the way for tall buildings and
skyscrapers to be built.

1854:♦ James Harrison builds the frst commercial ice machine.

♦ The frst steam-powered coton mill in Asia opens in Bombay, India.

1856:♦ The Bessemer Process for making steel is invented by Henry Bessemer which allows for the mass
production of inexpensive steel.

1861:♦ Emancipation reform in Russia abolishes serfdom throughout the Russian empire, allowing serfs
to seek employment.
1863:♦ On January 10, 1863, the frst subway in the world opens in London, England.

1869:♦ On May 10, 1869, the Transcontinental Railroad is completed in the United States.

1870:♦ The Elementary Education Act of 1870, aka Foster’s Education Act, in Great Britain makes school
atendance mandatory for children between the ages of 5 and 10.

♦ Large scale industrialization begins in Japan.

1875:♦ Public Health Act gives the British government responsibility to ensure public health for housing
and sewage.

1876:♦ Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone.

1877:♦ The Great Railroad strike occurs in the United States when railroad companies reduce wages.

♦ On February 12, 1877, Alexander Graham Bell publicly demonstrates the telephone for the frst time
at the Lyceum in Salem, Massachusets by placing a phone call to the Boston Globe in Boston,
Massachusets.

1879:♦ On December 31, 1879, Thomas Edison demonstrates the frst practical incandescent light bulb
by lighting up a street in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

1880:♦ Elementary Education Act of 1870 is extended in Great Britain.

1882:♦ The world’s frst coal-fred power station, the Holborn Viaduct power station, went into
operation in London, England.

1884:♦ The Berlin Conference of 1884 paves the way for widespread colonization of Africa by European
countries, such as Britain, France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and Germany, who are in search of raw
materials needed for industrialization and new captive markets to sell their goods to.

1886:♦ On December 8, 1886, the American Federation of labor is founded in Columbus, Ohio.

1891:♦ Russia begins construction on the Trans-Siberian Railway, which eventually becomes the longest
railway line in the world.

1897:♦ On September 1, 1897, the frst subway in the United States opens in Boston, Massachusets.

1901:♦ The Factory Act in Great Britain raises the minimum work age to 12 years old.

1903:♦ On December 17, 1903, the Wright Brothers make their frst successful airplane fight in Kity
Hawk, North Carolina.

1908:♦ On October 1, 1908, Ford begins production of the Model T automobile.

1918:♦ In the Hammer v. Dagenhart, the United States Supreme Court rules that Congress has no power
under the Commerce Clause to enact child labor laws.

1919:♦ The Child Labor Tax law is passed.

1922:♦ In Bailey v Drexel Furniture Co, the United States Supreme Court rules the 1919 Child Labor Tax
Law unconstitutional.

1924:♦ Congress proposes the Child Labor Amendment prohibiting child labor but the states never
ratifed it.

1938:♦ Congress passes the Fair Labor Standards Act, which establishes minimum wage, overtime pay,
recordkeeping, and child labor standards in the private sector and in Federal, State and local
governments.

1978:♦ China begins to drastically industrialize by building millions of small-scale factories throughout
the country, eventually becoming the second largest economy in the world.