Innovations and Inventions of The Industrial Revolution
Innovations and Inventions of The Industrial Revolution
Innovations and Inventions of The Industrial Revolution
Manufacturing
Before the industrial revolution manufacturing was done in people's homes.
This was commonly known as the domestic system.
Great Britain
The industrial revolution began in Britain in the late 1700s.
New canals, roads and railways allowed the efficient transport of raw materials and
manufactured goods as well as the movement of people.
Throughout the industrial revolution Britain was commonly referred to as the ‘workshop of the
world’
Factories
Factories were built to house machinery for making textiles
Initially, factories were commonly built near rivers so that water power could be used for the
day to day running of machines.
Iron
The Darby family discovered how to make cheap iron at their iron works in Coalbrookdale,
which historians labelled the cradle of the industrial revolution. The first iron bridge was built
here in the 1770s
Coalbrookdale was located in the Midlands and visitors likened the place to the fires of Hell.
Textiles Innovators
Three of the most significant machine inventors were James Hargreaves, Richard Arkwright &
Samuel Crompton.
They invented the Spinning Jenny (1765), Water Frame (1769) and the Spinning Mule (1779).
These inventions helped to drastically increase industry consumption of cotton.
What affect would this have on the slave trade or the lives of weavers?
Spinning Jenny
It was invented in 1764 by James Hargreaves.
The device reduced the amount of work needed to produce cloth, with a worker able to work
eight or more spools at once.
How might this affect the lives of people who used spinning wheels in their homes?
Water-Frame
The Arkwright water frame was able to spin 128 threads at a time, which was an easier and
faster method than ever before.
The design was partly based on a spinning machine built for Thomas Highs by clock maker John
Kay, who was hired by Arkwright.
Being run on water power, it produced stronger and harder yarn than the then-famous
"spinning jenny", and propelled the adoption of the modern factory system.
Spining Mule
However, unlike the spinning jenny, the water frame could spin only one thread at a time until
Samuel Compton combined the two inventions into his spinning mule in 1779.
Power-Loom
In 1787 Edmund Cartwright invented the power-loom.
By 1829 there were over 49,000 power looms in mills across Britain.
What effect did this have on production and people’s lives?
Steam Engines
The first commercially successful engine that could transmit continuous power to a machine was
developed in 1712 by Thomas Newcomen.
James Watt made a critical improvement by removing spent steam to a separate vessel for
condensation, greatly improving the amount of work obtained per unit of fuel consumed.
By the 19th century, stationary steam engines powered the factories of the Industrial
Revolution. Steam engines replaced sail for ships, and steam locomotives operated on the
railways.
The first recorded rudimentary steam-powered "engine" was the aeolipile described by Hero of
Alexandria, a mathematician and engineer in Roman Egypt in the first century AD.
Urbanization
Cities grew while overcrowding, crime and pollution increased
London’s population is almost 100 000, New York, 60 000 and Sydney 2500