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The Industrial Revolution in England (Garraty) Flipbook PDF
The Industrial Revolution in England (Garraty) is a general resource that explains why and how the Industrial Revolution
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The Industrial Revolution
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The Industrial Revolution in England
The Industrial Revolution was essentially a rapid change in methods of producing goods other than crops, a change that involved a transition from making things by hand with the aid of simple tools to their production by in creasingly complicated machines and chemical processes. In this great transformation, which quickened dramatically in the second half of the eighteenth century and continues to this day, mechanical contrivances performed more and more human tasks; machines were moved by energy derived from inanimate rather than animal, including human, sources; and goods increasingly came to be made out of inanimate materials. Not only did the Revolution put millions of mechanical slaves at the disposition of man, but it also permitted him greatly to increase the supply of raw materials at his disposal. It allowed him to tap the riches in the earth's crust that had been stored up over eons. Man was no longer restricted for the satisfac tion of his needs and wants mainly to the current output of plants and ani mals-he could turn to his own purposes a wealth that would have made Midas seem like a pauper. The advances which gave this great economic change the name Indus trial Revolution occurred in Great Britain, yet it would be contrary to the facts to regard the mechanization of industrial processes as strictly an English experience. More in accordance with the evidence would be the view that this great transformation of industry and subsequently of society itself was a product of Western civilization, which in turn had borrowed widely from many civilizations. Indeed, one should remember that spinning and weaving, the making of pottery on the potter's wheel, the grinding of grain by composite mechanisms, the moving of machines by windmills and water wheels, the transmission of power by shafts and gears, the operation of atmospheric pumps like the water pump, and the fundamental processes of metallurgy were transmitted from the ancient past to modern man and 822
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND
A.D.
1694 1733 1769
1770 1776 1784 1785 1793 1798 1811 1821 1822 1824-1825 1829 1830 1846 1849 1858
1869
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Founding of the Bank of England James Kay invents the flying shuttle Josiah Wedgwood opens pottery factory at Etruria, near Stoke-upon-Trent; James Watt patents the steam engine after years of experimentation; Richard Arkwright invents the water-powered spinning frame James Hargreaves patents the spinning jenny Adam Smith publishes The Wealth of Nations, the classic of classical political economy James Watt patents a locomotive, two years after Oliver Evans patents a similar device Edmund Cartwright patents the power loom Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin Eli Whitney builds a factory for the mass production of firearms near New Haven Pittsburgh's first rolling mill opens Great Britain adopts the gold standard First textile mills in Lowell, Massachusetts Repeal of the Combination Acts in Britain, permit ting trade unions to burgeon George Stephenson perfects the steam locomotive Railroad is put to its first serious uses in the United States Great Britain repeals the Corn Laws Great Britain repeals the Navigation Acts Henry Bessemer {later Sir Henry) builds Bessemer Steel Works at Sheffield, using a new process that makes large-scale production possible Transcontinental railway across the United States is completed
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