The Industrial Revolution of the 18th and early 19th Centuries changed society forever.
The Industrial Revolution of the 18th and early 19th Centuries changed society forever.
First Britain, then Europe and America, were gradually transformed from largely rural communities based on agriculture to nations dominated by cities and towns — and their manufacturing industries.
In a period of about 100 years from 1750 populations soared as families abandoned the countryside to work in the town.
The average worker's pay also rose dramatically. Life expectancy and health standards improved despite the squalid and unsanitary living conditions that many factory workers endured.
As the urban centres grew they spawned hospitals, schools, theatres, roads, railways and canals. The foundation of our modern world was laid.
Britain was uniquely qualified to be the cradle of the Industrial Revolution. It had abundant quantities of iron ore, coal and water - three of the essential ingredients.
Its political situation was unique too. The Glorious Revolution of 1688, in which Parliament effectively took control of the country, had reduced the power of both the monarch and the aristocracy.
This promoted the growth of affluent middle-class traders. Some became entrepreneurs seeking lucrative investment opportunities.
These men provided the investment and vision that fuelled most of the technological advances that allowed industry to grow so fast.
The fledgling industries were also able to take advantage of the unprecedented trading opportunities within the British Empire — firstly with the colonies in North America and later with India, Australia and Africa.
The revolution was kick-started by the mechanisation of Britain's textile industry, largely based in Lancashire and Yorkshire.
By the early 1700s wool and cotton production were among the mainstays of Britain's economy, but spinning and weaving were done by hand.
Mostly workers produced cloth at their own homes on a frame known as a loom.
In 1734 John Kay invented the flying shuttle -- a device that allowed weavers to work faster and produce much wider sheets of cloth.
Three decades later came the revolutionary spinning machine, the Spinning Jenny. It is generally credited to James Hargreaves, although others also claimed it.
The Spinning Jenny was a wood or metal frame that held eight wooden spindles for spinning wool - allowing one operator to do the work of eight. Later improvements raised that number to 120.
The Spinning Jenny, and similar copycat machines, transformed the textiles industry. Within little more than ten years there were 20,000 in Britain.
Chief among the entrepreneurs was Richard Arkwright. He pioneered the concept of the cotton mill - a primitive factory powered by water that brought the various textile production processes under one roof.
The mills were later powered by steam - another essential component of the revolution.
An improved steam engine had been developed and refined by Scots engineer James Watt during the 1760s. By 1775 it was in production and being used to pump water.
But in the 1780s it began to be used to power a wide variety of machines - allowing factories to be set up in places where there was no water power.
Soon the steam engine was the basis of industries producing coal, iron, textiles, pottery and much more.
Alongside advances in steam technology and textile production came huge improvements in the manufacture of iron. Traditionally furnaces could only reach the necessary temperature if they were fuelled with charcoal. This could only be made with a plentiful supply of wood and large amounts of manpower and was time-consuming and costly.
In the early 1700s it was discovered that coke, a high-carbon by-product of coal, could also be used.
This vastly reduced the cost of iron production, making it cheap enough to use in construction for the first time. It also prompted similar improvements in the production of steel.
The advances allowed the building of iron bridges, boilers, steam engines and finally railways.
The ability to make fine quality tools of iron and steel also allowed a wide range of industries to become more efficient - and more productive.
The Industrial Revolution was also a social revolution. Families unable to find work in rural areas flocked to the factories of the towns - swiftly turning them into sprawling cities.
Life was undeniably hard by modern standards, with low wages and a working day that could exceed 12 hours.
Living conditions were also appalling, with families crammed into tiny houses with little sanitation.
Child labour had been common in the pre-industrial age. But as the factories grew it became the norm in many industries - especially the cotton mills.
Children could operate machines as easily as adults - and be paid a fraction of the wage.
Often they were forced to work in terrible conditions. Many died before reaching adulthood from diseases linked to their unhealthy working environment or in accidents.
Campaigners who publicised their plight rallied public opinion and from the 1830s onwards a series of laws gradually abolished child labour.
During the same period public health laws also improved sanitation and the quality of housing. The increase in middle-class property that was a by-product of the Industrial Revolution meant there were many more doctors available to treat working people.
Not all industrialists were the monsters of popular fiction. Many did their utmost to improve workers' conditions and provided medical care and schools.
Despite the undoubted hardships of working life, the Industrial Revolution sent Britain's population soaring, from around six million in 1740 to almost 16 million a century later. By 1901 it stood at 30 million.
The average worker's wage also rose dramatically in the 19th Century while child mortality rates fell.
The Industrial Revolution also had far-reaching political significance. The concentration of workers in towns and cities led to the growth of the trade union movement, which fought for better pay and conditions for the poor.
And in the latter half of the 19th Century, the trade unions gave their support to emerging socialist groups which gave working people their first political voice — eventually joining forces to become the Labour Party.
James Watt
James Watt’s steam engine had an enormous influence on the Industrial Revolution and the development of the modern world.
The popular misconception is that the Scottish engineer, born in 1736, invented the engine. In fact Englishman Thomas Newcomen did.
Newcomen’s simple engine is still complex for the layman. Here’s a basic explanation: It was powered by steam, created in a cylinder by boiling water in a chamber under it.
The pressure from the steam forced a piston inside the cylinder to move to the top. The piston was attached to a beam above it, so that moved too.
Next a jet of cold water was automatically sprayed into the cylinder, cooling it down, condensing the steam and thus lowering the pressure. With the pressure lower, the piston returned to its starting position, as did the beam above it.
The beam was attached to a rod, the up-and-down motion of which was used to work a pump. Newcomen’s engine was used to pump water out of mines, which allowed miners to dig much deeper for coal to fuel factories.
In 1764 Watt, an instrument maker at Glasgow University, was asked to repair a working model of Newcomen’s engine. As he did so he saw it wasted steam because its cylinder had to be alternately heated and cooled. So in 1765 he built an engine in which the main cylinder stayed hot but was attached to a second one which was kept cold.
This advance cut fuel consumption by 75 per cent. Watt refined the engine until it was efficient enough to run all sorts of machinery.
Thanks to Watt, steam powered the first railway engine in 1804. He died in 1819 and the electrical unit, the watt, was named after him.
