The Industrial Revolution

Causes of the Industrial Revolution

1. Agricultural Revolution

2. Population growth

3. Technological changes (invention of new labor-saving machines, e.g.)

4. Change to mass production of goods

5. Establishment of Overseas Colonies (as a source of raw materials and as markets for finished goods)

6. Political stability

7. Commercial Revolution (helps with accumulation of capital)

8. New attitudes about organizing labor (assembly lines, etc.)

Prelude to the Industrial Revolution: The Agricultural Revolution and its causes

Changes in agriculture made possible the Industrial Revolution. Some of the causes are as follows:

1. New crops (potatoes, corn, sugar beet)

2. Four-Crop rotation (Thomas Coke) and new ways to replenish soils (Charles Townshend in the 1730s esp.) – the use of clover, turnips, alfalfa, other soil-enriching root crops increase yields

3. New farm machines – seed drill (Jethro Tull(1674-1741), new iron plows, mechanical reapers and threshers (Cyrus McCormick, 1834)

4. The Enclosure movement - fencing off public lands by landowners, decrease in number of small farms

5. New breeding techniques (Robert Bakewell’sLeicester longwool sheep, e.g.)

Effects of the Agricultural Revolution

1. People’s diet and health improved

2. The population grew rapidly

3. Demand for manufactured goods, like clothing, went up

4. The Enclosure Movement forced small farmers off of the land

5. Fewer people were needed for farming anyway

6. Unemployed farm laborers and their families sought work in towns and cities

7. Many countries experienced a power or energy crisis

The Path towards a solution to the power or energy crisis: coal, water and steam

-Human and animal muscle – main power sources up to the 18th century C.E.

-Use of wood also important – There was a problem, however – England and other parts of Europe were losing forests quickly in the 18th century

-Coal provides part of the solution, esp. inasmuch as it can be used for steam power, yet it is difficult to extract and costly

-Hydroelectric power – used first –particularly in mills

-Because of Volta and Farraday’sdiscoveries, other ways of generating electricity were also starting to be considered

-In the end, the development of the steam engine is the key

Great Britain plays a key role in the development of new energy sources

Why is Great Britain one of the leaders of the Industrial Revolution?

• Plentiful iron and coal resources• Capital reserves (money to invest)• Large colonial empire furnished Britain with abundant

raw materials and markets for its goods• Government encouraged the growth of industry and

trade (sometimes with subsidies, usually with a laissez faire approach to business)

• Skilled workers• An excellent transportation system (roads, canals,

railroads)• Agricultural Revolution

Great Britain also had the 3 factors necessary for production

•Land

•Labor

•Capital (or wealth)

Compare Great Britain’s transformation

Thomas Savery’s Suction Pump (aka the Miner’s Friend) for removing water from wells and mines (1698)

-This device used no moving parts (no pistons, e.g.)

-Steam was generated in the first tank (the boiler) and then allowed to enter a second tank (the condenser) by opening a valve.

-Cold water was then poured into this second tank.

-Steam was then condensed, causing a vacuum

-The floodwater from the mine would then rise up to fill the vacuum

-In practice, this machine didn’t work very well. It could only bring up water some 33 feet. Most mines in England and Wales, where Savery was from, were deeper than that.

Thomas Newcomen’s Steam-powered pump (1710)

- Newcomen was an English engineer-His pump was safer and more reliable than Savery’spump-Instead of using high-pressured steam to blow water up and out of a vacuum, Newcomen added a piston to the cylinder heated by the boiler; it could be moved by lower steam pressure-However, this machine wasn’t very efficient either-It also could only be run near places with a steady supply of water (rivers, etc.)

James Watt’s Improved Steam Engine (1764, 1781)

- While repairing a Newcomen engine, Watt noticed that it seemed to waste a lot of heat (potential energy) by continually cooling and reheating the original cylinder

-Watt thought he knew how to reduce this heat loss and thereby develop a more efficient version of the steam engine

-He did this by making three important changes to the Newcomen engine: 1) He added an external condenser, in which steam was cooled separately from the original cylinder (in this way, the original cylinder would always stay hot) ; 2) He added a double-acting piston, in which steam was introduced to push the piston down, and then from a different valve more steam was let into the cylinder in front of the piston to push it up again; and 3) Watt’s sun and planet gear (see the wheel to the right) transformed the rocking action of the main beam into a rotary motion, which was better suited to powering machines

-Also worth noting: Unlike Newcomen’s engine, Watt’s steam engine did not need to be located near rivers; initially, this meant it could be used to power factories anywhere in the country; later, this meant it could be used to power locomotives and ships

The Bessemer Process re: steel

Changes in the Textile Industry: from Cottages to Factories

-Initially clothing is produced by a domesticor putting-out system

-This process cannot keep up with growing demand, however, which leads to the development of textile machines

-Eventually textile work shifts from the countryside to the city, from cottages to factories

Flying Shuttle (1733) – James Kay

-Kay was a machinist and clockmaker

-This device greatly sped up the weaving process and reduced imperfections in the woven item

-Spinning and weaving are still very time-consuming, however

Spinning Jenny (1764) – James Hargreaves

-Hargreaves was a carpenter-By turning a single wheel, a spinner could spin eight or more threads at once (faster spinning was necessary to keep up with weaving)

Water Frame (1771) – invented by Richard Arkwright

-Arkwright was a barber and wigmaker

-This device is operated by the drive wheel at the bottom of the machine

-Fibers are converted into thread and wound onto the bobbins

-Many of these machines are too big to be powered by hand (Arkwright first used horsepower, then waterpower)

-Arkwright later realized the potential to increase productivity dramatically by linking several of these machines together

-Factories developed as a result

Spinning Mule (1779) – Samuel Crompton (+1827)

-A hybrid machine, the spinning mule combined features of both the spinning jenny and the water frame

-It made thread that was stronger, finer, and more consistent than earlier spinning machines

The mechanical or power loom (1787) – invented by Edmund Cartwright

-Made thread faster-Almost completely automates the spinning process-Catwright’s machine wasn’t very successful at first but others (like Horrocks in 1803) made improvements – like winding up the fabric on the beams –that made it more useful

The Cotton Gin (1793) – invented by Eli Whitney

-Whitney develops a more efficient way to sort seeds out of cotton

-Ironically, this method does nothing to hinder the practice of slavery in the American South

-Whitney also was responsible for devising another important innovation, interchangeable parts

The Jacquard Loom (1801) – invented by Joseph-Marie Charles, called Jacquard

-Uses perforated or punched cards to “remember” patterns

-This machine runs spun yarn through the punched cards to produce patterns

-Basic idea will be used for computers later on (stacks of punch cards produce patterns, ways of organizing data)

These changes in textile manufacturing were not welcomed by all

• These machines often made workers redundant at first

• Some skilled workers resort to violence to stop the spread of machines – some of the best-known of these were the Luddites in England

• Poor living and working conditions affect workers’ health too

Different ways to organize businesses and the workforce also cause changes in the economy

-Development of limited partnerships and corporations to spread risk, raise more money, and (in the case of corporations) reduce liabilities

-Drive to dominate markets for some goods leads to monopolies (horizontal integration) or to control of all aspects of the production and distribution process (vertical integration)

-Child labor is prevalent at first but restrictions develop by the 20th

century

-Labor unions (aka combinations) are also formed