The industrial revolution

The INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (John Watney) History/facts: - time, when Britain was transformed from a largely agricultural country into one that was predominantly industrial - 1730-1850 and causes/results beyond - Britain was the first country to be industrialised: o Had two essential natural resources: coal and iron o Island: free from distractions of invasions o Land-owning aristocracy: more amenable to change than in other countries o Already had an affluent merchant class. o Colonies: raw materials an captive markets o Infrastructure: navigable rivers, later canals; pioneer of railways o Temperate climate: plus in productivity o Work ethics of the many Nonconformist mill and factory owners o Inventions: steam power most important (Europeans had invented them, but Britain knew how to use them.) The Agrarian Revolution: - There would have been no Industrial Revolution without an Agrarian: it had to feed the population of the new industrial towns. - Enclosure Acts (late 18th - early 19th): o Large areas of common land to landowners à encouraged to consolidate holdings and to make more economical and rational use of it - Now avoided soil exhaustion by crop rotation, which also encouraged fertility à provided fodder à fresh meat in winter - Improved breeds - More agr. land: farming became an economically viable cash crop industry attracting investment. à profits for landowners à invest in Ind.

Rev. - Agricultural tools and machinery improved (e.g. iron plough brought saving in time and labour, seed drills, potato machines, reapers (Mähmaschine), binders (Mähbinder), threshers à reduced labour, increased productivity) - Then steam power was used: machinery, tractors. - Distribution because of good infrastructure à Enclosure Acts and efficient farm management: thousand dispossessed à migrated to the towns and factories! The first steam engines - first practical steam engine: pump to draw water out of Cornish mines - crude and wasteful in operation, but saved many mines from ruin - beam (Balken) engine: o from this all later ones descended o could only produce vertical up-and-down movement and it was expensive to run (only a paltry 1% of its heat was converted into work) o principally used for pumping out coal mines à needed only low pressure steam, most work done by atmospheric pressure; reliable, long-lived - Denis Papin: developed a primitive piston (Kolben) driven by steam Ironbridge, Birthplace of the Industrial Revolution - wood becoming scarce (to build houses, ships, machines) à drove up costs - making smelting iron with charcoal too expensive à make it out of cheap coke and iron ore (pig iron); then Darby's son managed to make wrought (Schmiede-) iron out of coke and iron ore - great success, exports,. - Darby's grandson later built the first iron bridge 1779; the construction was the fore-runner of the steel-framed buildings of the present day à supply of cheap and plentiful iron was necessary for the Industrial Revolution Maritime trade - Industrial Revolution was well served by Britain's mercantile fleet - 1815: greatest in the world - brought raw materials and took goods outwards - did not profit from I.R.

(but prowess (Tapferkeit) in war, politics, colonization, protection, expanding empire) - not until 1838 that steam powered ships crossed the Atlantic - 1869: Suez Canal opened, not suitable for sail King Cotton - the mechanization of the textile industry was the first and outstanding feature of the I.R., particularly the production of cotton goods - speed up production as demand outstripped supply à more expensive - 1767: "spinning jenny" - 1769: spinning frame operated by water; mostly operated by women and children; 13-hour-shifts - system then widely copied, 1780: 120 mills - 1785: power loom, wool-combing machine à 2 major developments - dependent on raw materials on the work done by Negro slaves in southern states of America - after Watt: steam instead of water could be used to power factory machines The fuel of the Revolution - until 1700: coal mining was a rural activity (seasonly for heating) - later 18th century: landowners exploited coal under their land - many industries needed coal, to power steam engines, later for railways and steam ships - call for larger labour force à relatively high wages - many women and children worked in appalling (erschreckend) conditions below ground; later a Bill prohibited this - problem: carry up coal: first by man, then shaft cages, later much safer wire cables - hazardous and dangerous environment: risk of roof collapse or gas explosion - Davy's safety lamp: absorbed heat of the flame before it could ignite the gas à won by great hardship and death Canals: arteries of industry - bad road system, time of railways still ahead à artificial rivers, canals - first purely industrial canal from Worsley mines to Manchester à prosperity to region, halved price of coal à a viable (rentabel) proposition into booming cotton industry - scheme to link large rivers - enabled new mines, industries, . to be established deep inland - also civil engineering à made fortunes for their owners and manufacturers and merchants they served à later: no economic significance anymore: railways Steam comes of age - 1764: Watt was asked to repair a model of a Newcomen engine à struck by inefficiency o reduce heat loss which made it expensive to run à separate cylinder in which the steam could condense o "sun and planet" gear: beam engine: rotary action à increase shaft speed and save fuel o Watt developed it further - steam: factories could be build everywhere as it was not dependent on a anymore - machines that were compact and produced more power à potential to serve as locomotive engines - 1808: engine that ran a 30-metre radius circular railroad in London (10 mph) The rise of the factory - invention of the I.R. - former times: manufacturing in cottages/small guild workshops: few apprentices and paid hands; families worked at home; regulated it themselves; enough money to rent a plot of land; close relationship employers - workers à personal responsibility - then the demand for new goods grew à make them faster and cheaper - new inventions enabled mass production by a disciplined workforce (Arkwright's waterframe, .) - first: textile industry: spinners and weavers concentrated there - factories: poor lighting/ventilation, unguarded machinery, little sanitation, high noise levels - bad conditions - cities developed: houses nearby factories (workers: no long way to work) - sometimes the conditions were good: villages/settlements with houses, shops, . à social/recreational amenities; experiments: free schooling, dancing classes, . - Manchester: first industrialised city, fastest growing - Most powerful forces in commercial and political life: capitalists who had the money to finance the factories Steel: the missing link - iron + carbon: tougher and harder - required for: tools, bearings, bridges, railroads, . à method needed for a cheap production à 1856: converter, only the fuel needed to melt the iron; price: 8% of that before - steam hammer: form steal (1.5 tons lifted up and then let fall; operated with precision, operated by only one man) Railway mania - first forms: waggonways, tram roads: from and to mines and quarries - at the beginning not successful, failings - locomotive: specially designed for heavy traffic, but slow - economic benefits of steam: led investors to railway rather than to canals - started railway export business - 1830: railway Manchester - Liverpool - becoming faster - many people travelled - canal operators bankrupt or bought The price of success - upper calls profited - new educated middle class: acquired to a certain extent the same privileges and advantages - "low" persons that were inventive could start a career - new society of industrialists, merchant venturers, capitalists wrested much of the landowner's political power - Many ordinary people moved to the cities because of the agrarian revolution.

There they worked in factories: long working hours, monotonous repetitive labour, no proper rest and sustenance; soon slums were created because of overcrowding - bad living and working conditions - Many accidents: unprotected machinery, no safety regulations - New technology, over-production caused unemployment à families starved - Much pollution, hardly no clean water, no sanitation à diseases: cholera, . - No check as there was no local government until the 18th century - Women: low wages, no rights - Penalties for destroying machinery, . - Later: limited working hours for women and children; compulsory education because there was the growing need for an educated workforce The great exhibition - 1851 in Hyde Park - wealth, magnificence - Crystal Palace as the exhibition's building, of iron and glass à innovative construction techniques à one of the greatest wonders of the I.R. Work of 5,000 men in ten months - Britain showed what it was able to do, but one also saw that Europe and America were not far behind A heritage revived - models in Science museums - 1970s: interest in salvaging (retten) and preserving sights and products of the I.R. - 1975: railway museum - steam engines, . work for visitor's pleasure - UNESCO World Heritage Site: first Ironbridge

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