The term 'Industrial Revolution' refers to the changes that occurred in Britain between about 1750 and 1900. It involved a change from small domestic industry to large-scale manufacturing in factories. During the eighteenth century and before, manufactured goods were made locally and on a small scale in cottage industries. Before the Industrial Revolution, some textiles were made in homes and others in small workshops where several people worked for a master weaver. During the course of the eighteenth century, the machinery used for weaving was improved and new machines were developed. These... Show more

The term 'Industrial Revolution' refers to the changes that occurred in Britain between about 1750 and 1900. It involved a change from small domestic industry to large-scale manufacturing in factories. During the eighteenth century and before, manufactured goods were made locally and on a small scale in cottage industries. Before the Industrial Revolution, some textiles were made in homes and others in small workshops where several people worked for a master weaver.

During the course of the eighteenth century, the machinery used for weaving was improved and new machines were developed. These needed much less labour to produce larger quantities of textiles. Around the middle of the century, spinning and weaving mills started to appear.

In 1772, Jonas Arkwright built what is said to be the first factory of the Industrial Revolution. He used water power to drive the spinning and weaving machines in his five-storeys-high mill at Cromford in Derbyshire. Not long after that, the idea was copied and improved by the use of steam power to drive the machines. Many entrepreneurs set up mills in the area of Manchester which gained the nickname of cottonopolis because of the large number of textile factories there.

Nineteenth century factory discipline was harsh. Punishments are said to have included hanging people from the roof in baskets and nailing children's ears to a table - makes a detention look kind! If people did not get to their factory on time, they were locked out, and in some cases fined, so they earned no money for that day. Some entrepreneurs became knocker-uppers. Workers who could not afford to buy an alarm clock paid a knocker-upper to go round to their home and wake them up in good time for them to get to work.

Mechanisation in agriculture increased the output of farms and reduced the number of workers needed to run a farm. In the same way, spinning and weaving machines increased textile production but used fewer workers. Traditional methods of weaving required three or four spinners to produce the yarn for a single weaver. Machinery that could spin the yarn and weave it into cloth only needed one operator instead of five workers. Inventions like the spinning jenny, spinning mule and the water frame enabled greater output of textiles.

Without steam engines and iron, the Industrial Revolution may not have happened. Iron production was only carried out on a small scale before the eighteenth century. It increased by about 10 times between 1750 and 1830 and, without iron, the steam engine could not have been made. Iron production was on a small scale before Abraham Darby invented a method of extracting iron using coke. The coke replaced charcoal as a fuel.

Coke was initially cheaper than charcoal and it overcame the problems of a lack of wood to produce charcoal locally. The iron that was produced was not particularly pure and was called cast iron. Cast Iron was brittle but strong enough to make many machine parts and building materials like girders and columns. Eventually, during the middle of the nineteenth century, Henry Bessemer discovered a way of making steel, a much less brittle, stronger and more useful material than cast iron and wrought iron. This opened up the way for some incredible pieces of engineering.

Machinery was being invented constantly during the Industrial Revolution. These developments meant that by the 1830s it needed only 750 workers to produce as much yarn as it would once have taken 200,000 people to spin!

As the new machinery was introduced into factories, employers were able to save money by employing unskilled labourers. This angered skilled workers as more and more were unable to find work. There were various protests, the most well known being that of the Luddites. This group was formed in Nottingham in 1811 and smashed machinery. They were not against the machinery, they were against the fact that their skills were being replaced by machines and unskilled workers.

The first practical steam engine was made by Thomas Savery. It had no moving parts but was able to lift water from mines.

John Newcomen made the next step forward with his steam powered beam engine. This operated a pump that could pump water from much deeper mines. The next key change was thanks to an Industrialist, Matthew Boulton and a Scottish inventor, James Watt. The steam engine they invented was capable of providing rotary (round and round) motion which made it incredibly useful. It could be used to provide the power to turn machinery in textile mills and other factories and lead to the development of the steam locomotive.

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