HASS9 Industrial Revolution: Essay: Technological Innovations

Industry:

Textiles:

Transport:

At the same time a long list of scientific discoveries and technological inventions occurred that changed society and industry.

New methods of manufacturing using large factories made thousands of basic products like clothes and tools easier to build and cheaper to buy. Richard Arkwright's Mill at Cromford heralded 'the Factory Age' of the textile industry, production of iron increased 30-fold, and production of coal increased 20-fold.

Iron and Coal: In the Industrial Revolution, coal replaced wood as the dominant form of fuel. This was partly because wood was becoming very expensive and hard to obtain on account of its overuse; Britain was beginning to rely on imports from Sweden and Russia.

In the mid-1700s, bar iron became available for small forges and by 1770 there were 6.5 million tons of coal mined every year. In 1783, a furnace was invented for producing wrought iron economically – it was used in train tracks, pipes and ships.

Between 1788 and 1806 there was a 200% increase in production of crude iron, or pig iron (so named because of the shape of the moulds used).

SOURCE: H.T.A.A. (2022) The Industrial Revolution, 1750-1914, AC History Units, https://www.achistoryunits.edu.au/learning-sequence-1-4/tabs/y9-industrlia-ls1-1.html

Coal, Steam and the Industrial Revolution [11:04 mins]

So, why did the Industrial Revolution happen around 1750 in the United Kingdom? Coal. Easily accessible coal, it turns out.

SOURCE: Green, J. (2012). Coal, Steam and the Industrial Revolution, [Video file]. https://youtu.be/zhL5DCizj5c

Textile manufacture changed dramatically in the 1700s. Key inventions such as Hargreaves' spinning jenny (1764), Arkwright's water frame (1769), Crompton's spinning mule (1779) and Cartwright's power loom (1784) reduced human labour by up to a third. Early models of these machines tended to be unreliable, and some looms were ruined by machine breakers as a statement against the replacement of human labour with machines.

The main centres of textile production in England became Greater Manchester, Lancashire and West Yorkshire. Leeds, for example, boasted around 170 'scribbling machines' (which prepare wool for spinning) by 1786; this had unfortunate consequences for workers, who signed a petition in that year stating that 'twelve men are thrown out of employ for every single machine used in scribbling'.

By 1830, over half of British exports consisted of cotton textiles. People began to favour the novelty and affordability of British garments over the high-quality Italian textiles that once dominated; France, too, struggled to keep up with British adaptability and ingenuity. India, which previously had the world's largest cotton industry, faced stiff competition from Britain until the early 1900s.

SOURCE: H.T.A.A. (2022) The Industrial Revolution, 1750-1914, AC History Units, URL: https://www.achistoryunits.edu.au/learning-sequence-1-4/tabs/y9-industrlia-ls1-1.html

Industrial Revolution [14:47 duration]

This video looks at how production by hand changed to machine production and examines the change from the domestic system to the factory system, where goods were made by groups of workers in factories. It gives an insight into the new working and living conditions and also deals with the development of the means of communication, roads, railways, and canals.

SOURCE: Rainbow Boomerang Video (2008), Industrial Revolution, Clickview, [Video file]. https://clickv.ie/w/aHts

In the 1750s, stage coaches achieved an average speed of 5 miles per hour; by the 1790s this had risen to almost 7 miles per hour. By the 1780s there were 16 coach services going from London to Bath per week. A 1754 advertisement boasted: 'However incredible it may appear, this coach will actually arrive in London four days after leaving Manchester'. Consumer transport allowed city-dwellers to go to the countryside on weekends, partly making up for the pollution and stress of daily life.

By 1810 Britain had the world's most well-developed transport system, with 30,000 miles of navigable river, 1500 miles of horse-drawn railways (iron railways emerged in the 1730s) and 2000 miles of canals. Tar roads allowed people to travel readily between centres (as John Wesley did extensively in the late 1700s to spread his new religion of Methodism).

Australia developed its transport systems relatively quickly, as it was settled at the time of the Industrial Revolution and tended to adopt new approaches readily.

SOURCE: H.T.A.A. (2022) The Industrial Revolution, 1750-1914, AC History Units, URL: https://www.achistoryunits.edu.au/learning-sequence-1-4/tabs/y9-industrlia-ls1-1.html

The Railroad Journey and the Industrial Revolution [12:30 mins]

John Green explains how the advancement of the Railroads is illustrative of the way the Industrial Revolution changed the world. The Railroads changed the human perspective of time and space, making long distance travel faster and easier.  

SOURCE: Green, J. (2014) The Railroad Journey and the Industrial Revolution, [Video file]. https://youtu.be/GYAk5jCTQ3s