The Industrial Revolution
A Short Overview
People have always manufactured weapons, tools, clothing, and other goods that they need. For many centuries, these things were made mostly by hand. They were manufactured in the home or by individual craftspeople.
Most people also produced their own food on farms. About 200 years ago, this system began to change. People began to produce manufactured goods in large quantities in factories. They did not have time to tend their farms, and so they began to buy their food in stores. This great change in the way people lived is called the Industrial Revolution.
England was the birthplace of this revolution. In that country, where textiles (cloth) were a major source of wealth, a new method of manufacturing was started, called the domestic system. Merchants would distribute large quantities of wool to be spun and woven by the people who wished to earn money by working in their homes. The merchants then paid the people for their work and sold the cloth at a profit.
In the mid-1700s, a Scotsman, James Watt, invented the first workable steam engine. This invention created a vast new source of power. A machine was invented that could spin several threads at one time. Then a mechanical loom was perfected for weaving the thread. The machines made large quantities of a product quickly and very cheaply. This process became known as mass production.
The merchants who had grown rich from the domestic system began to buy the new machines. They built factories to house the machines, and employed workers to run them. By the mid-1800s, hundreds of factories had been built in England. Machines were also invented for making other products, such as pottery. The making of the machines themselves became a major industry.
It was not long before the Industrial Revolution began to spread from Britain to other countries. Despite attempts by the British government to prohibit the export of machinery and craftsmen, the textile industries of other European countries and the United States were soon being modernized.
Between 1810 and 1812, an American named Frances Cabot Lowell visited textile mills in Lancashire, England and returned to the United States to set up a textile factory. This factory was one of the first in the world to combine all the processes for making cotton cloth under one roof.
Large amounts of iron were needed to make the new machines. Charcoal had always been used to smelt (melt) iron ore. But iron workers now discovered that iron ore could be smelted much more efficiently with coal. The mining industry grew with the need for coal and ore.
A method soon was discovered for making steel from iron. Much stronger and more accurate machines could be made from this new metal. Manufactured goods and raw materials had to be transported to and from the factories. The shipping industry flourished. Railroads, canals, and new roads were built. The telegraph was invented, quickly speeding up the communications industry.
As the Industrial Revolution spread throughout Europe and the United States, people's lives began to change. The factories created many new jobs. But they also took some jobs away, by replacing people with machines. People came from far away to work in the factories, hoping to make more money than they could on the farms. They crowded into the new towns that were growing up around the factories.
Living conditions were terrible in these towns. People had to work long hours, often in dangerous conditions. They were paid very little money. Many women and children were employed, even in the mines. Workers began to rebel against these injustices. They formed groups that were later called labor unions. They gathered to protest against their employers, and sometimes fights broke out, with violence on both sides. Eventually,laws were passed to correct many of the harsh working conditions, and the unions gained great strength.
The Industrial Revolution brought enormous wealth and power to England, parts of Europe, and the United States. But this wealth and power was mainly in the hands of the people who owned the industries.
Today, other nations throughout the world are going through their own industrial revolutions. The change from an agricultural to an industrial economy can now take place rather quickly. Modern industry has raised the standard of living in many countries, but it has also created many serious problems.
Factory work is often dull and unrewarding, and workers need more responsibility. Too many people are still crowded into the cities. Waste products of factories have polluted the air and the water. But industry and governments everywhere are aware of these problems and are using scientific methods to improve the kind of life people can have in a modern, industrial society.
In recent years, the development of the microchip and the computer have created a new kind of revolution in technology, industry, and commerce, a modern successor to the Industrial Revolution.
Source: INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION., Young Students Learning Library, 01-01-1996, Newfield Publications, Inc.
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