The Industrial Revolution:

A. Chronology:

1702: Thomas Newcomen builds the steam engine used to pump water out of coal mines.

1730: Josiah Wedgewood, developer of Wedegewood china, which was flamed in a steam powered kiln, was born.

1733: John Kay invents the flying shuttle.

1740: Henry Cort, inventor of the puddling process and rolling mill for iron manufacture, born.

1756: John McDam, develop of the first drained rolled highway, born.

1761: The first load of coal is delivered to Manchester from the canal built by the Duke of Bridgewater.

1767: James Hargreaves invents spinning-jenny.

1768: Richard Arkwright invents the water frame.

1769: James Watt invents and patents the first efficient steam engine.

1771: Robert Owen, one of the early utopian socialists, born in Scotland.

1772: Charles Fourier, French socialist philosopher, born.

1779: Samuel Crompton combines the concepts of the spinning-jenny and the water frame into the mule.

1781: George Stephenson, the developer of the first efficient locomotive, is born.

1784: Edmund Cartwright invents a loom that is powered by horses, water, or steam.

1785: James Rumsey powers the first steamship up the Potomac River.

1790: Steam power is first used to operate the mule.

1792: Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin.

1799: The Combination Acts are passed by Parliament and labor unions are banned by law.

1803: The first steam wagon appears on the streets of London.

1807: Robert Fulton drives the steamboat Clermont up the Hudson from New York to Albany.

1812: The steam wagon is adapted for use on rails.

1815: The Congress of Vienna is held to hold back the advance of liberalism.

1820: Ampere sends a message across the Atlantic by wire.

1825: The Bubble Act is repealed by Parliament and joint stock companies are again legalized.

1832: The first of many Parliamentary reform bills, designed to enfranchise more of the middle class, is passed.

1833: A Factory Act is passed in England prohibiting the employment of children under nine.

1834: The Poor Law is passed to centralize government control for poverty relief in English industrial towns.

1837: The first fully operative telegraph is developed; the Chartist Movement is born and the London Workingman’s Association draws up A People’s Charter; the Anti-Corn League is born.

1838: The first steamship crosses the Atlantic Ocean.

1839: The Charter Petition is introduced into the House of Commons for the first time and is defeated 235 to 46.

1846: The Corn Laws are repealed by Parliament.

1847: Karl Marx & Frederich Engels join the Communist League in Paris.

1848: Karl Marx & Frederich Engels publish their Communist Manifesto.

1849: The last of the Navigation Acts are repealed.

1851: England is connected with the European continent by wire.

1856: The Lowes Act passes in Parliament and the concept of limited liability becomes law.

1866: The United States and Europe are connected by telegraph wire.

1867: The Reform Bill of 1867 becomes law in England and the franchise is increased by 124%.

1872: The Secret Ballot Act becomes law in England.

1880: Elementary school attendance becomes compulsory in England.

1891: School fees are abolished in England for elementary school.

 

B. Individuals:

1. Sir Richard Arkwright: (1732-1792); Inventor of the water frame spinning machine (powered by water or horse) and founder of cotton factories

For a biography of Arkwright check this website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/arkwright_richard.shtml

2. Jeremy Bentham: (1748-1832); English philosopher who founded the philosophy of utilitarianism; this philosophy asserts that ideas, institutions, and actions should be judge based on their utility, which was defined as the ability to produce happiness; two of his writings include the 1776 Fragment on Government and the 1789 Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation

For a biography of Bentham & Information on his works check this website:

http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/b/bentham.htm

3. Duke of Bridgewater: Known as the "great canal duke" because of his efforts to link his coal mines at Worsley with the River Irwell which led to Manchester; he hired James Brindley as the engineer and construction began in 1762; ten years later the Bridgewater Canal became the first large scale canal in Britain

For an article about Bridgewater & his canal check this website:

http://www.trentandmersey.btinternet.co.uk/bridgewater.htm

4. Edmund Cartwright: In 1787 he invented a power loom that allowed the weaving of cloth to catch up with the spinning of yarn and thus improved the efficiency of production.

For a short biography of Cartwright check this website:

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SCcartwright.htm

5. Henry Cort: Developed a system called puddling, in which coke was used to burn away impurities in pig iron to produce an iron of high quality

For an encyclopedia article on Henry Cort:

http://www.bartleby.com/65/co/Cort-Hen.html

7. Benjamin Disraeli: (1804-1881); Tory prime minister in Britain; he is famous for bringing the Suez Canal & India into British possession

For an article on Disraeli check this website:

http://www.britannia.com/bios/disraeli.html

8. Charles Fourier: (1772-1838); French socialist who saw the competitive industrial system as failing and propose the creation of small model communities called “phalansteries” in which 1,620 people would live and work together for their mutual benefit; his followers were able to set up a number of communities in the US

For an excerpt from Fourier's Theory of Social Organization check this website:

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1820fourier.html

9. Earl Grey: English prime minister from 1830 to 1834; Whig party member who once said: "the principle of my reform is to prevent the necessity for revolution"

For the Past Prime Minster Website Entry on Earl Grey check this website:

http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/page154.asp

10. James Hargreaves: (1722-1778); Englishmen who created the “spinning jenny,” the first machine that could spin many threads at on time

For a biography of Hargreaves check this website:

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SChargreaves.htm

11. John Kay: Englishmen who invented the flying shuttle and whose house was ransacked by textile workers who feared his machine would steal their jobs

For a biography of Kay check this website:

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SCkay.htm

12. Karl Marx: (1818-1883); Radical journalist who with Freidrich Engels wrote The Communist Manifesto; in 1884 he published The Conditions of the Working Class in England in which he delineated the horrors of factory life and “wage slavery;” after the failed 1848 German Revolution Marx fled to Britain where he wrote more treatises and became involved in the first International Working Men’s Association

For an informative article on Karl Marx check this website:

http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/marx.htm

13. John McAdam: (1756-1836): a Scottish engineer who originated the macadam kind of road surface, which consisted of small stones packed into layers over dry, prepared soil; the stones provided a smooth surface and kept the soil dry

For a short article on John McAdam check this website:

http://scotlandvacations.com/mcadam.htm

14. Thomas Newcomen: (1663-1729); in 1712 developed a steam engine, which at the time was called an “atmospheric engine"

For a short article on Newcomen check this website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/newcomen_thomas.shtml

15. Robert Owen: (1771-1858); Cotton magnate and social reformer who came to believe in the creation of voluntary associations that would demonstrate to others the benefits of cooperative rather than competitive living; under his directions plans emerged for a Grand National Consolidated Trades Union, which was formed in 1834

For a short biographical article on Owen check this website:

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/IRowen.htm

16. Lord Palmerston: (1784-1865); English prime minister during most of the years from 1855 to 1865; a Whig without strong party loyalty who opposed expanding the franchise; his primary interest was in foreign policy, through which he strove to defend British interests worldwide

For an article about Lord Palermston's role as prime minister, check this website:

http://www.britannia.com/gov/primes/prime34.html

17. Sir Robert Peel: (1788-1850); leader of the Tory party who persuaded some of his associates to support free trade principles and repel the Corn Laws; remember Robert Peel fought to rePEAL the Corn Laws

For an article about Peel's role as prime minister, check this website:

http://www.britannia.com/gov/primes/prime28.html

18. James Rumsey: 1743-1792; created one of the first steamboats, which operated on the Potomac River

For an article about Rumsey & his steamboat, check this website:

http://www.lib.shepherdstown.wv.us/sin/rumsey.html

19. James Watt: (1736-1819); Scottish engineer who added a separate condenser and steam pump to a Newcomen engine creating the first real steam engine; in 1782 he developed a rotary engine that could turn shaft and drive machinery; his business partner’s name was Matthew Boulton

For a short article on James Watt check this website:

http://level2.phys.strath.ac.uk/ScienceOnStreets/jameswatt.html

20. Eli Whitney: Invented the cotton gin and pioneered the use of mass production; a graduate of Yale College, Whitney failed to ever profit from his cotton gin because the patent was too slow in protecting his invention

For an online biography of Eli Whitney check this website:

http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/152.html

C. Map:

Map of England prior to the Industrial Revolution (left) and after the Industrial Revolution (right); the green color indicates the largest population concentration, notice how more green areas are present in right map

D. Social Effects of Industrialization:

 

Charles Dickens’s Hard Times is an excellent novel for students to read to fully grasp the social ramifications of the Industrial Revolution.  Students may also wish to find the transcripts of the Sadler Commission for primary source testimony of the factory working conditions.  (A website featuring transcripts of the Sadler hearings is: http://www.wise.virginia.edu/history/wciv2/sadler.html)

 

The most important sociological result of industrialism was the urbanization of the world.  New factories pulled people away from the rural countryside and initiated the most massive population transfer in history.  As factory towns grew they developed into large industrial centers that redefined the Europe.  It was during the 19^th century that the role of a city changed from governmental and cultural centers, to industrial centers plagued by urbanization problems.

 

As workers began to commiserate over their shared hardships they raised their consciousness and united for political action and sought to remedy their economic dissatisfaction.  Family structure and gender roles within the family were altered.  Families as an economic unit were no longer the chief unit of both production and consumption; they were only the unit of consumption.  New wage economy meant that families were less closely bound together than in the past; productive work was take out of the cottage and moved to the city.  Domestic life slowly emerged as married women came to be associated with domestic duties, while the male tended to be the sole wage earner.

 

E. Theme:

 

As the name for this epoch of history indicates, it was indeed a revolution.  New sources of power and new machinery which could more efficiently utilize these sources helped to urbanize and industrialize Europe.  As technology reshaped industry, the social dynamic of Europe experienced a parallel change.  Traditional social groups were changed by the development of a wealthy industrial middle class and a huge industrial working class.  The amount of wealth available for human consumption increased; luxuries were made commonplace, and the life expectancy increased as well.

 

Cities were unable to keep up with the substantial population growth during this period, and social ills grew beyond control.  Poverty within the large cities was of epic proportion, as well as the horrors of factory life within England and the European continent.  The growth of capitalism in this period was one of the driving forces in the dehumanization of European workers and geocentricism so common in modern society.  The Industrial Revolution also seemed to confirm the beliefs of the Scientific Revolution, that man could truly dominate nature. 

 

During the first fifty years of the 19^th century, industrialism swept across Europe west to east, from England to Eastern Europe.  Industrialization was beginning to reshape the European landscape and to dramatically alter the way in which people lived. 

 

F. Free Response Questions:

 

A. Identify three major inventors from the Industrial Revolution and discuss their works and the effects their inventions had upon the development of industrialization.

B. What was the significance of the Reform Bill of 1832?  To what extend was the Duke of Wellington justified in his comment: “The revolution is made?”

C. Explain and discuss the relationships among the Combination Act, the Bubble Act, and the Lowes Act.  In what ways were they vital to the future development of industrialization?

D. What were the immediate social effects of industrialization upon British society?  To what extent did conditions improve over earlier feudal periods?

E. In what ways did the Chartists differ from the Socialists and in what ways did the success of the former effect the future of the latter?

F. To what extent did the theories espoused by economists such as David Ricardo and Thomas Malthus reflect the spirit of laissez-faire capitalism?

G. In what ways did scientific socialists such as Karl Marx differ from utopian socialists such as Robert Owen?

H. Why was England able to avoid much of the revolutionary activity that took place on the European continent during the 1840’s?

I. Discuss and explain the relationship of liberalism like that espoused by John Stuart Mill to the growth of industrial capitalism.

J. Discuss and explain at least five reasons why England took the lead in the Industrial Revolution.

 

G. Optional but Required Activity:

 

Reasons Why England Took the Lead in Industrialization:

“ENGLAND”

E – Engineering and inventive citizens who possessed technological skill and whose independence allowed them to take risks

N – Never ending (well not actually, but it helps for the pneumonic device) supply of coal and iron needed for the revolution

G – Government was sympathetic to industrial development and well-established financial institutions were willing to make loans to developing businesses

L – Labor was cheap as a result of the enclosure movement which created unemployment among the framers.

A – Availability of raw materials from its presence as a colonial and maritime power

N – New enterprises were easily funded by the readily available supply of capital from profitable commercial activity

D – Developing new industries was easy because England was left undevastated by the Napoleonic Wars

 

Attempts at Reform within England during the Industrial Revolution:

“REFORM”

R – Repeal of the Corn Laws by Robert Peel promoted free trade within England
E – Enfranchising more British citizens was achieved by Disreali and helped to curb some of the rotten and pocket boroughs
F – Factory Acts of 1802-1819 limited labor for children between the ages of nine and sixteen to twelve hours and forbid the employment of children under the age of nine
O – Owen and his attempts at national unions were finally implemented in 1834 with the establishment of the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union
R – Restricted hours for women and children came in 1847 with the Ten Hours Act; this act limited the workday for children (between the ages of thirteen and eighteen) and women to ten hours
M – Mines Acts like the 1842 Coal Mines Act eliminated the employment of boys under ten and women in the mines; prior to the passage of this legislation life for workers in the mines was harsh and included such dangers as cave-ins, explosions, and gas fumes