The Industrial Revolution
Humank Humankind ind has been been through through import important ant changes changes and stages stages of develop developmen mentt during the centuries, evolving from a very simple existence, represented by primitive occupations of hunting, fishing and incipient forms of agriculture, to a complex life, characterized by a high technology, when the use of machines, the innovations and scient scientifi ificc discove discoveri ries es in variou variouss fields fields,, the inform informati ation on techni technique que were were no longer longer something impossible. The most important turning point in the history of humanity was the Industrial Revolution, a time of dramatic change, a major shift of technological, socio-economic and cultural conditions in the late 18th and early 19th Century. The The term term of “Indu “Indust stri rial al Revol Revolut utio ion” n” init initia iall lly y refe referr rred ed to the the devel developm opment ent underwent by Great Britain between 1750 and 1830, characterized by the passage from a largely rural population which made its living completely from agriculture to a towncentered society engaged in factory manufacture. Although the Industrial Revolution started in England, due to its technological means, trade network and governmental support, the same process spread to other nations across Europe and also to North America during the 19th century, eventually affecting most of the world. However the Industrial Revolution from England is the most representative, as it reflects reflects very well the the changes that gave a new image of life. life. It is considered considered that “the “the impact of this change on society was enormous and is often compared to the Neolithic the Neolithic revolution,, when various human subgroups embraced agriculture and in the process, revolution forswore the nomadic lifestyle”. lifestyle”.1 The Industrial Revolution manifested itself primarily through the development of the industrial component of economy, due to the appearance of factories, to significant innovations, the transfer of knowledge, the development of several industrial branches such as mining, metallurgy, chemicals, steam power, textile manufacture, machine tools.
1. Russell Brown, Lester. Eco-Economy Lester. Eco-Economy,, James & James / Earthscan.
A great role in the growth of economy was also played by the development of transportation, as many roads, railways and canals were built and the navigation on the rivers intensified, facilitating the coastal sail and the economical p rogress of such areas. A new element brought into the society by industrialization was the factory. “The factory system was largely responsible for the rise of the modern city, as workers migrated into the cities in search of employment in the factories. Nowhere was this better illustrated than the mills and associated industries of Manchester , nicknamed Cottonopolis, and arguably the world's first industrial city. For much of the 19th century, production was done in small mills, which were typically powered by water and built to serve local needs.”2 Among the many important characteristics of the Industrial Revolution the innovations occupy a great place in the process of industrialization, bringing along essential benefits. For instance, James Watt invented the steam engine, considered to be the most important innovation, of that time, which was used in factories, as the prime mover in pumps, locomotives, steam ships, traction engines, steam lorries and other road vehicles. Although in time the older types of steam engines have been replaced by internal combustion engines and electric motors, there is a type of steam engine, called steam turbine, which is still being widely used to generate electricity. Other significant innovations were the weaving machine, the water frame, the spinning mule, which facilitated the manufacture of cotton and wool. As a result of these inventions the textile industry took a great spring and, “with the use of machines and of the "assembly-line" approach, it was possible to make enormous amounts of fabric in less time and for less money.”3 2. “The Industrial Revolution”, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution] accessed 26 November 2006 3. Porter, Glenn. "Industrial Revolution." Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia. Microsoft Corporation, 1999
If the first manufacture factories used the hydraulic energy, which was free but unsure, because a drought could lead to the cessation of work, the use of steam engines to activate the equipments was a decisive step for the production of textiles. The significance of the innovations during the Industrial Revolution was amplified by the transfer of knowledge, the process through which the innovation was largely spread in the society. As an illustration of this transfer of knowledge it may be mentioned that the workers, trained in specific fields, had the right to move from one employer to another, which gave them the possibility of making a study tour in order to gather information. In some countries as England and America the practice of studytouring was done by individual manufacturers who wanted to improve their own methods. “Another means for the spread of innovation was by the network of informal philosophical societies—like the Lunar Society of Birmingham—in which members met to discuss science and often its application to manufacturing. Some of these societies published volumes of proceedings and transactions, and the London-based Royal Society of Arts published an illustrated volume of new inventions, as well as papers about them in its annual Transactions.”4 Periodical publications about technology and manufacturing began to appear in the late 18th century, which either included notice of the latest patents or published accounts of travels made on study tours The way towards which innovations and the transfer of knowledge led was, in a word, the industrial progress, also possible due to the development of certain industrial branches. One of these branches was based on the use of prime matters like coal and iron. Coal, which stood at the base of fossil fuels, replaced the organic fuels based on wood, producing a major change in the metal industries Indispensable element in the industrial expansion, coal was produced in large quantities and used for various purposes.
4. “The Industrial Revolution”, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution] accessed 26 November 2006
Coke, for example was necessary in the melting of iron and as supply for the steam engines, which activated production equipments, furnaces, ships and railway engines. But while, before the invention of the steam engine the extraction of coal was very hard because of the limiting factor represented by water and the problem of its removing, after the introduction of Watt’s innovation, the removal of water enabled shafts to be made deeper and more coal to be extracted. “The adoption of James Watt's more efficient steam engine with its separate condenser from the 1770s reduced the fuel costs of engines, making mines more profitable”5, the method used illustrating a perfect combination of innovative elements. Another material used in industry was iron, an important symbol of the Industrial Revolution from Great Britain. If in the years 1700 iron industry was fighting for survival, because the process of its manufacture was very expensive, in the 19th century iron could be used to build various things, like bridges, ships and locomotives. The solution for an efficient usage of iron was found in 1709 by Abraham Darby from Coalbrookdale, who realized the inefficiency of coal in the process of iron melting and discovered coke which gave excellent results. Even though Darby’s technology remained secret for a period of time, once the mystery was unveiled the iron production increased and important technological steps followed. Thus, Watt and Boulton used for the first time in 1775 the steam engine to give the furnaces the necessary power to reach high temperatures, this being another of suggestive example of successful combination of some inventions in the industrial domain. The metal factories led to the progress of towns, such as Birmingham, Sheffield, Great Britain accomplishing in 1850 half of the annual production of iron in the world. By that time the British iron manufacturers had used large amounts of imported iron, which came mainly from Sweden at the beginning and later from Russia. However, after 1785 the iron imports decreased because of the new technology used for the production of iron.
5. “The Industrial Revolution”, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution] accessed 26 November 2006.
In this circumstances iron became cheaper and abundant and at the same time the most important structural material following the building of the Iron Bridge in 1778. Other improvements were registered in the production of steel, which, unlike iron, was more expensive and used in few situations to replace iron. A further great industrial achievement was the production of chemicals at a large scale, more precisely that of the sulfuric acid through the lead chamber process invented by John Roebuck in 1746, or that of the sodium carbonate, produced in 1791 by Nicolas Leblanc, later derived from wood ashes, barilla or kelp, used to reduce pollution. The two chemicals were very important as they made possible the appearance of other inventions, replacing many small scale operations with cost effective and controllable processes.6 Their uses were multiple, the sodium carbonate being utilized in the production of glass, textile, soap and paper and the sulfuric acid included the removing of dust and the bleaching of cloths. The Scottish chemist Charles Tennant revolutionized the bleaching processes, when in 1800 he reduced the time required for bleaching textiles from months to days. His factory from St Rollox in North Glasgow became the largest plant of such kind in the world.7 The Industrial Revolution could not be possible to some extent without the machine tools, which were an important component in the making of manufacturing machines. Surprisingly they have their roots in the 18th century in the tools created by the persons that also made clock, watches and instruments. At first these machines had wood framing, which were later replaced by metal ones, making the machines more economical. Such first machine invented was the cylinder boring machine, used for boring large diameter cylinders on early steam engines, followed by the planning machine, the slotting machine and the shaping machine.
6. “The Industrial Revolution”, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution] accessed 26 November 2006. 7. “The Industrial Revolution”, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution] accessed 26 November 2006.
Military production was also significant, Henry Maudslay building “the machinery for making ships' pulley blocks for the Royal Navy in the Portsmouth Block Mills. These were all metal and were the first machines for mass production and making components with a degree of interchangeability.”8 Transportation had also a big role in the Industrial Revolution. The bad quality of communication means made the transportation of goods difficult and expensive before the Revolution. The introduction of taxes for roads was an important decision and had as result a better maintenance of the most circulated roads. A great significance also had the construction of channels - Bridgewater for instance built by James Brindley, which had an immediate impact on the coal price in Manchester, decreasing it with half of the value. However the period of building channels was short, because they gained a competitor, the railways. The first public railway, from Stockton to Darlington was opened in 1825. The engineer that built it, George Stephenson also built the famous “rocket”, the most performing locomotive that later functioned on the railway from Liverpool to Manchester. Another triumph, which was directly related to the steam engine era, was that of equipping ships with engines; in 1833 the Canadian ship Royal William made the first transatlantic trip with the help of a steam engine. As it can be seen the Industrial Revolution had significant impacts on the structure of society, either positive through the fact that it improved life or negative, because it brought along problems, among which pollution remains the most serious. One of the changes caused by the Industrial Revolution in the society of that time referred to the role of family members, men and women. Before the Industrial Revolution took place, the private and public sides of life had great overlaps, the work being shared by the wife and the husband. “However, during this period the two began to separate, with work and home life considered quite distinct from one another. This shift made it necessary for one partner to maintain the home and care for children.
8. “The Industrial Revolution”, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution] accessed 26 November 2006
Women, holding the distinction of being able to breastfeed, thus more often maintained the home, with men making up a sizeable fraction of the workforce. With much of the family income coming from men, then, their power in relation to women increased further, with the latter often dependent on men's income. This had enormous impacts on the defining of gender roles and was effectively the model for what was later termed the traditional family.”9 Living conditions varied very much, from the luxury of the owners’ homes to the misery of the workers. Cliffe Castle is a very suggestive example of a rich life, with its great towers and massive garden walls, as compared to the workers’ small houses in very bad conditions. However these conditions improved during the 19th century when public health acts were introduced, which covered things such as hygiene and sewage. The Industrial Revolution also created a larger middle class formed by professionals, like doctors and lawyers, industrialists and businessmen, witnessing in terms of social structure, the triumph of the new class. Remarkable was also the rise of literacy, as the use of the steam engine made possible the printing of books and newspapers. Generally, the impact of the Industrial Revolution on society was that of life improvement , as the use of machines facilitated the manufacture of more items, which, at their turn caused prices to drop, making items available to the poor and not only to the rich. Also, inventions, such as the steam machine replaced human labor, making work easier and faster and enabled the reorganization of work and production processes. The conditions of the working class improved, due to the concentration of labor into mills, factories and mines. A negative consequence of this aspect was the fact that, through the appearance of trade unions it caused conflicts among the workers and theirs employers, manifested through strikes. The strikes often led to violent clashes between the police or the military and the workers. In 1842 took place a general strike, involving workers and colliers, which stopped production across the entire Great Britain.10 9. “The Industrial Revolution”, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution] accessed 26 November 2006 10.
“The
Industrial
Revolution”,
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution] accessed 26 November 2006
In addition, the “agricultural revolution” was also significant, as it ended the fear of famine and made possible the support of a population that was rapidly increasing. “Women ate better and had healthier babies, the death rates declined and the distribution of age in the population became more youthful”.11 The life expectancy of children increased dramatically. The percentage of the children born in London who died before the age of five decreased from 74.5% in 1730 - 1749 to 31.8% in 1810 - 1829.12 The increase of population seems to have started in the years of 1740, after an impressive crop was obtained. This increase was sustained by the growth of food production and by the economy which was in a continue development. At the beginning of this increase, the population of Great Britain had not reached yet six million, in 1851 rising to twenty one million people. The ones that used to work in factories moved to the city, reason for which the population of London rose suddenly, from half a million to almost three million. But, although the increase in the number of population assured the necessary working force and a market for the industrial goods this fact started to generate more and more demands, of energy, food, water, etc. Also speaking of negative aspects of industrialization it must be mentioned that many craft workers lost their jobs and, as a reaction to this they began destroying factories and machinery. These persons called Luddites, after the name of Ned Ludd, a folklore figure, gained popularity in a very short time and determined the British Government to take drastic measures against them in order to protect industry. Additionally another negative side of the Industrial Revolution was that of child labor. Because the education opportunities were limited, children were expected to work and employers preferred to think that they cou ld pay a child less than an adult. 11. “The Industrial Revolution”, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution] accessed 26 November 2006 12.
“The
Industrial
Revolution”,
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution] accessed 26 November 2006
But, while politicians and the government tried to limit child labor by law, the factory owners did not agree, stating that they were not doing anything wrong, on the contrary they were aiding the poor by giving their children money to buy food and avoid starvation. In 1833 was elaborated the first law against child labor, called the Factory Act of 1833, through which the children younger than nine were not allowed to work, especially at night and the work day was limited to twelve hours for the young people under age 18. Ten years after this the employment of children and women in mining was forbidden. Nevertheless, the greatest negative impact of industrialization and maybe the most important of all, because its effects are severe, was and still remains pollution. Pollution increased in time, working conditions became harmful and life started to be much more menaced than before. Industrialization caused the contamination of air, water, soil, the degeneration of life, in general and becomes in this way one of the most dangerous enemies of humankind. Despite the negative sides of the Industrial Revolution or its harmful effects of any kind on the society, it must be acknowledged that, on the whole, it brought many benefits to the entire humankind. Being in its essence the most radical change in the history, the Industrial Revolution also represented the premise for new inventions and discoveries, for new stages of the development of society.
