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Industrial Revolution
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A Watt steam engine, the steam engine that propelled the Industrial Revolution in Britain and the world. [One] major industry of the later Industrial Revolution was gas lighting. Though others made a similar innovation elsewhere, the large scale introduction of this was the work of William Murdoch, an employee of Boulton and Watt, the Birmingham steam engine pioneers. The process consisted of the large scale gasification of coal in furnaces, the purification of the gas (removal of sulphur, ammonium, and heavy hydrocarbons), and its storage and distribution. The first gaslighting utilities were established in London between 1812-20. They soon became one of the major consumers of coal in the UK. Gaslighting had in impact on social and industrial organisation because it allowed factories and stores to remain open longer than with tallow candles or oil. Its introduction allowed night life to flourish in cities and towns as interiors and street could be lighted on a larger scale than before.
The machines of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th and early 19th centuries were simple, mechanical devices compared with the industrial technology that followed. Many new products were devised, and important advances were made in the system of mass production. Changes in industry were so great that the period after 1860 has been called the Second Industrial Revolution. New scientific knowledge was applied to industry as scientists and engineers unlocked the secrets of physics and chemistry. Great new industries were founded on this scientific advance: steel, chemicals, and petroleum benefited from new understandings of chemistry; breakthroughs in the study of electricity and magnetism provided the basis for a large electrical industry. These new industries were larger and more productive than any industries existing before.
The Industrial Revolution had significant impacts on the structure of society. Prior to its rise, the public and private spheres held strong overlaps; work was often conducted through the home and ... was shared in many cases by wife and 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. 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.
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The Industrial Revolution had a profound effect on all levels of society in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. How people lived and worked changed significantly during this time. You will explore the following questions:
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The Industrial Revolution began in the textile industry, where a series of inventions created new demands for laborers. Between 1733 and 1793, inventors produced new machines, such as the flying shuttle, the spinning jenny, and a water-powered loom, that speeded up the spinning and weaving of wool and cotton. Many new machines were powered by running water, so inventors built spinning mills near rivers and hired many workers to run the machines. The new machines led to the growth of the factory system, which brought workers and machines together in one place to manufacture goods. By the late 1700s, steam began to replace water as a source of power. Inventors such as Thomas Newcomen and James Watt improved the steam-powered engine.
The Industrial Revolution began in the English Midlands and spread throughout England and into continental Europe and the northern United States in the 19th century. Before the improvements made to the pre-existing steam engine by James Watt and others, all manufacturing had to rely for power on wind or water mills or muscle power produced by animals or humans. But with the ability to translate the potential energy of steam into mechanical force, a factory could be built away from streams and rivers, and many tasks that had been done by hand in the past could be mechanized. If, for example, a lumber mill had been limited in the number of logs it could cut in a day due to the amount of water and pressure available to turn the wheels, the steam engine eliminated that dependence. Grain mills, thread and clothing mills, and wind driven water pumps could all be converted to steam power as well.
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