What was the Industrial Revolution?

The Industrial Revolution is kind of like upgrading your car…

Generally, when you upgrade your car to a new model, you look for improvements in performance, top speed, fuel economy, and in-car tech. Similarly, the Industrial Revolution saw a major evolution in manufacturing output. New technologies allowed manufacturers to produce goods more efficiently and much faster than ever before.

The Industrial Revolution (often referred to as the First Industrial Revolution) had many facets, but ultimately it can be seen as a transition from human-made to machine-made production methods. The British textile industry was the first to take advantage of new technology to increase productivity. Since textile workers had traditionally worked in small workshops, or even in their own homes, the emergence of new textile machines (like the spinning jenny and the power loom) gave rise to a new era of mass-production in factories. Powered by steam engines, textile factories were able to produce cloth much faster and with less human labor. This created big profits for business owners. Certain skilled technicians, like hand-weavers, were not so prosperous. Many fell out of work as they found it difficult if not impossible to match the efficiency of the industrial machines.

People flocked from all over the country to work in factories in a wave of rural-to-urban migration. Small towns like Manchester and Liverpool grew into the big cities we know today. The quickly growing population also led to poor living conditions for many people, while a lack of regulations often made factory work gruelling, low-paying, and pretty dangerous.

When did the Industrial Revolution start and end?

The Industrial Revolution started in the late 18th century and ended in the early 19th century. Historians do not agree on the precise dates, but the term “industrial revolution” was first popularized by English economic historian Arnold Toynbee, who used it to describe developments taking place between 1760 to 1840 in Great Britain.

The Industrial Revolution in Great Britain was caused by many factors, including new technological inventions, the advancement of capitalism, and Britain’s global trade network. Two of the most significant technological developments were the creation of steam power and mechanized textile equipment. These factors led to vast improvements in textile production efficiency and output. For example, using a steam-powered spinning machine, an unskilled factory employee was capable of producing 100 times the thread than a textile worker from pre-Industrial times.

The emergence of free market-capitalist ideologies, following British economist Adam Smith’s 1776 work The Wealth of Nations. Smith argued that governments shouldn’t get involved with the running of the economy. These ideas shaped favorable conditions for free enterprise, allowing entrepreneurs to open highly efficient textile factories in urban areas — And resulting in little protections for workers’ rights or labor conditions.

Improvements in agricultural production (think crop rotation methods and new imports from the Americas, like corn and potatoes) helped feed people to spur a period of rapid population growth, providing a large workforce to work the factories.

The Industrial Revolution was a historic time of technological innovations and growth. Here are some of the most important Industrial Revolution inventions:

In 1764, British textile worker James Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny, a cotton-spinning machine that could run eight spindles from one spinning wheel. This invention marked a significant development in the transition from handmade textile goods to machine-made mass production.

In 1779, British inventor Samuel Crompton amalgamated ideas from previous spinning inventions to create the spinning mule. This valuable invention allowed a single worker to operate more than a thousand spindles at the same time.

The first modern steam engines were produced in 1712 by British inventor Thomas Newcomen. They used heat energy from hot steam to perform mechanical work. Decades later, in 1765, Scottish inventor James Watt built a steam engine that greatly increased efficiency. Watt continued to improve on his design through the 1780s. The result was a steam engine capable of powering textile factories, cotton mills, paper mills, canals, flour mills, and distilleries.

In 1803, British engineer Richard Trevithick applied Watt’s steam engine to a locomotive train, and by 1830, newer models could move goods and people between the industrial cities of Manchester and Liverpool.

In the 1820s, British scientist Michael Faraday’s work on electric currents and electromagnetic induction paved the way for electric motors and electric generators — Though these inventions would not be widely used until much later.

In 1837, British inventors William Fothergill Cooke and Charles Wheatstone came up with a telegraph system in which electrical signals passed through a wire could be translated into specific letters or numbers on a receiving plate. Telegraphs allowed for instant communication between geographic locations — Which led to great developments in transportation, journalism, diplomacy, the military, and other industries.

The Industrial Revolution led to profound changes in British society and later to the European continent, the United States, and other regions. The period’s technological developments changed the way people live and work. Urbanization — The movement of people from rural areas to towns and cities — accelerated immensely during the Industrial Revolution. People flocked from rural areas to rapidly developing cities to take up work in factories, where the work day was often long and grueling, and the pay was low. The influx of new city residents led to a host of challenges, like overcrowding, pollution, and a lack of access to clean water. In reaction to the poor living and working conditions, labor unions formed to fight for improved workers’ rights.

As the demand for coal rose, mine owners invested in canals and road improvements to ensure their supply could reach buyers faster than before. Over 2,000 miles of canals were in operation by 1815. With new road developments (between 1780 and 1830), the stagecoach journey from Edinburgh to London shortened from two weeks to just two days.

The Industrial Revolution’s lasting impact can still be felt today. It was the starting point for many of the world’s major cities; created paying jobs (albeit the pay was often low); prompted the passage of public health regulations; and made it possible for people to travel between distant locations.

Some of the main advantages of the Industrial Revolution include economic growth, technological innovation, new and improved communication methods, and the emergence of affordable mass-produced goods. During this time, transportation networks also allowed people to travel longer distances, and workers began to organize into unions. But the rapid growth and development that defined the Industrial Revolution also came with downsides — Environmental pollution from coal and gas, dangerous working conditions, and a lack of sanitation in new cities, to name a few.

The Second Industrial Revolution can refer to two things. One is the Industrial Revolution in the United States, taking place between 1790 and 1830. Much like the changes that swept sweeping Great Britain, the US Industrial Revolution saw mechanized textile production take root, factories spring up, and masses move from rural areas to cities.

The more general use of the term “the Second Industrial Revolution” describes the period spanning the late 1800s into the 1900s, when cities continued to grow, new fuels emerged (like liquid petroleum), steel production improved, and assembly lines were introduced in factories to improve the ability to mass-produce goods for consumers. With new travel networks and ways to communicate (like the telephone), the pace of life quickened during this time. Long-distance railroad travel opened up a world of new markets for farmers and manufacturers; private motorcars offered those who could afford them a new freedom to move. Common products like butter, clothing, and soap were now made in factories rather than made at home.

The Third Industrial Revolution is less well defined. One prominent economist and theorist, Jeremy Rifkin, describes the Third Industrial Revolution as an ongoing shift toward a sharing economy, starting with the onset of the Internet in 1991. Rifkin suggests that a merge between renewable energy and internet technology will eventually allow millions of people to produce and share green energy with one another. For example, he envisions people buying and installing solar panels and wind turbines (the cost of which he predicts will continue to decrease), and freely sharing excess energy. He sees this as an opportunity to eradicate carbon energy (like oil and gas) and replace it with renewable electricity (like solar and wind power) at a relatively low cost.