Pentangle-Industry

The Industrial Revolution, now also known as the First Industrial Revolution, was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Europe and the United States, in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. This transition included going from hand production methods to machines, new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes, the increasing use of steam power and water power, the development of machine tools and the rise of the mechanized factory system. The Industrial Revolution also led to an unprecedented rise in the rate of population growth.
Textiles were the dominant industry of the Industrial Revolution in terms of employment, value of output and capital invested. The textile industry was also the first to use modern production methods.[1]:40
The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain, and many of the technological innovations were of British origin.[2][3] By the mid-18th century Britain was the world's leading commercial nation,[4] controlling a global trading empire with colonies in North America and the Caribbean, and with political influence on the Indian subcontinent, particularly Bengal Subah, through the activities of the East India Company.[5][6][7][8] The development of trade and the rise of business were among the major causes of the Industrial Revolution.[1]:15
The Industrial Revolution marks a major turning point in history; almost every aspect of daily life was influenced in some way. In particular, average income and population began to exhibit unprecedented sustained growth. Some economists say that the major effect of the Industrial Revolution was that the standard of living for the general population in the western world began to increase consistently for the first time in history, although others have said that it did not begin to meaningfully improve until the late 19th and 20th centuries.[9][10][11]
GDP per capita was broadly stable before the Industrial Revolution and the emergence of the modern capitalist economy,[12] while the Industrial Revolution began an era of per-capita economic growth in capitalist economies.[13] Economic historians are in agreement that the onset of the Industrial Revolution is the most important event in the history of humanity since the domestication of animals and plants.[14]
Although the structural change from agriculture to industry is widely associated with the Industrial Revolution, in the United Kingdom it was already almost complete by 1760.[15]
The precise start and end of the Industrial Revolution is still debated among historians, as is the pace of economic and social changes.[16][17][18][19] Eric Hobsbawm held that the Industrial Revolution began in Britain in the 1780s and was not fully felt until the 1830s or 1840s,[16] while T. S. Ashton held that it occurred roughly between 1760 and 1830.[17] Rapid industrialization first began in Britain, starting with mechanized spinning in the 1780s,[20] with high rates of growth in steam power and iron production occurring after 1800. Mechanized textile production spread from Great Britain to continental Europe and the United States in the early 19th century, with important centres of textiles, iron and coal emerging in Belgium and the United States and later textiles in France.[1]
An economic recession occurred from the late 1830s to the early 1840s when the adoption of the original innovations of the Industrial Revolution, such as mechanized spinning and weaving, slowed and their markets matured. Innovations developed late in the period, such as the increasing adoption of locomotives, steamboats and steamships, hot blast iron smelting and new technologies, such as the electrical telegraph, widely introduced in the 1840s and 1850s, were not powerful enough to drive high rates of growth. Rapid economic growth began to occur after 1870, springing from a new group of innovations in what has been called the Second Industrial Revolution. These new innovations included new steel making processes, mass-production, assembly lines, electrical grid systems, the large-scale manufacture of machine tools and the use of increasingly advanced machinery in steam-powered factories.[1][21][22][23]

Demographics

The commencement of the Industrial Revolution is closely linked to a small number of innovations,[27] beginning in the second half of the 18th century. By the 1830s the following gains had been made in important technologies:
Textiles – mechanised cotton spinning powered by steam or water increased the output of a worker by a factor of around 500. The power loom increased the output of a worker by a factor of over 40.[28] The cotton gin increased productivity of removing seed from cotton by a factor of 50.[22] Large gains in productivity also occurred in spinning and weaving of wool and linen, but they were not as great as in cotton.[1] Steam power – the efficiency of steam engines increased so that they used between one-fifth and one-tenth as much fuel. The adaptation of stationary steam engines to rotary motion made them suitable for industrial uses.[1]:82 The high pressure engine had a high power to weight ratio, making it suitable for transportation.[23] Steam power underwent a rapid expansion after 1800. Iron making – the substitution of coke for charcoal greatly lowered the fuel cost of pig iron and wrought iron production.[1]:89–93 Using coke also allowed larger blast furnaces,[29][30] resulting in economies of scale. The steam engine began being used to pump water and to power blast air in the mid 1750s, enabling a large increase in iron production by overcoming the limitation of water power.[31] The cast iron blowing cylinder was first used in 1760. It was later improved by making it double acting, which allowed higher blast furnace temperatures. The puddling process produced a structural grade iron at a lower cost than the finery forge.[32] The rolling mill was fifteen times faster than hammering wrought iron. Hot blast (1828) greatly increased fuel efficiency in iron production in the following decades. Invention of machine tools – The first machine tools were invented. These included the screw cutting lathe, cylinder boring machine and the milling machine. Machine tools made the economical manufacture of precision metal parts possible, although it took several decades to develop effective techniques.[33]

Government

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Defences

Military

Industry & Trade

In 1750 Britain imported 2.5 million pounds of raw cotton, most of which was spun and woven by cottage industry in Lancashire. The work was done by hand in workers' homes or occasionally in shops of master weavers. In 1787 raw cotton consumption was 22 million pounds, most of which was cleaned, carded and spun on machines.[1]:41–42 The British textile industry used 52 million pounds of cotton in 1800, which increased to 588 million pounds in 1850.[34]
The share of value added by the cotton textile industry in Britain was 2.6% in 1760, 17% in 1801 and 22.4% in 1831. Value added by the British woollen industry was 14.1% in 1801. Cotton factories in Britain numbered approximately 900 in 1797. In 1760 approximately one-third of cotton cloth manufactured in Britain was exported, rising to two-thirds by 1800. In 1781 cotton spun amounted to 5.1 million pounds, which increased to 56 million pounds by 1800. In 1800 less than 0.1% of world cotton cloth was produced on machinery invented in Britain. In 1788 there were 50,000 spindles in Britain, rising to 7 million over the next 30 years.[35]
Wages in Lancashire, a core region for cottage industry and later factory spinning and weaving, were about six times those in India in 1770, when overall productivity in Britain was about three times higher than in India.[35]

Infrastructure

In 1750 Britain imported 2.5 million pounds of raw cotton, most of which was spun and woven by cottage industry in Lancashire. The work was done by hand in workers' homes or occasionally in shops of master weavers. In 1787 raw cotton consumption was 22 million pounds, most of which was cleaned, carded and spun on machines.[1]:41–42 The British textile industry used 52 million pounds of cotton in 1800, which increased to 588 million pounds in 1850.[34]
The share of value added by the cotton textile industry in Britain was 2.6% in 1760, 17% in 1801 and 22.4% in 1831. Value added by the British woollen industry was 14.1% in 1801. Cotton factories in Britain numbered approximately 900 in 1797. In 1760 approximately one-third of cotton cloth manufactured in Britain was exported, rising to two-thirds by 1800. In 1781 cotton spun amounted to 5.1 million pounds, which increased to 56 million pounds by 1800. In 1800 less than 0.1% of world cotton cloth was produced on machinery invented in Britain. In 1788 there were 50,000 spindles in Britain, rising to 7 million over the next 30 years.[35]
Wages in Lancashire, a core region for cottage industry and later factory spinning and weaving, were about six times those in India in 1770, when overall productivity in Britain was about three times higher than in India.[35]

Assets

Money

Guilds and Factions

The Age of Discovery was followed by a period of colonialism beginning around the 16th century. Following the discovery of a trade route to India around southern Africa by the Portuguese, the Dutch established the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (abbr. VOC) or Dutch East India Company and the British founded the East India Company, along with smaller companies of different nationalities which established trading posts and employed agents to engage in trade throughout the Indian Ocean region and between the Indian Ocean region and North Atlantic Europe. One of the largest segments of this trade was in cotton textiles, which were purchased in India and sold in Southeast Asia, including the Indonesian archipelago, where spices were purchased for sale to Southeast Asia and Europe. By the mid-1760s cloth was over three-quarters of the East India Company's exports. Indian textiles were in demand in North Atlantic region of Europe where previously only wool and linen were available; however, the amount of cotton goods consumed in Western Europe was minor until the early 19th century.[35]
Pre-mechanized European textile production

History

ar iron was the commodity form of iron used as the raw material for making hardware goods such as nails, wire, hinges, horse shoes, wagon tires, chains, etc. and for structural shapes. A small amount of bar iron was converted into steel. Cast iron was used for pots, stoves and other items where its brittleness was tolerable. Most cast iron was refined and converted to bar iron, with substantial losses. Bar iron was also made by the bloomery process, which was the predominant iron smelting process until the late 18th century.
In the UK in 1720 there were 20,500 tons of cast iron produced with charcoal and 400 tons with coke. In 1750 charcoal iron production was 24,500 and coke iron was 2,500 tons. In 1788 the production of charcoal cast iron was 14,000 tons while coke iron production was 54,000 tons. In 1806 charcoal cast iron production was 7,800 tons and coke cast iron was 250,000 tons.[31]:125
In 1750 the UK imported 31,200 tons of bar iron and either refined from cast iron or directly produced 18,800 tons of bar iron using charcoal and 100 tons using coke. In 1796 the UK was making 125,000 tons of bar iron with coke and 6,400 tons with charcoal; imports were 38,000 tons and exports were 24,600 tons. In 1806 the UK did not import bar iron but exported 31,500 tons.[31]:125
Iron process innovations A major change in the iron industries during the era of the Industrial Revolution was the replacement of wood and other bio-fuels with coal. For a given amount of heat, coal required much less labour to mine than cutting wood and converting it to charcoal,[48] and coal was much more abundant than wood, supplies of which were becoming scarce before the enormous increase in iron production that took place in the late 18th century.[1][31]:122 By 1750 coke had generally replaced charcoal in smelting of copper and lead, and was in widespread use in making glass. In the smelting and refining of iron, coal and coke produced inferior iron to that made with charcoal because of the coal's sulfur content. Low sulfur coals were known, but they still contained harmful amounts. Conversion of coal to coke only slightly reduces the sulfur content.[31]:122–25 A minority of coals are coking.
Another factor limiting the iron industry before the Industrial Revolution was the scarcity of water power to power blast bellows. This limitation was overcome by the steam engine.[31]
Use of coal in iron smelting started somewhat before the Industrial Revolution, based on innovations by Sir Clement Clerke and others from 1678, using coal reverberatory furnaces known as cupolas. These were operated by the flames playing on the ore and charcoal or coke mixture, reducing the oxide to metal. This has the advantage that impurities (such as sulphur ash) in the coal do not migrate into the metal. This technology was applied to lead from 1678 and to copper from 1687. It was also applied to iron foundry work in the 1690s, but in this case the reverberatory furnace was known as an air furnace. (The foundry cupola is a different, and later, innovation.)
By 1709 Abraham Darby made progress using coke to fuel his blast furnaces at Coalbrookdale.[49] However, the coke pig iron he made was not suitable for making wrought iron and was used mostly for the production of cast iron goods, such as pots and kettles. He had the advantage over his rivals in that his pots, cast by his patented process, were thinner and cheaper than theirs.
Coke pig iron was hardly used to produce wrought iron until 1755–56, when Darby's son Abraham Darby II built furnaces at Horsehay and Ketley where low sulfur coal was available (and not far from Coalbrookdale). These new furnaces were equipped with water-powered bellows, the water being pumped by Newcomen steam engines. The Newcomen engines were not attached directly to the blowing cylinders because the engines alone could not produce a steady air blast. Abraham Darby III installed similar steam-pumped, water-powered blowing cylinders at the Dale Company when he took control in 1768. The Dale Company used several Newcomen engines to drain its mines and made parts for engines which it sold throughout the country.[31]:123–25
Steam engines made the use of higher-pressure and volume blast practical; however, the leather used in bellows was expensive to replace. In 1757, iron master John Wilkinson patented a hydraulic powered blowing engine for blast furnaces.[50] The blowing cylinder for blast furnaces was introduced in 1760 and the first blowing cylinder made of cast iron is believed to be the one used at Carrington in 1768 that was designed by John Smeaton.[31]:124, 135 Cast iron cylinders for use with a piston were difficult to manufacture; the cylinders had to be free of holes and had to be machined smooth and straight to remove any warping. James Watt had great difficulty trying to have a cylinder made for his first steam engine. In 1774 John Wilkinson, who built a cast iron blowing cylinder for his iron works, invented a precision boring machine for boring cylinders. After Wilkinson bored the first successful cylinder for a Boulton and Watt steam engine in 1776, he was given an exclusive contract for providing cylinders.[22][51] After Watt developed a rotary steam engine in 1782, they were widely applied to blowing, hammering, rolling and slitting.[31]:124
The solutions to the sulfur problem were the addition of sufficient limestone to the furnace to force sulfur into the slag and the use of low sulfur coal. Use of lime or limestone required higher furnace temperatures to form a free-flowing slag. The increased furnace temperature made possible by improved blowing also increased the capacity of blast furnaces and allowed for increased furnace height.[31]:123–25 In addition to lower cost and greater availability, coke had other important advantages over charcoal in that it was harder and made the column of materials (iron ore, fuel, slag) flowing down the blast furnace more porous and did not crush in the much taller furnaces of the late 19th century.[52][53]
As cast iron became cheaper and widely available, it began being a structural material for bridges and buildings. A famous early example was the Iron Bridge built in 1778 with cast iron produced by Abraham Darby III.[47] However, most cast iron was converted to wrought iron.
Europe relied on the bloomery for most of its wrought iron until the large scale production of cast iron. Conversion of cast iron was done in a finery forge, as it long had been. An improved refining process known as potting and stamping was developed, but this was superseded by Henry Cort's puddling process. Cort developed two significant iron manufacturing processes: rolling in 1783 and puddling in 1784.[1]:91 Puddling produced a structural grade iron at a relatively low cost.
Puddling was a means of decarburizing molten pig iron by slow oxidation in a reverberatory furnace by manually stirring it with a long rod. The decarburized iron, having a higher melting point than cast iron, was raked into globs by the puddler. When the glob was large enough, the puddler would remove it. Puddling was backbreaking and extremely hot work. Few puddlers lived to be 40.[54] Because puddling was done in a reverberatory furnace, coal or coke could be used as fuel. The puddling process continued to be used until the late 19th century when iron was being displaced by steel. Because puddling required human skill in sensing the iron globs, it was never successfully mechanised. Rolling was an important part of the puddling process because the grooved rollers expelled most of the molten slag and consolidated the mass of hot wrought iron. Rolling was 15 times faster at this than a trip hammer. A different use of rolling, which was done at lower temperatures than that for expelling slag, was in the production of iron sheets, and later structural shapes such as beams, angles and rails.
The puddling process was improved in 1818 by Baldwyn Rogers, who replaced some of the sand lining on the reverberatory furnace bottom with iron oxide.[55] In 1838 John Hall patented the use of roasted tap cinder (iron silicate) for the furnace bottom, greatly reducing the loss of iron through increased slag caused by a sand lined bottom. The tap cinder also tied up some phosphorus, but this was not understood at the time.[31]:166 Hall's process also used iron scale or rust, which reacted with carbon in the molten iron. Hall's process, called wet puddling, reduced losses of iron with the slag from almost 50% to around 8%.[1]:93
Puddling became widely used after 1800. Up to that time British iron manufacturers had used considerable amounts of iron imported from Sweden and Russia to supplement domestic supplies. Because of the increased British production, imports began to decline in 1785 and by the 1790s Britain eliminated imports and became a net exporter of bar iron.
Hot blast, patented by James Beaumont Neilson in 1828, was the most important development of the 19th century for saving energy in making pig iron. By using preheated combustion air, the amount of fuel to make a unit of pig iron was reduced at first by between one-third using coke or two-thirds using coal;[56] however, the efficiency gains continued as the technology improved.[57] Hot blast also raised the operating temperature of furnaces, increasing their capacity. Using less coal or coke meant introducing fewer impurities into the pig iron. This meant that lower quality coal or anthracite could be used in areas where coking coal was unavailable or too expensive;[58] however, by the end of the 19th century transportation costs fell considerably.
Shortly before the Industrial Revolution an improvement was made in the production of steel, which was an expensive commodity and used only where iron would not do, such as for cutting edge tools and for springs. Benjamin Huntsman developed his crucible steel technique in the 1740s. The raw material for this was blister steel, made by the cementation process.
The supply of cheaper iron and steel aided a number of industries, such as those making nails, hinges, wire and other hardware items. The development of machine tools allowed better working of iron, causing it to be increasingly used in the rapidly growing machinery and engine industries.

Architecture

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Geography

Not only is London the capital city of the U.K., it's also the most urbanized . Standing on the River Thames and located in South England, London covers 1,579 square km (610 sq. mi). The River Thames cuts London in half, creating northern and southern halves. Because the city was built on the flood plain of the River Thames, London resulted to being a lowland, meaning the city is generally flat. Much of England's population is concentrated in London.

Natural Resources

London has several Royal Parks, 8 to be exact. The 8 parks were former royal hunting grounds, but are now open and available to the public. There is Green Park (39.5 acres), St. James Park (84 acres), Hyde Park (346 acres), Kensington Gardens (274 acres), Regent's Park (486.79 acres), Greenwich Park (180 acres), Bushy Park (1,112 acres), and Richmond Park (2,359.85 acres).

Alternative Name(s)

Industry

Type

Neighbourhood

Population

7.6 billion

Inhabitant Demonym

human

Location under

Earth 2019

Owning Organization

Organization