previous chapter: what conditions caused/made possible the British Industrial Revolution--what caused it to start
this chapter: what happened in the early stages, and why--what caused it to grow once it started

Adopting technology wasn’t inevitable early on
(later on it became hard to stay in business if you didn't)
Businesses that are more focused on profit are more likely to adopt new technologies

• Some chased after profit
• Others worried about larger effects such as unemployment
  
• Other were scared of new ways
• Other didn’t want to take risks

the story isn't just invention but why did people invest in building factories using a new invention?
With the experience of the IR, chasing after profit became a more common approach.

That shift made businesses more open to new technology
cause--businesses interested in new technology, effect--inventors go invent new things

• the technological advances of the early industrial revolution were fairly simple
• what was different was the willingness of businessmen to innovate and take risks
  
• Hobsbawm gives the example of the Peel family

to what extent did new technology cause the British industrial revolution?

• what caused new technology to be invented and put into use
• how exactly does the new technology relate to the economic growth

Textile factories were the first stage of the takeoff of the industrial revolution

• Invention of new technologies
• People had the money to buy things
• Cheap cotton cloth was a new product people wanted to buy
  
• People were able to move to jobs so there were people to work in the new factories
  
• Colonies provided raw material (often using slave labor) and markets
  
• More businesses focused only on profit and were willing to take the risk of developing new products
  

Snowball effect:

• the British industrial revolution was not one technology but many
• each new development led to developments in other industries
• so the change grew bigger and bigger and more unstoppable
• what could have stopped it was running out of resources, but Britain was rich in the necessary resources (iron, coal for energy, raw materials from the empire...)
  

• the first big industry was cotton textile factories, though other kinds of factories developed as well
• the early factories were powered by water wheels (steam engines reached a level of development useful for powering factories after 1785)
  
• machines had been used some by workers who did piece work at home with spinning wheels and hand looms.  The bottleneck was spinning.
  
• the key invention brought the workers together into a factory was the invention of machines for spinning that could spin more than one thread at a time plus the application of water power first to spinning and then to weaving
• James Hargreaves, Spinning Jenny , invented 1764-1770, was at first a machine powered by a person turning the crank
  

 Spinning Jenny

• Roger Arkwright, Water Frame, 1769, was designed for waterpower and could spin lots of coarse thread
  
• Samuel Crompton, Mule , 1774-1779 (historical video), combined the technologies of the jenny and the water frame to spin better quality thread with water power
  
• mass production lowers cost
  
• Edmund Cartwright, Power Loom, 1786-1788

PEM photo--power loom (Slater Mill)

• when/why organize work into factories?
• consistent product because you have supervision of the workers
• a factory can have large machines and a large water wheel powering them
• more control--workers work on the schedule you set
• less transportation needed
• but factory is less safe
• expensive to build, and there may be a need for housing for the workers, water supply...
• quality might be lower
• workers are in one place and can organize
  

• now you have mass production and the price of cloth goes way down
• why do people buy it?
• better than wool underwear
• easy to print with patterns, create a consumer revolution
  
• With these technologies the industry took off--by 1833 237,000 people were employed in cotton textile factories in England
• from the 1790s on, the majority of production was exported--the empire provided a market for very large scale production
  
• this was a whole new way of life (more on this in the next chapter)
  
• 46% of workers were women, 15% children under the age of 13 ( Child Labor )
• wages were barely enough for a family to survive if all members over the age of 8 worked
• the new industrial cities grew very rapidly in population--providing physical resources and social institutions for those people did not keep up
  
• in some areas 1/2 to 3/4 of worker families lived in a single room with no plumbing (dumped their chamber pot into the street or gutter)

• improved roads built in large numbers 1750-1815 (about 1000 miles), reduced transportation costs 20-30%
• Canals
• The Duke of Bridgewater's Canal started construction in 1759--7 miles but had to cross a river valley.  People thought this was a wild dream, but built (link has map) in 5 years, engineered by the Duke and James Brindley, who became a key canal engineer
  
• Very profitable--halved the cost of coal in Manchester (videos)--song
  
• canal building boom 1750-1800--by 1830 England had 3875 miles of navigable water (though only 1/3 of that was canals).  The Oxford canal paid a 30% return for 30 years.
• provided much cheaper transportation of bulky goods
• a wider range of people begin to invest their money in business projects like canals
  

 

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Coal

• Britain was running out of wood to burn for fuel, so coal was used for stoves and fireplaces in the home.
• Coal mining became profitable and technology for improving mining grew
• we will talk about the steam engine with the railroad but it grew out of the need to pump water out of coal mines
• 1712 Thomas Newcomen invented the first practical steam engine (at least it was practical for pumping water out of coal mines).  

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Iron:

• in the 17th century iron production in England was limited because iron was smelted with charcoal and England was running out of wood
  
• another invention key to the beginning of the industrial revolution: 1709 Abraham Darby was the first to smelt iron with coal
• The brewing industry had already started to experiment with coke (partially burned coal)
• like brewing, ironmaking requires a very pure carbon fuel because contaminants make the iron brittle (or make the beer taste bad)
  
• Abraham Darby was a Quaker, part of a community where people shared technological expertise
  
• Darby was making large cast iron cooking pots, which didn't require the highest quality iron
  
• 
• the iron industry took off after 1760 since iron ore and coal were both very plentiful in England

• 1779  Iron Bridge over the Severn Gorge in Shropshire, England (photo,  detail)

the first iron bridge, Coalbrookdale

• 1783 invention of puddling made economical the production of wrought iron, which is much stronger than cast iron

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Hobsbawm's argument about this period:

• this early industrialization was a mix of old and new technologies and older business and labor practices with a change in approach
• the businessmen who pushed forward the new technology took a new approach that focused only on profit (that was the mindset that made them bold enough to try radically new technology)
• the way the economy worked and people lived was changing quite dramatically
  
• the change in way of life resulted in a lot of political unrest and union activity--next class
  

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this page written and copyright  Pamela E. Mack