Hobsbawm argument:

• first stage of industrial revolution was based on textile factories
• second stage--key driver was the railroad
• economic pattern--larger scale investment in more industries
  
• larger scale investment
• not just the rich but also the middle class invested in railroads
• railroads raised the funding they needed by selling stock (setting themselves up as limited liability corporations)
  
• beginnings of big corporations dominating industries, able to invest more money in new technology
  
• broader industrial base--capital industries which produce goods for other industries, not for consumers
• machines for factories, railroad locomotives, mass production of iron
  
• more and more kinds of goods were being made in factories
• factories were being built to make equipment for other factories
• technological pattern--capital industries play a key role (companies that make machines for other industries)
  
• those companies spread new technology from one industry to another
• more investment and spread of technology by capital industries sped up technological change and industrial growth
• pattern of impact on workers
  
• very often required workers with more skills
  
• workers began to be treated a little better

• there was some earlier formal scientific research that made the steam engine possible (an understanding of air pressure), but it was done more than 50 years earlier
  
• the key formal science for analyzing a steam engine (thermodynamics) wasn't there when it was invented, but rather was invented in order to figure out how to make steam engines more efficient
  
• formal science owes more to the steam engine than the steam engine owes to formal science
  

• Pierre Gassendi understood air pressure as the motion of particles in a gas

• barometer was invented by Torricelli in 1644: fill a tube completely with mercury, and turn it upside down into a bowl of mercury.  The mercury won't all spill out, since air can't get into the tube, but if you have a very long tube the column of mercury will only be 30 inches high.  This measures the pressure of the atmosphere. 
  
• Magni independently invented the barometer and argued that it had a vacuum at the top
• scientists were interested in proving that Aristotle was wrong, that it was possible to create a vacuum
  
• Otto von Guericke showed the power of air pressure in 1657--watch the video of a recreation--when he pumped air out of a metal sphere to create a vacuum the air pressure on the outside of the sphere compared to the vacuum inside was so great that teams of horses couldn't pull the two halves of the sphere apart

• To understand, do this experiment:
• Take a plastic container, put a little water in it, and put it in the microwave until the water boils
• take it carefully out of the microwave (without burning yourself) and put a lid on it tightly while it is still steaming hot
• let it  cool and you will see that the lid is pulled down (curves downward into the container)
  
• When you put the lid on the container was full of steam
• when it cooled the steam condensed and turned back into water
• the water takes up much less space than the steam, so the lid is pulled down
• an atmospheric steam engine works on the same principle--fill the cylinder with steam and then condense it
• have a piston that moves in the cylinder--when the steam condenses the piston is pulled down
• attach the piston to a water pump so that each time it is pulled down it pulls up the handle of the water pump and pumps water

• The first need for steam engines was to pump water out of mines
  
• Thomas Savery built the first workable engine, using an odd design without a cylinder and piston--using the steam directly to pull up the water.  Savery got a patent and got royalties from the builders of later engines.
  
• Newcomen Engine (about 1712) filled a cylinder with steam and then condensed it to draw the piston down.  1/2% efficient, but widely used to pump water out of coal mines.  By 1733 there were 125 Newcomen engines in use, by 1775 about 600 had been built. Animated,  video
• some scientific knowledge about atmospheric pressure/vacuum was necessary, but it was only one part of building an engine
• Watt Engine (1774) had had a separate condenser, making the engine much more efficient.  animation
  
• James Watt later added:
• sun and planet gear converted reciprocating (up and down) motion into rotary motion to power machines
• automatic control mechanism--flyball governor--to keep the engine running at a fairly constant speed
• double-acting engine made for much smoother power--close the cylinder above the piston and put steam into the top part of the cylinder while condensing steam in the bottom part and then vice versa
• more efficient engine using a separate condenser

• Rails are a much earlier innovation than locomotives: horsedrawn carts on wooden rails used in Germany since 16th century, in England since 17th century.  Iron rails about 1770.  Mostly used in mine but by the end of 1825 there were 300-400 miles of iron public railroad
• the idea of a moving steam engine was obvious, but there were problems.
  • you can use a stationary steam engine to wind a cable to pull a load
    
  • need for high pressure steam engines
  • widespread belief that there would not be enough friction, that rise would have to be less than 1 foot per 100
  • experiments with steam carriages--eg. Cugnot in France in 1770--had led to English laws to keep steam carriages from scaring horses by requiring a man walking in front of it with a flag or lantern
• early experiments on mine (colliery) railways

  
Penydarren Locomotive

• First experimental locomotive built by Richard Trevithick in 1803-4 for the 10 mile Penydarren colliery railway.  One cylinder, 8 1/2 inches in diamter, 4 1/2 foot stroke, probably 30-50 lb/sq in. working pressure.  It was too heavy for the track so the owners used it as a stationary engine.
• Trevithick tried again in 1805 with no more success, went to South American in disgust
• by 1812 similar locomotives started to be used on colliery railroads (in the north of England--Leeds and on Tyneside) between mine and warf. They were useful to haul goods from the mine to the nearest water transportation Economical because Napoleonic wars increased price of animal feed.
• 1825 Stockton and Darlington Railroad was first common carrier to use locomotives, though the main need for the line was to haul coal from a mine to the coast.  
• Builders of Liverpool-Manchester railroad were locked in a debate over whether to use horses or locomotives.  Decided to sponsor a contest to see if locomotives were practical at all and pick the best design. Rainhill Trials (video of recreation)

•  held Oct. 1829.  Contest was to pull 20 tons at 10 mph and make 40 trips over a 1 1/2 mile course.
• 10 entries were expected but only three appeared--Timothy Hackworth, engineer of the Stockton and Darlington RR entered the Sans Pareil, John Braithwaite and John Ericsson entered the Novelty (which had the advantage of being a particularly light weight design), and Robert Stephenson entered the Rocket (animation).

• Sans Pareil failed to complete the course, Novelty also broke down, but Rocket not only completed the course but averaged 15 mph, winning the 500 pound prize
• More important this convinced people of the practicality of locomotives.  It was a major spectator sport--more than 10,000 people saw the trials
• Liverpool-Manchester builders ordered seven locomotives.  They built their rails to the gauge of Stephenson's locomotive--the 4 ft. 8 1/2 inch gauge of the Killingworth Colliery Wagonway.  That is still the standard gauge today.
• Funded by merchants who wanted lower priced transportation than the existing canal, which had a monopoly.  This line competed for the first time with canals, since it connected an industrial center with its port.  Canal interests tried to block its building in Parliament.  Speed was the key advantage--unexpectedly 1/2 of revenue came from passengers.

• railroad spread rapidly after that--between 1830 and 1850 6,000 miles of railroad were built in England  National Railroad Museum
• railways were built far beyond any economic need, but they trained a generation of engineers.  In 1847 more than 1/4 million men were employed in constructing 6,455 miles of railways, with a total expenditure on railways about 10% of national income.
• where did the money come from for so much to be invested in building railroads?
• it came from investors--more people invested, not just rich people
• limited liability corporation--if the company goes broke you lose only what you invested, you aren't responsible to the creditors beyond that
  
• first general limited liability law New York state, 1811
• a similar law was passed in Britain in 1854
  
• some railroads were very profitable but many were not--over-enthusiasm for new technology when the market wasn't there yet
  
• railroads were where people began to believe that technology was making a new world
  

By 1850 the industrial revolution began to seem permanent and businesses and workers began to adjust to it more fully

• working hours tended to become a bit shorter (10 hour day in the textile industry) and wages higher
  
• gradually in the second half of the 19th century workers got the right to vote (you no longer had to own property)
• the fear of revolution diminished
  
• but so did economic advantage.  Other countries were also increasingly competing with Britain--the American industrial revolution was well underway by 1850