Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution is the name given to large changes in manufacturing methods that occurred in Great Britain beginning in the last half of the 18th century.   These methods then spread around the world, most rapidly to western Europe and North America to create secondary "industrial revolutions".   Because the definition of "revolution" is abstract and unclear, its end, if it ended at all, is arbitrary.   Some scholars consider several Industrial Revolutions marked by other significant changes in technology, e.g., electricity, assembly line mass production, atomic energy, etc.   Other scholars see it as a continuum to the present day with no appreciable breaks.

Before the Industrial Revolution began, most wooden and metal parts were manufactured using hand tools and simple machines, such as, lathes and drills.   Assembly lines, where individual parts are made by one laborer to be modified and assembled later by other laborers, were used, e.g., wooden barrel manufacture (laths, ends, and hoops), but they were not common.   Many items were made in the home or in nearby sheds and barns, so-called Domestic System.   Examples of home manufacture were textile spinning and weaving, soapmaking, and candlemaking.   In Great Britain, in the latter part of the 18th century, when roads and canals became more prevalent and textile machinery was invented, trade and markets expanded, so it became cheaper to locate workers in buildings dedicated to a common manufactured product.  Thus, the Domestic System was replaced gradually by the Factory System, which became a feature of the Industrial Revolution.

Most people associate the Industrial Revolution with either steam power or the mechanization of textile spinning, or both.   Therefore, the Industrial Revolution must have begun in Great Britain between the 1760s and 1780s.   In 1769, Richard Arkwright invented the first cotton spinning machinery, and in 1781, James Watt invented the planetary gearing system that changed the reciprocal motion of the Newcomen steam engine into rotary motion to drive textile and other machinery.   Before this period, most textile manufacturing was done at home with spinners and looms that used human muscle power for fulling, carding, spinning and weaving.   Heavy repetitive work, like grinding grain and sawing lumber was done at mills that used animal and water power.   (Wind and tidal power were used at select locations and the wind that filled sailing vessels was a power source since antiquity.)   The work done at home was of varying quality depending on the individual worker and transporation costs getting the yarn to the home and the finished cloth back to the merchant were relatively large.   In contrast, machinery in factories reduced the transportation costs of "putting out" work to domestic laborers in homes.   Also, the quality and uniformity of the products were improved because the factory work could be supervised more readily.   The productivity and quality improvements wrought by factories, spinning machinery and steam power were soon recognized by capitalists, who applied them to other work.   The revolution had begun!

Note the following about the Industrial Revolution:

1.   The Industrial Revolution is mostly associated with one mass-production industry, textile manufacture, more specifically, cotton textile spinning.   Wool spinning, a more difficult process, and other manufacturing processes were mechanized later.

2.   The Industrial Revolution did not originate in the United States; it was transferred there from Great Britain in 1790 for the first time by Samuel Slater, whose intimate knowledge of British spinning machinery enabled him and his business associates (Brown Bros.) to set up a cotton spinning mill in Pawtucket, RI.   That factory was the first of many that transferred the British Industrial Revolution to America.   Meanwhile, this British system spread to other countries in Europe too.

The industrial changes described above that comprised the British Industrial Revolution were not transferred immediately to the U.S. in spite of the considerable trade with the British-American colonies (after July 2, 1776, independent states) because of Great Britain's mercantile policies and laws that prohibited the transfer of technology outside Great Britain.   These laws promoted raw material imports of lesser value and manufactured exports of greater value to promote a favorable balance of trade that protected British manufacturers and also enhanced the accumulation of gold and silver in Great Britain which could then be used to build a stronger economy, military and government.   After March 4, 1789, when the states were joined by a constitution, individuals were encouraged by the state and federal governments to compete freely among themselves and with foreigners.   Since much of the mechanization knowledge lay in Europe, American entrepreneurs sought its transfer to the U.S. by hook or crook.   After the first successful spinning mill was opened in Pawtucket, it spread throughout New England and into other northern states.   Soon, other textiles, such as wool, silk, linen, and horsehair were made using similar machinery and steam or water power for weaving as well as spinning.     In the early 20th Century, when electrical power became widespread, much cotton textile manufacture moved from the northern to the southern United States or overseas where labor was cheaper.   Also, the successes in textile manufacture were adopted by other industries, such as food processing, printing, and the manufacture of automobile, paper and steel, so that by the late 20th Century, just about every industry in America and Europe was mechanized.   The effects of the Industrial Revolution continue around the world today.