The Industrial Revolution began in Britain in the 18th century. It was the greatest period of change in history, transforming the handicraft and agricultural economy into the modern era of machine manufacturing and industry. Show It occurred during the period 1760 to 1840, when the rapid changes affected not only manufacturing and technology, but also society as a whole. A new type of work, the factory production line, meant more employees were needed. This led to increases in the population in urban areas. The revolution continued throughout the 19th century and spread across Europe and the rest of the world. Key changes that took place included the use of new materials in industry (mainly iron and steel) and different energy sources. Fuels including petroleum and coal and power sources such as the steam engine, electricity and the internal-combustion engine were widely used in the workplace. New machines were invented, increasing production, while developments in communication and transportation further advanced industry. Iron production Iron and steel had a major impact on the Industrial Revolution. Prior to 1760, the iron industry was based on small, local production facilities, located near water, charcoal and limestone, which were essential to the process. Some areas, such as South Wales, had a monopoly on iron production. The iron produced in other parts of Britain was of a lower quality and contained impurities. This limited its use and not much was turned into wrought iron. The impurities had to be hammered out to produce wrought iron and it became a time-consuming process. This added to the costs and as wrought iron was available more cheaply by importing it from Scandinavia, it created a challenge for industrialists to solve. More than 50% of the iron used in Britain at this time was imported from Sweden. Main problems Iron smelting techniques in Britain in the early 18th century were old and traditional. They used a blast furnace – a process invented in 1500 that tended to produce brittle iron. Furnaces were small, so their output was limited. The process was dependent on how much timber was in the local area. Due to inadequate transport, everything had to be close together, which limited production further. Smaller ironmasters began grouping together to form larger organisations, with a little success. The industry was very labour-intensive, and the iron was produced at a high cost. It tended to be used mainly for items like nails, which didn’t require a high quality iron. Steel Steel was more durable and less brittle than iron, but consequently it was more difficult to make. Turning molten iron into steel was a long process before the Industrial Revolution. New technology and sense of entrepreneurship created by the Industrial Revolution was the basis of today’s modern steel industry. Prior to this, steel was manufactured by simple, small-batch production, but after the Bessemer process was developed in England in 1854, it launched the beginning of mass production. It was the first inexpensive industrial process to mass produce steel from molten pig iron and preceded the development of the open-hearth furnace. The principle of the Bessemer process was the removal of impurities in the iron through oxidation, which involved blowing air through the molten iron. The inventor, Henry Bessemer, later set up his own steel works in Sheffield. He solved early issues of contamination of the iron ore with phosphorus by changing the lining of the furnace. This caused the phosphorus to be removed from the steel. This was the start of the huge Sheffield steel industry, which helped propel Britain to the role of world leader in steel production. By the end of the 19th century, Britain produced 30 million tonnes of steel annually. The scale of production increased significantly during the 20th century, when large-scale blast furnaces were introduced. Although the Bessemer process is no longer used commercially, when it was first invented, it was of massive importance to the industry, because it reduced the cost of producing steel. Greatest inventions Bessemer’s steel production process was of great interest to Andrew Carnegie, the industrialist and business magnate, who used it in his existing businesses, the Union Iron Works and the Keystone Bridge Company in the US. It was largely used to replace wrought iron in bridges because it was stronger. There had been a number of rail disasters in the 19th century, where bridges reinforced by wrought iron had collapsed, including the Dee Bridge collapse on 24th May 1847 in Chester, UK. Five people lost their lives on the bridge over the River Dee, built by the Chester and Holyhead Railway. Carriages of a passenger train fell through the bridge into the river, causing serious injuries, as well as the fatalities. Before the Bessemer process was introduced, steel production was too expensive to use it for bridges, but it soon became the popular choice due to its superior strength. In the 1860s, railways in Britain and overseas started using steel rails. In the United States, this began to open up the country for the first time. When farming became mechanised during the Industrial Revolution, much of the machinery was built from steel, such as the combine harvester, invented in 1865. The first steel-reinforced skyscraper, which was ten storeys high, opened in Chicago in 1883, while the first steel wire suspension bridge, Brooklyn Bridge in New York, opened the same year. Lifestyle innovations Up until the 1950s and 1960s, steel was largely used for industrial purposes, including military and vehicle use, but new processes meant it could be used for lifestyle and comfort as well. There was a huge growth in the range of home appliances made of steel during these two decades and consumers flocked to buy them. Today, manufacturers are forging a new era for steel. They are looking to reduce costs and increase productivity by collaborating on new production technologies. Steel is also 100% recyclable without downgrading in quality. It has become the most recycled material in the world in recent years. Pipecraft’s tube bending expertise produces smooth, even and uniform results, ensuring consistency for all your tube manipulation requirements. Contact us by email at or give us a call on 01903 766778.
The Industrial Revolution began in England in the middle of the 18th century and spread to the rest of Europe and the United States in the early 19 th century. This era changed the way people worked and lived. New machines were invented and a large part of the population moved from the countryside to urban areas. The growth of industries (manufacturing)Before the Industrial Revolution people worked at home on farms or in small workshops. Making cloth was done entirely by hand. Cotton was spun to thread or yarn on a spinning wheel. In the 1700s people began buying more and more goods, so textile traders began to look for faster and cheaper ways of producing clothes. The first spinning machine came up in the early 18th century and by 1780 spinning was done mostly in new factories where workers gathered. Steam engineNew machines that were introduced during the Industrial Revolution needed more and more power to work. Up to the 18 th century England got most of its energy from waterwheels that were run by the flow of rivers. In the 1760s the Scottish engineer James Watt invented the steam engine. It was able to run factory machines and was powered by coal, which was Great Britain’s primary raw material.  Iron makingThe Industrial Revolution could not have developed without coal and iron. Coal was needed to make steam engines run and to produce iron. At the beginning of the 18 th century iron makers found a way to extract pure iron out of iron ore. They used coke, which was purer than coal and burned hotter, to melt the ore.
England’s coal mines boomed during the Industrial Revolution. Miners digged deeper into the earth to find as much coal as they could and in the 19 th century England became the world’s largest coal producing country. Most of it came from the Midlands, around Sheffield , Birmingham and Coventry. Because the burning of coal produced a lot of smoke and darkened the skies this area was also called Black Country. TransportationThe mass production of goods during the 18 th and 19 th centuries called for new methods of transportation. New roads and a system of canals carried products made in factories to markets all over Britain. Coal, which was needed in factories in great quantities, was also transported on canals. George Stephenson built a type of steam engine that could move on rails. In 1830 the Liverpool to Manchester railroad was opened and in the following twenty years railroads linked all major towns in Britain. By the 1850s steam powered ships replaced sailing ships and became the primary way of transporting goods and people across the oceans. This increased world trade because ships were no longer dependent on good and strong winds in order to reach their destinations. How life and work changed during the Industrial RevolutionFactories that came up during the Industrial Revolution changed the way people lived and worked in a dramatic way. Urbanisation made families move to the cities in order to get work. As a result, these urban areas became more and more overcrowded. They were often dirty and unhealthy places to live in because of the pollution that came from factories and iron mills. Factory work created many problems for labourers. For the first time in history a large number of people had to work together in the same place. Machines forced workers to work quickly and without much rest. The workday began and ended at certain times. Many factory people worked up to 16 hours a day for very little money, because factory owners wanted to keep production costs low. Sometimes whole families went to work in factories: while men were employed at iron and steel mills ,women and children found work in new textile factories. However, working conditions were bad and many workers became ill and died. There was no union at that time to protect them. Although lower and middle class workers led a hard and troublesome life, middle and upper class citizens improved their lifestyle. They gained more power and money. The Industrial Revolution also led to an increase in Great Britain’s population because people had better housing and better medical care in the towns and, thus, lived longer. The Industrial Revolution began in Britain for a number of reasons. First, the country had raw materials, like iron ore and coal. Other materials, like cotton came from overseas colonies. By the end of the 18 th century the country became the world’s largest colonial power. The colonies then became big markets for the industrial goods that Britain produced. In the early 1800s the Industrial Revolution spread to the European mainland and across the Atlantic to the United States. By 1850 Belgium, France and Germany became leading industrial nations on the continent. Japan was one of the first Asian countries to start producing goods in factories and Russian industrialisation started in the early 1900s. China and India didn’t become industrial powers until after World War II, largely because both countries were occupied by foreign powers. Downloadable PDF Text- and Worksheets
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