England Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was in the period of the 18th to the 19th century where many big changes took place in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology. The revolution originally started off in England and at that time we were the ones who led the rest of the world in to a new era of technology. At the beginning of the revolution in England in the 1750s all industries were small scale and the main one was farming. However nearer the 1900s mining for coal had significantly taken over all the other industries as we had a great supply of it here in England. England was dominating the rest of the world in design and technology so therefore we became a rich country as we exported many of our homeland goods.
Between 1750 and 1900 there was a massive change in the way farming worked. In the early stages of the industrial revolution they used horses to help plow and seed the field where the crops were to be grown. This method of farming was advanced later on in the revolution. There each area of land would be split into four sections. The crop that was grown on each field would be rotated so that different nutrients would be taken from the land. In the first year turnips or another kind of root crop would be grown; in the second year barley was grown in the field; in the third year clover or a grass crop was grown and in the fourth year wheat was grown in the field (wheat could be sold for a profit). This was a type of farming method called the Norfolk rotation method which was created in the late 1800s. This method of farming grew rapidly over England as it was so effective.
Nearer the end of the 1800s machines were introduced to farming which was a great step forward in the industrial world as it became very time efficient. There were two inventions that were at the core of the agricultural revolution, they were the Seed Drill and the Horse Hoe also known as the Gernhard. They were both invented by Jethro Tull (1674-1741). The seed drill was an invention that allowed seeds to be easily planted deep into the earth instead of on top where many previous planted seeds had been washed away or otherwise lost. In general it planted the seeds so deep they were not washed away. His other invention, the Horse Hoe also known as the Gernard, was another revolutionary device which allowed for much quicker efficient planting by allowing a horse to pull a plough quickly.
Most products people in the industrialized nations use today are turned out quickly by the process of mass production, by people working on assembly lines using power-driven machines. The people in the medieval period had no such tools. They had to spend many hours hand making even the most simplest of products whereas today some products we get robots to make in a matter of minutes. The only kind of power and energy they had was they’re own animals and muscles that got the job done.
The most important, I personally think, in the industrial revolution was the steam powered train engine. It was the first type of high speed transportation that had been ever made it was one of a kind. On the roads in England to travel to Scotland it would have taken many days to get their destination whereas with the train from London it would take about 9 hours. Of course it was not cheap to travel by train only people with a fair amount of money would have been able to go on the train.
George Stephenson was the man who created the first ever steam locomotive engine. He began to make it in 1813 and finished it on July the 25th 1814. It was able to haul 8 carriages of coal which was about thirty tones and it could average 4 miles per hour.
The first Industrial Revolution brought steam power, factories and railways to the UK. The second revolution saw new kinds of power – electricity, new chemicals, new plastics and new drugs – particularly from recently industrialised nations like Germany and the USA. The age electricity began in 1882 when Thomas A Edison introduced electric lighting in New York City, this was later applied to all kinds of machinery, locomotives and steam trains. Technology became more complex and more diverse across the world.
It is truly amazing to think only in a short space of time our world had changed so dramatically and all the technology that had been made must of been so alien to the people in that era. Furthermore some of the inventions made then are still used even to this day.
By Toby Disbury Class:9J