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English Industrial Revolution

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England Project | Topics Teams

Welcome to the English Industrial Revolution Topic Team

This team is part of the England Project. Its aim is to develop the WikiTree profiles of key figures in the Industrial Revolution, and to explore the links between them and also to allow counties to add their relevant contributions.

Team Leader: Simon Daniell
Team members: Stephen Heathcote

If you are an England Project member and are interested in joining the team, please contact the team leader above.

Contents

Synopsis

The exact dates of the industrial revolution are disputed but it occurred around 1733–1820-40.

The term Industrial Revolution was first popularized by the English economic historian Arnold Toynbee (1852–83) to describe Britain’s economic development from 1760 to 1840.

The industrial revolution relates to the process of change which introduced new ways of working and living and fundamentally transformed society and increased the standard of living for the general population in the western world for the first time in history. It is the most important event in human history since the domestication of animals and plants. It can be argued that the factory systems developed during the industrial revolution are responsible for creating capitalism and the modern cities of today.

This process began in Britain in the 18th century and from there spread to other parts of the world. Textiles were the dominant industry of the industrial revolution in terms of employment, value of output and capital invested and the industry was also the first to use modern production methods.

Characteristics of the Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution involved technological, socioeconomic, and cultural changes moving from an agrarian and handicraft economy to one dominated by industry and machine manufacturing.

Technological changes:

  1. The use of new basic materials, mainly iron and steel.
  2. The use of new energy sources e.g. coal replacing wood, electricity, petrol products, steam and the internal-combustion engine.
  3. Innovation and the invention of new machines e.g. the spinning jenny, the cotton gin, the power loom, the sewing machine, etc which increased production with less labour. Also others e.g. X-ray, light bulb, calculator and anaesthesia.
  4. Work was organised into factory systems with division of labour to specialised functions and assembly lines.
  5. Developments in transportation and communication e.g. intense canal building, steam locomotives, steamships, cars and lorries, airplanes, telegraph and radio.
  6. The increasing application of science to industry.
  7. The technological changes led to the greatly increased use of natural resources e.g. for gas lighting and the mass production of manufactured goods, chemicals and glass.

Other changes:

  1. Agricultural improvements and machines to supply food to larger non-agricultural communities.
  2. A wider distribution of wealth with industry replacing land and the availability of financial capital and entrepreneurs to invest.
  3. Increased international trade particularly to the British empire.
  4. Political changes reflecting the shift in economic power and policies to meet the needs of an industrialised society.
  5. Sweeping social changes e.g. migration to towns and cities, the development of working-class movements and new patterns of authority. But also a lack of job security, lack of worker protections and regulations leading to long work hours for poor wages, housing in unsanitary tenements and exploitation and abuse in the workplace, child labour, pollution. 
  6. Cultural transformations i.e. the shift from craftsmen working with hand tools to machine operators.
  7. Psychological change so that the ability to use resources and conquer nature was increased.

Second Industrial Revolution - From the late 19th century to the present day there was a second industrial revolution with the use of many lighter metals, rare earths, new alloys, and synthetic products e.g. plastics, man-made fibres, new energy sources, new machines and tools, computers, complete factory automation and robots.

Some Developments that enabled the Industrial Revolution

  • Power sources 
    • Water wheels 
    • Coal, coke
    • Steam engines -  stationary, pumps, rotational, mobile 
    • Electricity
  • Textiles - preparation, spinning, shuttles, weaving for cotton, silk, wool, lace, etc
  • Iron & Steel making 
  • Machine tools
  • Construction & cement 
  • Transport & communication systems - roads, canals, railways, steam ships, telegraph 

Some key figures of the industrial revolution in England

  • Sir Richard Arkwright: Invented the water frame which is a spinning frame that is powered by a water-wheel patented in 1769
  • Joseph Aspdin: Experimented with cement manufacture and patented a product he called "Portland cement"
  • Charles Wooley Bage: Designer of iron structured fireproof mills
  • Thomas Bell): The company Losh, Wilson and Bell was a leading Northeast England manufacturing company with an alkali works at Walker which was the first in England to make soda using the Leblanc process (Nicolas Leblanc).
  • Thomas Boulsover is the inventor of fused plating, or old Sheffield plate.
  • Matthew Boulton: James Watt’s partner in radically improving the power, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness (heat efficiency) of Newcomen’s steam engine and adapting it to produce rotary motion
  • Daniel Bourn: Patented a water-powered machine with rotating cylinders for carding wool and cotton at the same time as Lewis Paul (-1759)
  • Edmund Cartwright: Invented the power loom
  • Clement Clerke: Application of the reverberatory furnace (cupola) to smelting lead and copper, and to remelting pig iron for foundry purposes.
  • Robert Lucas Chance: Founder of Chance Brothers and Company a leading glass manufacturer and a pioneer of British glassmaking technology
  • William Chance: Partner in Chance Brothers and Company a leading glass manufacturer and a pioneer of British glassmaking technology
  • Henry Cort: Patented a puddling process to produce pure iron and the molten iron was then applied to his patented grooved rollers. The combination of the two processes made iron more readily available and quadrupled production in 20 years.
  • Samuel Thomas Crompton: Invented the spinning mule which was a machine that simultaneously drew out and gave the final twisting to the cotton fibres fed into it reproducing mechanically the actions of hand spinning
  • William Fothergill Cooke: With Charles Wheatstone, the co-inventor of the Cooke-Wheatstone electrical telegraph
  • Abraham Darby the elder: Devised a method of producing pig iron in a blast furnace fuelled by coke rather than charcoal and coke smelting made possible the great quantities of iron produced which drove the Industrial Revolution
  • Abraham Darby the younger: Responsible for a very important innovation in introducing the use of coke pig iron as the feedstock for finery forges (a forge used to produce wrought iron from pig iron by decarburization in a process called "fining" which liquifies cast iron in a fining hearth and removes carbon from the molten cast iron through oxidation)
  • Joseph Foljambe: Patented the Rotherham Swing plough which was handled by two horses and one person which reduced cost and made it quicker and more efficient than previous ploughs
  • John Fowler: Pioneer in the use of steam engines for ploughing and digging drainage channels reducing cost and enabling more land cultivation
  • Joseph Hall: Developed ‘wet puddling’ (also known as 'boiling' or 'pig boiling') for purifying iron
  • James Hargreaves: Inventor of the Spinning Jenny
  • John Heathcoat: Constructed a machine capable of producing an exact imitation of real pillow-lace called 'English net' or bobbinet
  • Thomas Highs: Inventor and manufacturer of cotton carding and spinning engines
  • Benjamin Huntsman: Invented crucible (or cast) steel which was more uniform in composition and freer from impurities
  • John Kay (of Bury): Invented the flying shuttle
  • John Kay (of Warrington): A clockmaker working with Thomas Highs and then Richard Arkwright to develop the spinning frame in 1767
  • Robert Kay: (son of John Kay) Invented the drop box which allowed multiple shuttles to be used simultaneously with wefts of more than one colour allowing the production of cross-striped or chequered material. This increased the use of the flying shuttle and made the weaving mechanism more complex but greatly increasing the speed of production of even fairly complex patterns and colours of cloths.
  • Nicolas Leblanc: Discovered how to produce a much needed alkali, sodium carbonate, from sodium chloride (common salt)
  • John Levers (Leavers): Invented a lace making machine such that lace, complete with pattern, net and outline, could be made on the Leavers machine
  • Thomas, Henry & John Lombe: Established the Derby Silk Mill which was the world's first mechanised factory
  • William Losh: The company Losh, Wilson and Bell was a leading Northeast England manufacturing company with an alkali works at Walker which was the first in England to make soda using the Leblanc process (Nicolas Leblanc).
  • Luddites: a secret oath-based group of English textile workers who destroyed textile machinery.
  • Henry Maudslay: English machine tool innovator, tool and die maker, and inventor
  • Andrew Meikle: Invented the threshing machine used to remove the outer husks from grains of wheat
  • William Murdoch: Inventor and the first to exploit the flammability of gas for the practical application of lighting
  • James Beaumont Neilson: Invented a hot-blast process that greatly increased the efficiency of smelting iron
  • Thomas Newcomen: Inventor of the first practical steam engine (atmospheric engine)
  • Lewis Paul: With John Wyatt invented and produced the first roller spinning frame and flyer-and-bobbin system
  • John Roebuck: Inventor and industrialist known for developing the industrial-scale manufacture of sulphuric acid
  • Thomas Savery: Steam Pump for pumping water
  • Samuel Slater was an apprentice to Jedediah Strutt at. He absconded to America carrying Arkwright's system and plans in his head. He settled in Pawtucket, Rhode Island and replicated Arkwright's success. He is known as the "Father of the American Industrial Revolution"
  • John Smeaton: "Father of civil engineering", designed bridges, canals, harbours and lighthouses, pioneered the use of hydraulic lime in concrete, increased the efficiency in water power which contributed to the Industrial Revolution, designed the diving bell, made marked improvements to the steam engine, built a water wheel-driven blowing cylinder for blast furnaces which was the first blowing cylinder made of cast iron
  • Charles Tennant: Discovered bleaching powder and created the largest chemical works in the world during the 1830s and 1840s
  • Arnold Toynbee: British economic historian who coined/popularised the phrase ‘Industrial Revolution’
  • Richard Trevithick: Developed of the first high-pressure steam engine and the first working railway steam locomotive
  • Jethro Tull: Perfected a horse-drawn seed drill in 1701 to economically sow seeds in neat rows and then a horse-drawn hoe
  • James Watt: Radically improved the power, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness (heat efficiency) of Newcomen’s steam engine and adapted it to produce rotary motion
  • Eli Whitney: Invented the ‘cotton gin’ which is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibres from their seeds
  • Charles Wheatstone: With William Fothergill Cooke, the co-inventor of the Cooke-Wheatstone electrical telegraph
  • John Wilkinson: Invented a precision boring machine that could bore cast iron cylinders e.g. cannon barrels, piston cylinders for steam engines. It has been called the first machine tool and he also developed a blowing device for blast furnaces that allowed higher temperatures
  • Thomas Wilson: The company Losh, Wilson and Bell was a leading Northeast England manufacturing company with an alkali works at Walker which was the first in England to make soda using the Leblanc process (Nicolas Leblanc).
  • John Wyatt: With Lewis Paul invented and produced the first roller spinning frame and flyer-and-bobbin system

Categorisation

The top level category is Category:England, Industrial Revolution.

Sub-categories are organised by county, and by industrial sector and more categories can be added:

Specific sectors may also be sub-categories of the relevant global category, e.g. Category:Cotton Mills, Category:Wool Mills, Category:Silk Mills, Category:Bobbin Mills.

  • Categories (Global top level category cascading)
    • Society
      • Business
        • Industries
          • Textile Industry
            • Textile Manufacturers
              • Textile Mills
                • Cotton Mills etc




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