Technological Changes (Notes: Part II) (w/ pg. numbers to follow along)

Table of Inventors of the Indust. RevolutionPg.555

Technological Changes and New Forms of Industrial Organization

• Cotton textile industry took the first major step forward with the creation of the modern factory.

The Cotton Industry

• Previously, Britain had already gained the lead in the cotton industry with traditional methods.
• Development of the flying shuttle sped the process of weaving on the loom and doubled the output. However this lead to shortages of yarn.
• James Hargreaves perfected the spinning jenny which enabled spinners to produce yarn at a quicker rate.
• Richard Arkwright created the water frame spinning machine that was powered by water or horses that sped up the spinning.
• Samuel Crompton’s so-called “mule” combined the water frame and the spinning jenny to increase the production of yarn even more.
• Now that yarn production was even faster than the weaving process Edmund Cartwright was there to save the day. His power loom allowed the weaving of cloth to catch up.
• At first the power loom was inefficient and kept the cottage workers with a job until mid 1820. At that time there were 250,000 hand loom operators but in 1860 only 3,000 were left.
• These inventions gave entrepreneurs new opportunities. It was easier just to bring the workers to the machines. Organized labor near rivers and streams provided sources of power for these machines. Laborers and their families moved in around the factories quickly creating new towns.
• Still the push for newer technology was still present and more and more complicated technology was needed. The steam engine helped the cotton industry surge to even greater heights.

The Steam Engine

• The steam engine was the most important invention. It caused the factory system to spread to other areas of production creating even more industries.
• The steam engine was the result of better pumps to eliminate water from the deep mines. Britain was in search of a better fuel than wood.
• The British were now aware of the shortage of timber: timber was used in ship/homebuilding, source of heat and production of charcoal for smelting of iron ore into pig iron.
• Soon smelting with coal was becoming more common and mines began to get deeper and deeper in order to keep up with the smelting demands.
• However, there was a problem, water seeped into the mines as they dug deeper into the surface. The solution was to use horses to power mechanical pumps to pump water out. The horses would ambulate in a 360 degree angle, about 500 of them lift the water out bucket by bucket.
• Thomas Newcomen created a steam pump a.k.a. atmospheric engine that was only slightly more efficient than horses walking in circles.
• James Watt, a Scottish engineer, was asked to fix a Newcomen engine. However, he modified it by adding a separate condenser and steam pump creating a genuine steam engine
• Power from the steam engine was of course derived from the steam, not atmospheric pressure as in Newcomen’s case.
• The steam engine could pump water three times faster than the Newcomen engine. However there was one drawback, the engine consumed a tremendous amount of fuel just to operate, reducing the profit of the mines. Efficiency was a work in process that would be achieved soon enough to reduce operating costs.
• James Watt also developed a rotary engine that could turn a shaft and drive machinery. Now steam power could be applied to the cotton industry machines so entrepreneurs had more flexibility on where to locate their factories.
• By 1840, 366 million pounds of cotton were imported annually mostly from the American South where slave labor was common.
• Cotton cloth was the primary product of Britain at this time and was produced mainly in factories

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• The price of yarn was now 1/20 the original price. The cheapest labor in India wasn’t even close to what Britain had to offer.
• Oh yes, did I mention that this also meant the poor could afford undergarments? It wasn’t just the rich that had underwear now.
• New work clothing was now tough but comfortable and inexpensive.
• The steam engine was indispensable and depended on a virtually unlimited source of fuel…coal. Although we know now this isn’t the case.
• However, there needed to be a faster way to mine for coal which brings us to the next step of the Industrial Revolution. The advancement of coal mining contributed to the development of the iron industry.

The Iron Industry

• Britain had a large resources of iron but the process of producing iron was unimproved and dated back to the Middle Ages. It still was dependent on charcoal.
• Soon new methods using coke derived from coal were devised. Still quality of iron wasn’t much better.
• Henry Cort devised a system called puddling, the usage of coke in order to burn away impurities in pig iron to create iron of high quality.
• Soon the iron industry began to boom too producing 3 million tons by 1852.
• The development of iron industry was a response to the demand for new machinery.
• Iron was the most widely used metal until cheaper steel was made. This supply of iron pushed for the use of machinery for other purposes, mainly transportation.

The Transportation Revolution

• Entrepreneurs realized there was a need for better transportation of goods and resources.
• Roads and canals were constructed but the real deal was the railroads. Guess who? Britain was ahead here once again.
• Railways began with pushcarts in mines. Rails were used to reduce friction allowing horses to pull heavier loads.
• The cast-iron railways and steam engine revolutionized this method of transportation.
• Richard Trevithick pioneered the first steam-powered locomotive on an industrial rail line south of Wales.

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• The first locomotive could pull ten tons of ore and seventy people at a WHOPPING 5 MILES PER HOUR!!!!!!! *snickers around the room*
• Oh well the faster and better locomotive soon followed with George Stephenson and his son’s modernized locomotives.
• George Stephenson’s Rocket was used on the first modern railway line which extended from Liverpool to Manchester. The Rocket traveled at a WHOPPING 16 MPH.
• Within twenty years, the speed of locomotives topped 50 mph.
• New companies were formed to build railroads and by 1850, Britain had 6000 miles of railroads.
• The huge capital demands for the railroad construction process attracted a group of middle-class investors to invest their money in joint-stock companies.
• New job opportunities were produced.
• The cheaper transportation caused the price of goods to drop significantly forming larger markets and also increasing the demand for machinery and factories.
• This was a fundamental break from the traditional European markets.
• Entrepreneurs were able to make more investments in capital equipment fueling the economy. The economy could sustain itself in it’s growth and expansion. The economy was an industrial economy.
• The ability to transport goods at faster speeds was a major symbol of the new sense of power Britain had. Tunnels and bridges could overcome nature’s obstacles for the railroads giving an even greater sense of power.

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The Industrial Factory

• The factory was the primary means of organizing labor for the new machines.
• Employers simply hired the workers to operate the machines. Workers no longer owned the means of production.
• Workers were now forced to work regular hours in order to keep the machines at maximum output throughout the day.
• At first the workers were not used to this new rigid time format. This was a challenge to the factory owners, to create a system of disciplined time to accustom the workers to a fixed set of working hours. The workers would perform repetitive tasks during their working hours.
• Factory regulations were detailed and down to the minute.
• Adult workers were fined for minor infractions, such as tardiness, and were dismissed for major infractions, such as drunkenness.
• Drunkenness was more serious as it was a bad example for the younger workers and could cause lost productivities.
• Because children that worked were thought of as being unable to understand the meaning of being dismissed so they were more often disciplined by beating.

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• Soon, evangelical churches reinforced the new set of values emphasized in the factory. Methodism was the emphasis that people “reborn in Jesus” should follow a disciplined path. Laziness and wastefulness were sinful habits. Hardship in this life paved the way to joy in the second life.
• Future generations were able to see the regular working week as a natural part of life as we see it now.

Britain’s Great Exhibition of 1851

• The first industrial fair was organized by the British, housed at Kensington in London in the Crystal Palace.
• The Crystal Palace was a building made almost entirely of glass and iron to show off the British engineering skills.
• There were about 100,000 exhibits showing off the wide variety of products that were the result of the Industrial Revolution.
• This exhibition was a giant symbol of the success of the British. Trees were brought inside in order to show human domination of nature.
• Prince Albert commented that “men were approaching the fulfillment of the sacred mission to conquer nature and it’s use”.

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The Spread of Industrialization

• Soon industrialization spread to the continental countries and the United States.
• Belgium, France, Germany, and the United States were the first to being industrialization after the British.

Limitations to Industrialization

• The low countries were still dependent upon farming. Some of the countries had similar experiences to Britain such as population growth and agricultural developments. However, they did not have the advantages that Britain had. There was a lack of good roads and also problems in the river transit.
• Toll stations and customs on the boundaries of states made it costly to transport and sell goods. Also guild restrictions made it extremely difficult.
• Continental entrepreneurs tended to adhere to traditional business techniques coupled with unwillingness to take risks and the dislike of competition.
• Wars of the French revolutionary and Napoleonic eras hindered trade.
• Cheap British goods also were damaging to the European economy. The wars created an additional obstacle to the industrialization path.

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• British industrialized equipment became larger and more expensive, creating the unwillingness to invest in the latest equipment. Entrepreneurs in France, Belgium and Germany initially chose to invest in used machines.
• Many people also lacked the technical skills. However, they could just mirror the techniques of the British. Therefore, the British tried to prevent artisans from leaving the country and prohibited the export of machines and machine parts.
• However, this could not be controlled by law and therefore failed.
• Some Britons that went abroad to sell their skills were just mechanics but others were entrepreneurs.
• John Cockerill was an aggressive businessman that pirated ideas from other industrialists for the advancement of his own factories.
• British industrialists were thought of as arrogant and therefore Continental industrialist such as Fritz Harkort, could not wait for the Germans to catch up so the British could be ousted.
• Soon the British techniques became well learned and a new generation of skilled mechanics was created in France and Belgium. Those mechanics then spread the knowledge further east and south. Technical schools were established.
• Governments were used to having control over the economy. Therefore, many provided for the costs of technical education and awarded grants to inventors and foreign entrepreneurs. They financed everything from factories to railroads and roads and canals. Even so railroad were not a big impact until the 1850s.

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• Tariffs were used to further industrialization. The French used high tariffs to protect their industries.
• German writer Friedrich List emigrated to the U.S. and returned to Europe as a United States consul. His National System of Political Economy advocated a rapid and large-scale program of industrialization as the surest path to develop a nation’s strength. If countries imitated the British policies of free trade, then British good would flood the markets and destroy the industries. Therefore, protective tariffs were necessary.
• The joint stock investment bank on the Continent was a third difference.
• These banks produced a large supply of capital which could then be used for the industries.
• Two Belgian banks The Societe Generale and the Banque de Belgique accepted savings from many depositors and developed large capital resources invested on mining, railroads, and heavy industry. Shareholders had limited liability meaning they were only responsible for what they had invested.

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• Soon other countries followed suit. British used capital from private individuals when the machines were less expensive. Since the machines were already expensive for the continental countries, they had to reply on the joint-stock investment banks.

Centers of Continental Industrialization

• Three major centers of industrialization: Belgium, Britain, and France.
• Cotton was an important role but not as significant as heavy industry.
• Continental technology was a generation behind from Great Britain.
• Belgium had cheap coal but scarce water so they had to use the steam engine as a major source of power and invested in the new machines. Belgium had the most modern cotton-manufacturing system.
• Traditional methods persisted alongside with new methods. The new steam engine was used in mining and metallurgy and not so much textiles. In 1820, domestic machine manufacturing was developed and there was no longer a need to buy steam engines from the British.
• Continent was led by heavy industry like iron and coal.

Industrial Revolution in the U.S.

• The United States was also a farming society. Soon however, the population grew to 30 million greater than that of Great Britain. Number of states had more than doubled. The U.S. went through their own Industrial Revolution.
• Initially the U.S. borrowed from G.B.
• Samuel Slater emigrated from Britain and established the first textile factory using water powered machines. Soon factory power looms were also established and the Americans began to surpass the British.
• The Harpers Ferry arsenal created the first musket with interchangeable parts which made the final product easier to put together.
• This system revolutionized production by saving labor.
• However the U.S. was a large country and transportation was a hindrance until later.

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• Roads, canals, and the development of the steamboat, also the railroad created the transportation revolution.
• Labor force came primarily from New England.
• Women made up more than 80 percent of textile factories.
• Men went further west.
• Soon European immigrants also made their way into the workforce.
• Factory owners invested in machines that could produce great quantities in the hands of untrained workers.
• The rich got richer but the poor did not get poorer as a result in the increase of purchasing power.

Limiting The Spread of Industrialization in the Nonindustrialized World

• Eastern Europe lagged behind in industrialization and Russia would not have it’s Industrial Revolution until the end of the nineteenth century.
• Industrialized states pursued a policy of preventing the growth of the mechanized industry.
• India was prevented from industrialization by Britain. Britain encouraged India to export raw materials and did not allow India to industrialize. They also imported from the British and did not need textile factories.