Industrial Revolution facts for kids

A loom in a weaving shed in 1835.

Coalbrookdale is a town in England where new ideas for industry were tried. Here it is at night in 1801. The fires are from the large scale making of iron.

The Industrial Revolution is the name historians have given to the period in history when there was a large and rapid change in the way things were made. This meant that instead of things being hand made in small workshops, they were made more cheaply in large quantities by machines in factories. Products being made in large quantity now meant that they were sold for less.

Many people began to move from an agricultural based life in the country to the towns where the factories offered more and better paid work.

Beginnings

The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain in the 18th century. Many of the technological innovations were of British origin. In particular, the County of Shropshire was important, for it had both minerals (e.g. iron ore and coal) and transport on the River Severn. This led to the group of industries near the Ironbridge Gorge and the town of Coalbrookdale.

In the mid-18th century Britain was the world's leading commercial nation. It controlled a global trading empire with colonies in North America and Africa, and with some political influence on the Indian subcontinent, through the activities of the East India Company. The development of trade and the rise of business were major causes of the Industrial Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution marks a major turning point in history. Almost every aspect of daily life was influenced in some way. Average income increased, and population grew rapidly. Some economists say that the major impact of the Industrial Revolution was that the standard of living for the general population began to increase consistently for the first time in history, but others have said that it did not begin to meaningfully improve until the late 19th and 20th centuries.

The revolution spread to Europe and the Americas, especially the United States, by the early 19th century. Samuel Slater, who had been an apprentice in an English cotton factory, disguised himself and came to America. He reconstructed a spinning machine from memory and built a factory of his own.

New ideas and inventions were also taken up and used in mining, the working of metals, and in the transport of goods. Around the same time new ideas in farming were leaving some farm workers without jobs. They added to the move to the industrial towns where they sought out work in factories.

Early steam engines like this one from 1817 were used in mines to pump out water and pump in air. This allowed deeper mining.

The most important new invention of the industrial revolution was the steam engine. The steam engine, improved by James Watt around 1776, was used to power the factories and pump out the deeper mines. It was also used in railway engines. The heat from burning coal became the main source of power.

Problems

Living standards rose and people generally became richer and healthier and had more children who survived to be adults instead of starving. The resulting population growth in England caused new problems. Where only a few people had been rich because they owned land, now more became very rich thanks to industry. More, however, were still poor and lived in poor conditions. Children and women had to work for a long time for little pay. Often several families crowded into very small apartments. Working at different times, family members would take turns sleeping when they were not working. Families were usually unable to get together. 12, 14, or even 18-hour workdays were common. The Industrial Revolution brought problems of its own.

Edmund Cartwright, inventor of the power loom. This invention greatly sped the weaving process.

Advancements

During the industrial revolution, new technology brought many changes. For example:

• Canals were built to allow heavy goods to be moved easily where they were needed.
• The steam engine became the main source of power. It replaced horses and human labour.
• Cheap iron and steel became mass-produced. Steel replaced wood as material for building many of the new things.
• Machine tools became commonplace. Things could now be mass-produced in factories instead of making them by hand.
• Seed drills and other agricultural machinery brought a British agricultural revolution. Fewer people were needed to work in farming, so many moved to towns and found new jobs in the factories. Many of the new jobs could be harsh, and sometimes dangerous.
• Railways were built all around England and then the world. They carried freight and passengers much more quickly and cheaply than before.
• Steamships began to replace sailing ships. They could be larger and faster than sailing ships and did not depend on wind and weather.
• The spinning Jenny and power loom made it easy to mass-produce clothes and fabrics.

Images for kids

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  Handloom weaving in 1747, from William Hogarth's Industry and Idleness

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  European colonial empires at the start of the Industrial Revolution, superimposed upon modern political boundaries.

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  A weaver in Nürnberg, c. 1524

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  A model of the spinning jenny in a museum in Wuppertal. Invented by James Hargreaves in 1764, the spinning jenny was one of the innovations that started the revolution.

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  The only surviving example of a spinning mule built by the inventor Samuel Crompton. The mule produced high-quality thread with minimal labour. Bolton Museum, Greater Manchester

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  The interior of Marshall's Temple Works in Leeds, West Yorkshire

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  Lombe's Mill site today, rebuilt as Derby Silk Mill

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  The reverberatory furnace could produce cast iron using mined coal. The burning coal remained separate from the iron and so did not contaminate the iron with impurities like sulfur and silica. This opened the way to increased iron production.

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  The Iron Bridge, Shropshire, England, the world's first bridge constructed of iron opened in 1781.

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  Horizontal (lower) and vertical (upper) cross-sections of a single puddling furnace. A. Fireplace grate; B. Firebricks; C. Cross binders; D. Fireplace; E. Work door; F. Hearth; G. Cast iron retaining plates; H. Bridge wall

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  A Watt steam engine. James Watt transformed the steam engine from a reciprocating motion that was used for pumping to a rotating motion suited to industrial applications. Watt and others significantly improved the efficiency of the steam engine.

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  Newcomen's steam-powered atmospheric engine was the first practical piston steam engine. Subsequent steam engines were to power the Industrial Revolution.

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  Maudslay's famous early screw-cutting lathes of circa 1797 and 1800

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  The Middletown milling machine of c. 1818, associated with Robert Johnson and Simeon North

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  The Thames Tunnel (opened 1843). Cement was used in the world's first underwater tunnel.

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  The Crystal Palace housed the Great Exhibition of 1851

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  The Bridgewater Canal, famous because of its commercial success, crossing the Manchester Ship Canal, one of the last canals to be built.

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  Construction of the first macadam road in the United States (1823). In the foreground, workers are breaking stones "so as not to exceed 6 ounces in weight or to pass a two-inch ring".

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  Painting depicting the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830, the first inter-city railway in the world and which spawned Railway Mania due to its success.

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  Wedgwood tea and coffee service

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  Winchester High Street, 1853. The number of High Streets (the primary street for retail in Britain) in towns and cities rapidly grew in the 18th century.

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  The Black Country in England, west of Birmingham

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  Manchester, England ("Cottonopolis"), pictured in 1840, showing the mass of factory chimneys

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  A young "drawer" pulling a coal tub along a mine gallery. In Britain, laws passed in 1842 and 1844 improved mine working conditions.

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  Luddites smashing a power loom in 1812

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  Levels of air pollution rose during the Industrial Revolution, sparking the first modern environmental laws to be passed in the mid-19th century.

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  Slater's Mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

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  Sächsische Maschinenfabrik in Chemnitz, Germany, 1868

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  Sir Henry Bessemer's Bessemer converter, the most important technique for making steel from the 1850s to the 1950s. Located in Sheffield (Steel City)

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  Interior of the London Coal Exchange, c. 1808. European 17th-century colonial expansion, international trade, and creation of financial markets produced a new legal and financial environment, one which supported and enabled 18th-century industrial growth.

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  As the Industrial Revolution developed British manufactured output surged ahead of other economies.

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  William Bell Scott Iron and Coal, 1855–60

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  William and Mary Presenting the Cap of Liberty to Europe, 1716, Sir James Thornhill. Enthroned in heaven with the Virtues behind them are the royals William III and Mary II who had taken the throne after the Glorious Revolution and signed the English Bill of Rights of 1689. William tramples on arbitrary power and hands the red cap of liberty to Europe where, unlike Britain, absolute monarchy stayed the normal form of power execution. Below William is the French king Louis XIV.

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  A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery by Joseph Wright of Derby (c. 1766). Informal philosophical societies spread scientific advances

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  A primitive lifestyle living outside the Industrial Revolution

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  A dog forced to eat trash due to pollution, the Industrial Revolution has forced animals into harsh environments most are unable to survive in, leading to starvation and eventual extinction

See also

In Spanish: Revolución Industrial para niños