A Brief History of Technology

Author: Sexy Bex
Published on: 12-09-2005
Views: 19030


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The Industrial Revolution

How early industrial machines played a role

The scientific revolution paved the way for the industrial revolution in Great Britain during the 18 th and 19 th centuries. The industrial revolution saw the application of theories and approaches developed during the scientific revolution: most importantly, the use of steam to power large-scale machinery. This lead to Great Britain being one of the largest producers of manufactured goods in world markets. Various incremental developments were made to the steam engine by first Papin, then Morland, Savery, Newcomen and Watt. It was Watt who made possibly one of the most important advancements: It made steam engines far more efficient, causing costs to be lower and output to be higher. Steam engines could now be used in a wide range of industries, from pumping water from mines to textile production. Later, the safety valve was added which prevented excess pressure building up to an explosion. This made the whole machine much less hazardous to use.

The use of steam engines in production had huge multiplier effects throughout the country: one example is the increase in newspapers and books printed, which elevated literacy levels and with it the desire for public participation in politics. In addition, a greater separation between work and home-life arose: Women took on the role of homemakers, and men worked. Previously, more of an overlap was present, especially among the poorer classes.

Iron played a major role in the industrial revolution. It provided the building materials for many machines, structures and engines, and was hugely important to the advancement of transport. Abraham Darby came up with the idea to use coke as a fuel for the iron smelting process to replace charcoal (which was a highly costly fuel). Carbon emissions soared as production required more and more fuels to be burnt for energy.

The application of steam power and iron production propelled transportation technology to spectacular levels. The creation of the first steamboat meant that long distances could be travelled over water in a far shorter period of time that was permitted by wind power. The result of this development was that a far larger market became available to producers, and consumers could choose their preferred source. Personal travel grew easier, but only really for the wealthy. The world also saw an increase in migration between countries, for example, from Europe to America . The establishment of the steam railways also opened up new possibilities for trade, but over land rather than sea. This was again made possible by the existence of a strong iron industry (to provide the raw materials) and steam power (to provide the locomotion). Indeed, the demand for railroads was so great that it lead to the creation of industries which produced cheap steel on a large scale.

The state of transportation technology is sometimes measured by how long it takes to complete a journey, i.e. how ‘small' the world has become. By speeding up journey times, the technology of transportation had advanced and thus the world had become ‘smaller'. Some argue that these advancements were the catalysts that lead to the globalisation we know today.