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Impact of the Industrial Revolution
Effects of the industrial revolution
Effects of the industrial revolution
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Changes in Technology
In 1789, 90% of the people in America worked on farms-the rest worked in the cities and its factories. By the time the Civil War took place, most of these people went to the city. In present times, only 5% of the American population work on farms. As you can see, times have changed and lifestyles now differ from the past because of the marvelous Industrial Revolution.
The Industrial Revolution started in Britain during the mid-1700s; there, the British invented and developed technology which transformed the textile business. During the early days, every household owned a spinning wheel. They got the wool, cleaned it, boiled it, and then combed it. The spinning wheel could catch the fibers and lengthen it- giving you yarn. One day, Jenny Hargreaves accidentally knocked over her spinning wheel and the wheel kept spinning. Her husband, James Hargreaves, walked in and came up with a brilliant idea. In 1764, he developed the spinning jenny. The spinning jenny could spin several threads at once (8). In 1774, Richard Arkwright invented a water-powered machine that cold hold 100 spindles of thread. In the 1780s, Edmund Cartwright built a loom powered by water, which could produce 200 times more cloth in one day than was possible before. All of these inventions were classified and were to remain only in England. America was desperate for their own Industrial Revolution so Samuel Slater decided to leave England for the large rewards that the Americans were offering. He memorized the designs of the machines because any sketches aboard the ship would be dangerous. In America, Slater and Moses Brown opened the first American factory. Many copied this model textile business. Francis Cabot Lowell and the Boston Associates built a large textile factory in Massachusetts; however, they mostly hired women and children to do the work because they could pay them less than they would have to pay a man. Today, the United States has become the leader in the industrialized world.
Eli Whitney, an American inventor, came up with the idea of interchangeable parts. In earlier times, gunsmith spent days making things pertaining to a single musket. Whitney thought that by using machinery that made the same part for the same musket, it would be easier on your time and money. Many inventors, after studying Whitney’s plans, designed machines that would produce interchangeable parts for objects such as clocks, locks, and many other goods.
In 1798, Eli Whitney invented a way to manufacture muskets by machine so that the parts were interchangeable. Ironically, it was as a manufacturer of muskets that Whitney finally became rich.
The Industrial Revolution was an era between 1780 and 1850 where new inventions and machinery flourished, replacing human labor with machines in the production and manufacturing of goods. The Cottage Industry helped give rise to the Industrial Revolution with its inventions such as the flying shuttle, spinning jenny, water frame, and spinning mule, all of which were mainly operated by women. This opened new opportunities for women in the working industry but this also introduced working class injustices, gender exploitation, and standard-of-living issues. Women 's experiences in factories reflected the profound social changes of the revolution and continuities with traditional working-class ways of life through their poor working conditions, demoralization, and little reward for their hard work.
The Market Revolution, from 1790 to 1840, inspired by the developments of commercialization, industrialization and the advances in transportation altered the lives of Americans in areas such as labor, transportation, commercialization, family life, new values and the new middle class. American entrepreneurs with new technology created an entirely different economy which shaped and affected all other aspects of society. The Market Revolution gradually shifted society from a rural agricultural lifestyle to the focus of work in the urban cities as it is today. While the vast majority of American citizens participated in agriculture and farming in 1800, the percent of farmers working in 2013 is less than 1 percent: this is the everlasting effect of the Market Revolution.
Immediately, he was faced with making 10,000 muskets in a span of two years for the United States. This proved to be a challenge for Whitney as this task took him upwards of 10 years instead of the original two. He created the idea of interchangeable parts, which changed the way muskets were built. The war with France looked promising in the near future, so Whitney must be able to produce these muskets in time, and had a lot of pressure on him.(100) Although Whitney mainly took this contract from the government to make money, he was satisfied with helping out his government in any way possible. Mainly, he helped by building muskets. “ His imagination had enabled him to see that machines could produce muskets of greater precision than could the most carefully trained hands, and faster than an army of gunsmiths.”(108) Building these muskets with interchangeable parts proved to have a major impact for the United States, and was also one of Whitney’s many
The first key player in the American industrial revolution was Francis Cabot Lowell. In 1810, in Waltham, Massachusetts, Lowell was responsible for building the first American factory for converting raw cotton into finished cloth. Large factories were built along the river to house the new water driven power looms for weaving textiles. At the same time that more factories were built to keep up with the growing demands of the consumer, the numbers of immigrants to the United States grew (Kellogg). This new labor force could be employed with even less pay and provided with a much lower standard of housing. This in turn increased the profit margi...
The factory system was the key to the industrial revolution. The factory system was a combination of Humans and new technology. New technology was arriving every day. The greatest invention during this time was the steam engine. The creation of the steam engine was credited to James Watt. There had been other steam engines before James Watt’s but none of them were efficient. Watt’s engine was the first efficient engine that could be used in a factory. The steam engine had the strength of ten thousand men.(Pollard) This was not the only invention that helped the factory system evolve. Textiles were a major product of the Industrial Revolution. Production was slow at first in the factory. In 1764, a British inventor named James Hargraves invented the “Spinning Jenny.” This lowered production time which enabled the factory to produce more per day. In 1773, John Kay, an English inventor, created the “flying shuttle” which lowered the production time even more.(Encarta) If production had not been speed up, the Industrial Revolution would have not had that big of effect as it did in North America.
Eli?s invention inspired other people to attempt to make their own farming tools. ?The development of effective iron plows greatly eased the backbreaking job of tilling the soil.? (Tindall, 419) In 1819, Jethro Wood improved the iron plow by using separate replaceable parts. Improvements thereafter included John Deere?s steel plow (1837) and the chilled-iron steel plow of John Oliver (1855).
The Industrial Revolution was the major advancement of technology in the late 18th and early 19th century that began in Britain and spread to America. The national and federal government helped the United States grow into a self reliant nation with improvements in transportation, technology, manufacturing and the growth of the population. Americans had an economy based on manual labour, which was replaced by one dominated by industry and the manufacture of machinery. It began with the expansion of the textile industries and the development of iron-making techniques, and trade expansion was enabled by the introduction of canals, improved roads and railways. One of the first to kick off, was the textile industry.
Prior to the industrial revolution people rarely experienced change. It was an extremely different place than it is now. During the industrial revolution there was a radical change in the socioeconomic and cultural conditions. People in majority were farmers since they didn’t have any technology everybody had to grow their own food. They were interdependent in maintaining all their necessities, mainly in their local communities because of the difficulty in distant transportation because they had no motorized vehicles.
Technological advancements have always played a big role in the literary progression of mankind. As knowledge is gained, technology has improved, and as technology improved so has the literature. Starting from the Anglo Saxon era, and continuing through the postmodern era. From oral to written stories, to the printing press, to the Industrial Revolution, man’s literature has changed progressively throughout each phase, taking on a different point of view and attaining more understanding. Stanley Kubrick, the director of 2001: A Space Odyssey, understand the concept of technological advances on mankind. And his movie can be considered as a parallel to this concept of advancements.
One of the first inventions during the Industrial Revolution was the Water Frame. It was invented by Richard Arkwright in 1769. The purpose of the water frame is to be a new source of energy. The water frame was to spin cotton much more efficiently. They used to do it by spinning a wheel.
Many of us don’t get out of bed in the morning without checking our phone and going on the internet to see what the weather will be like for today, calling our friend to see where to meet before school, and instantly turning on our favorite songs to get ready to. Thanks to the 1990s, all of those things are possible. The 1990s introduced technology such as the internet, cell phones, cd’s, and many other things that has changed the world, and made communication and finding information faster and more convenient.
Samuel Slater played a huge part in the Industrial Revolution. He was the inventor of the spinning machine. Before the spinning machines it was harder and longer to produce threads which are used for clothes. This machine was one of many inventions that helped the industrial world at the time. He brought his ideas to the United States and was called “Founder of the American Industrial Revolution.” Samuel Slater made the first version of the spinning machine in 1790 in Rhode Island. This machine was extremely helpful for those who used it in the late 1700s.
In our present society, people cannot deny that the changes in this world have been tied to the advancement of the technology. It has evolved with this society so deeply where such conveniences are no longer luxuries but rather necessities. Unfortunately, the most affected group of people from the developed technology is the younger age people (Subrahmanyam, 2000). In the past, children were more lively and active: playing outdoors, running around, climbing trees and remaining active rather than watching television and playing video game and computer. It is true that the use of the technology has its own virtue. It provides value, convenience and entertainment, but it should not take the place of movement and realistic play from the children. Obviously, modern technology such as television, digital game, cell phone, and computer should be considered as a major fact, which contributing to negative health problems in children.
Technology enables students and teachers to have a fast and easy way to acquire unlimited access to tons of information. With all of the useful technologies, the curriculum is bound to change in endless ways, creating more opportunity for learning.