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Smelting of iron
In Coalbrookdale, iron worker Abraham Darby found a way to smelt iron. By burning coal in a vacuum-like environment, the English already knew they could cook off impurities, leaving behind coke, the high-carbon portion of coal. -
First bridge made of cast iron
Located in Coalbrookdale, was the first bridge in the world constructed entirely from cast iron. Cast Iron is made up by mixing iron with limestone and water and smelting it with coke. This enabled workers to four the iron into molds, instead of shaping it by hammering against anvils. -
Diffusion of the Industrial Revolution to mainland Europe
Western Europe had early industrialization, which gave it huge advantages including an economic headstart over other countries, making the region a quick growing world-economy in the nineteenth century. -
Diffusion of the Industrial Revolution to East Asia
In less than a century after the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, Japan became one of the world’s leading industrial countries. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Japan colonized Korea, Taiwan, and portions of mainland China, which brought capital and resources for industry. -
First crossing of the Atlantic by a steam-powered vessel
Ocean shipping also entered a new age when the first steam-powered vessel crossed the Atlantic in 1819. With the advent of the railroad and steamship, Great Britain enjoyed even greater advantages over the rest of the world -
Connection of Manchester to the rail network
Manchester, a center of textile manufacturing, was connected by rail to the nearby port of Liverpool, a westward-facing port that linked Britain with the colonies. In the next several decades, thousands of miles of iron and then steel track was laid. -
Emergence of Fordist production
So significant was Ford’s idea that the dominant mode of mass production that endured from 1945 to 1970 is known as Fordist. Perhaps the most significant of these innovations was the mass-production assembly line pioneered by Henry Ford, which allowed for the inexpensive production of consumer goods at a single site on a previously unknown scale. -
Diffusion of the Industrial Revolution to North America
North America manufacturing in North America began in New England during the colonial period,
The primary industrial regions that stand out on the world map of industrial centers by the 1950s were western Europe, eastern North America, western Russia and Ukraine, and East Asia -
Diffusion of the Industrial Revolution to Russia/Ukraine
After World War I, the newly formed Soviet Union annexed Ukraine and used the rich resources and industrial potential of Ukraine, especially the coal-rich Donbass region to become an industrial power.