-
Jethro Tull
Tull built a horse drawn seed drill in 1700 that would plant wheat and turnips in rows of three at the same time. This was the basis of modern agriculture. -
John Kay
Kay invented the flying shuttle in 1733, a device used to increase the production speed of weaving on a hand loom. With this, one could weave faster on a wider span of cloth. This increased textile and yarn production. -
James Hargreaves
Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny in 1764 which increased the production of yarn and did so quickly. -
Adam Smith
Smith wrote the Wealth of Nations in 1776, which was the first work on political economy. -
Samuel Crompton
He invented the spinning mule in 1779 which was sued to spin cotton into yarn. -
Nicolas Leblanc
Using the Leblanc process, salt was treated with sulfuric acid and made into sodium sulfate. The sulfate was then treated with limestone, causing soda ash to be made for the first time in 1790. Soda ash was used to dye fabrics permanently. -
Eli Whitney
Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1794 which removed the seeds from freshly picked cotton. Now that cotton was able to be mass produced, the south's economy went up due to the high demand of the plant. This invention also caused the foundation for slavery to be established, because now more people were needed to pick the plant that was in such high need. -
Robert Owen
At age nineteen, Owen became co-owner of a cotton spinning industry. In 1794 he set up the Charleston Twist Co., and set up laws against harsh child labor. He set up modern schools for these working children and mock villages for them to live in. -
David Ricardo
Ricardo had written the Morning Chronicle, which insisted on reducing the production of money in the masses. He established the value theory, which he introduced to the world in his work "Principles of Political Economy and Taxation" in 1817. This was the foundation for things like rent, profit, and wages. -
George Stephenson
Stephenson invented the first public intercity railroad in the world going from Liverpool to Manchester in 1830. -
Karl Marx
Marx was the author of the Communist Manifesto in 1848. This was said to be the best pamphlet in the socialist movement. He came up with the concept of Marxism, and wrote the pamphlet Das Kapital. -
Cyrus Field
Field was an American business man who set up the Atlantic Telegraph Company. He built the first telegraph cable going across the Atlantic Ocean in 1858.