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The First Industrial Revolution begins around 1760 in the textile industry in Great Britain. Over the next decade, manufacturing will move from hand production in the home to machine production in factories.
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James Hargreaves invents the spinning jenny allowing a worker to produce multiple spools of thread at the same time
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The spinning mule is invented by Samuel Crompton
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The Industrial Revolution spreads to the United States when Samuel Slater opens the first textile mill in Rhode Island
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Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin greatly increasing the productivity of processing cotton
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First large-scale smallpox vaccinations
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Invention of the battery
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First practical steam locomotive
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Robert Fulton starts the first successful steamboat operation with his boat the Clermont
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First electric light
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Invention of the stethoscope
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Mary Shelley publishes "Frankenstein"
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Trade unions are legalized in Great Britain
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The Erie Canal is completed opening a water route from the Great Lakes to New York City and the Atlantic Ocean
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The telegraph is invented by Samuel Morse. This changes the way people can communicate from long distances
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Charles Goodyear receives a patent for vulcanized rubber
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The sewing machine is invented by Elias Howe
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The Bessemer Process for making steel is invented by Henry Bessemer. This allowed for the mass production of inexpensive steel.
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The Transcontinental Railroad is completed
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Around this time the Second Industrial Revolution begins. This phase of the Industrial Revolution is characterized by rapid expansion of new technologies such as the telephone, railroads, and electrical power.
