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Birth of Owen
Robert Owen was a Welsh manufacturer, philanthropist, and reformer during the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. He founded the utopian socialism and cooperative movement. He was an advocate who spent his life trying to make the lives of others better. He brought about long-lasting social reforms in women's rights, worker's rights, education, childcare, trade unions, and public libraries and commodities. -
Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism refers to the belief that actions are best when they benefit the majority. The book published in 1789 by Jeremy Bentham titled "An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation" is believed to have started the popularity of the movement. This concept has been applied to social welfare, economics, war, poverty, animals as food, and many more subjects. Utilitarianism still sparks relevant debates today in many of these areas. -
Birth of Stephenson
George Stephenson was an English civil engineer during the Industrial Revolution. He was the inventor of the railroad locomotive. He solved many other infrastructure problems including roadway construction, bridge design, and railways. His inventions set the foundations for the system of transportation that would run industrialized nations like the UK and America. -
Socialism
Socialism refers to social or economic systems characterized by social ownership, regulation, or control. It began during the French Revolution, and would inspire ideas behind Marx's "Communist Manifesto" and other works. Socialism is often associated with leftism, democracy, and social justice. -
Interchangeable Parts
Eli Whitney opened a firearms shop in which the first product was produced with standardized, interchangeable parts. This laid the groundwork of mass-production, which is what most industries still use today. One-of-a-kind goods are rare to come by nowadays. -
Birth of Darwin
Charles Darwin was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist who proposed his most well-known theory of evolution. He brought up a relatively new idea called "natural selection". Natural selection defines the process of the changes that organisms undergo in their evolution and the circumstances that lead to such changes. Darwin's work provided a large insight into how life developed on Earth. -
Birth of Marx
Karl Marx was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, and many more who wrote a series of theories now referred to as "Marxism". He argued that society forms via class conflict, and that in capitalism, the ruling class controls the means of production whilst the working class enables this via wage labor. His theories on economics laid the groundwork for our modern understanding of labor and its relation to capital. -
Dynamo
The concept of the electromagnetic generators was created by Michael Faraday in the years 1831-1832. The first commutated generator was built by Hippolyte Pixii in 1832. This type of electrical generator was the foundation for future generators and electrical devices. -
Birth of Nobel
Alfred Nobel was a Swedish engineer, chemist, businessman, inventor, and philanthropist. His most famous invention is dynamite- which was created for safer mining and manufacturing. Eventually, Nobel would leave his enormous fortune to something called the Nobel Prize institution, which rewards those who make the most important contributions to society. Despite his key invention being used for war and destruction, the name "Nobel" is associated with peace. -
Tenements
Tenements refers to the type of mass-produced housing available for the wave of immigrants arriving to the United States in the 1840s and 50s. They were set up as several story high buildings with a few apartments in each floor. They were very cheap and often unsanitary or poorly furnished. Modern-day apartment buildings are modeled after the tenements of the 1800s, but produced in more efficient and safe ways. -
Communism
Communism refers to an ideology that has the goal of establishing a society in which socioeconomic order is maintained via common ownership or control. It is a form of socialism. Marxism is one of the most popular forms of communism. The idea of classless society has been around since 20th century Greece, yet it was popularized during the Industrial Revolution- and feared. The publishing of Marx's "Communist Manifesto" gained the ideology a lot of publicity in 1848. -
Social Gospel
Social Gospel refers to the application of Christian ethics to social problems. Washington Gladden, one of the "founding fathers" of Social Gospel, wrote a book in 1877 titled "The Christian Way: Wither it Leads and How to Go On" which would make him considered a pioneer of the movement. Those who followed the movement believed that the ethics of Jesus would aid problems caused by what was referred to as "Gilded Age capitalism". -
Germ Theory
Louis Pasteur was the first to discover and recognize Germ Theory during one of his experiments in which he proved that food spoiled as a result of bacterial contamination, not spontaneous generation. He went on to speculate that germs caused disease. Robert Koch would discover the causes of many widespread diseases at the time, and generate "Koch's Postulates", which established the causal relationship between bacteria and disease. Germ Theory pioneered modern sanitary medicine. -
Social Democracy
Social democracy refers to a philosophy within socialism in which politics and economics are democratic. In 1868-69, Marx-inspired socialists formed the first social democracy in Europe: "The Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany". The ideology would grow to shift away from Marxist associations, and still molds many societies today. -
The Assembly Line
The assembly line was created by Henry Ford in order to mass produce automobiles. In an assembly line, parts are added in the same order as the product being produced is moved from workstation to workstation. Today, the assembly line is considered the goal of any factory or manufacturing industry.