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Period: to
Export
A supply of arkets gave British industrialists a ready outlet for their manufactured goods. The British exports quadrupled from 1660 to 1760. -
New transport
In the beginning of the 1750s and 1760s, both publis and private investment poured into the construction of new roads, bridges, and canals. -
The Industrial Revolution began in Britain sometime after 1750.
The Industrial Revolution began in Britain sometime after 1750. -
The steam engine
In the 1760s, the Scottish engineer, James Watt (1736-1819), invented an engine powered by steam that could pump water from mines three times as quickly as previous engines. -
James Hargreave's spinning jenny
James Hargreave's spinning jenny enabled spinners to produce yarn in greater quantities. Richard Arkwright's water frame spinning machine, powered by water or horse, and Samuel Crompton's mule, which combined aspects of the water frame and the spinning jenny, increased yarn production even more. -
Cotton industry
In the 1770s and 1780s, the cotton textile industry took the first major sted toward the Industrial Revolution with the creation of the modern factory. -
More transport
In 1780, roads, rivers, and canals linked the major industrial centers of the North, The Midlands, London, and the Atlantic. -
The British iron industry
In the 1780s, Henry Cort developed a system called puddling in which coke was used to burn away impurities in pig iron to produce an iron of highquality. A boom then ensued in the British iron industry. -
A development of the steam machine
In 1782, James Watt enlarged the possibilities of the steam engine when he developed a rotary engine that could turn a shaft and thus drive machinery. Steam power could now be applied to spinning and weaving cotton, and before long, cotton mills using steam engines were multiplying across Britain. Because steam engines were fired by coal, they did not need to be located near rivers. So the entrepreneurs now had greater flexibility in their choice of location. -
Edmund Cartwright's power loom
Edmund Cartwright's power loom was invented in 1787. It allowed the weaving of cloth to catch up with the spinning of yarn.
Even then, early power looms were grossly inefficient, enabling homebased hand-loom weavers to continue to prosper, at least until the mid 1820s. Afterwards they were gradually replaced by the new machines. -
Number of power looms
In 1813 the number of power looms in operation in Great Britain 2,400.
In 1820 there were 14,150
In 1833 the number was 100,000
And 250,000 in 1850. But in 1860, the number decreased to only 3,000 power looms. -
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Need for more coal
The success of the steam engines led to a need for more coal and an expansion in coal production. Between 1815 and 1850, the output of coal quadrupled. In turn, new processes using coal furthered the development of the iron industry. -
The railroads
During the 1830s and 1840s, railroads were layed all over Britain. To many economic historians, railroads were the "most important single factor in promoting European economis progress in the 1830s and 1840s."
In 1830, the first publis railway opened. George Stephenson's Rocket was used for the opening. -
Import of cotton
In 1840, 366 million pounds of cotton were imported by the British. By this time, most cotton industry employees worked in factories. -
The ending in Britain, the beginning in Europe
The Industrial Revolution had made Great Britain the wealthiest country in the world. It also spread to the European continent.