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Jethro Tull Invents the Seed Drill
Jethro Tull was a scientific farmer that invented the seed drill. As he saw that traditional ways of farming by scattering seeds across the ground were wasteful, the seed drill allowed farmers to sow seeds in evenly spaced rows at specific depths. -
John Kay Invents the Flying Shuttle
John Kay was a machinist that made a shuttle that rushed back and forth on wheels. The flying shuttle was a boat shaped piece of wood that had yarn attatched to it. This device doubled the amount of labor that a weaver could do in one day. -
James Watt Builds the First Steam Engine
James Watt, a mathematical insturment maker, figured out a way to make the steam engine work faster and more efficiently, while burning a smaller amout of fuel. James Watt was later joined by Matthew Bolton, an entreprenuer. -
Marx and Engels Publish The Communist Manifesto
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote in the pamphlet that human societies have always been divided into to classes, the bourgeoisies and the proletariats. They predicted that the workers would eventually overthrow the owners. -
US Civil War Ends and the Technological Boom
When the Civil War ended in 1865 in the U.S, a number of causes contributed to a technological boom. These included a huge wealth of natural resources, among them iron, ore, and coal; a burst of inventions, such as the telephone and the lightbulb; and a gigantic increase of population that bought all of the goods. -
Germany Becomes the Dominant Industrial Power in Europe
Even though Germany had a slow start at industrializing, they came through to be the dominant industrial power in Europe. Germany imported Britsh tools and engineers and also sent their children to England to learn. They built long railroads connecting manufactoring cities and the country developed as a military power. By the 1870s, Germany's strength pushed through, -
1875 British Unions Win the Right to Strike
Because the government saw unions as threats to stability and socail order, they passed the Combinations Act of 1799, which outlawed strikes as well as unions. However, because laborers and workers were ignoring the punishments and still joining unions, Parliament cancelled the Combinations Act of 1824 and tolerated unions. By 1875, trade unions were able to gain the right to strike and picket peacefully.
