THE TRANSPORT REVOLUTION

 In Britain in the early eighteenth century, people and goods were transported by carriages and carts along roads, and by ships along the coast. This system had several faults:

1. It was slow and expensive
2. loads were small
3. many breakdowns ocurred on bad road surfaces.

All this had to be improved if large quantities of raw materials and manufactured goods were to be transported around Britain. This was done by improving the roads and by building canals and railways.

ROADS

The roads were improved by designs by Thomas Telford and John McAdam. They used stone to make surfaces that were able to carry heavier carts.

Turnpike trusts were alse set up to improve roads. They erected toll gates and charged carts, carriages and horse-riders for using the road. They used the money to mantain the surface of the road. The work of they made easier to transport raw materials and goods.
 

 CANALS AND SHIPS

Canals played a very important part in the Industrial Revolution. The first canal was designed and built ba James Brindley in 1761. This was a huge success and marked the beginning of the Canal Age. Now much larger loads cold be carried by canal. Shipping also changed as steam engines took over from sailing ships. Iron and steel plates also replaced wooden boards.Ships became faster, safer and bigger

                                           The opening of the bridgewater in Manchester

   RAILWAYS 

 Railways were even more important than canals. The first railroads were built to haul coal from coalmines. When Richard Trevithick designed a small engine on wheels, the Railway  Age had begun. In 1825 the first goods train ran between Stockton and Darlington. This train was built by George Stephenson. Five years later, the firt passenger line was built between Manchester and Liverpool. George and Robert  stephenson's Rocket ran on that line

  THE IMPACT OF THE RAILWAYS

  
                      MANUFACTURING INVENTIONS

Before de Industrial Revolution, most goods were produced by hand on small machines, in people's houses and was called ''dimestic system'' or ''dimestic industry''. Thread was spun slowly on spinning machines, and cloth was woven on hand-looms. The increased demand for goods menat that new machines had to be invented to produce more goods faster. 

In this image is represented the ''domestic  industry''.



       Inventions in the Cotton and Woollen  Industry

 Year: 1733.
 Inventor: John Kay.
 Invention: Flying shuttle.

 Improvement: Speeded up weaving. More cloth could be made.

 Year: 1764.
 Inventor: James Hargreaves.
 Invention: Spinning Jenny.
 Improvement: Could spin 16 or more threads at a time. More thread could be sed to.




                                STEAM POWER

The steam engine was the mostimportant invention of the Indsutrial Revolution. Steam engines built by Thomas Newcomen, but James Watt made improvements to the early steam engines. He made them cheaper to run by using less coal to power the steam engine. But his most important improvement was to add a flywheel.

This image correspond to the machien of Thomas Newcomen, that had only an up-and-down motion. Watt's engine had a rotary motion.




 

BACKGROUND

In the first half of the eighteen century, Britain was a mainly agricultural country. About 70 per cent of the people lived on the land. Goods such as clothes were made in houses under a system called domestic industry. From about 1750 onwards, Britain changed. Over the next 100 years Britain became the first country to go through an industrial revolution. This meant that goods were now made in factories, which used water or steam power. New towns and cities grew up, and by 1850 more than half of the people of Britain were living in cities.

The Industrial Revolution marks a major turning point in history; almost every aspect of daily life was influenced in some way. In particular, average income and population began to exhibit unprecedented sustained growth. In the words of Nobel Prize winner Robert E. Lucas, "For the first time in history, the living standards of the masses of ordinary people have begun to undergo sustained growth ... Nothing remotely like this economic behavior is mentioned by the classical economists, even as a theoretical possibility."

¿WHAT CAUSED THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN BRITAIN?
 The causes were:

1. rise in population
2. coal and iron ore
3. trade
4. agricultural revolution
5. transport revolution 
6. inventions 

RISE IN POPULATION
          The population of Britain grew in the eighteenth century because of a fall in the death rate and a rise in the birth rate. Between 1701 and 1801, the population rose from 6.5 million to 10 million people. This rise in population led to a greater demand for food and clothes. More people were also available for work.

        On this image we can see the population increase in Britain between 1701 and 1861:

COAL AND IRON ORE

              Britain had plentiful supplies of coal and iron ore. The coal was burned to obtain coke, which was used to smelt iron ore. Coal was also used to power steam engines in factories, railway locomotives and ships. The iron, and later steel, replaced wood. Now, bigger and stronger machines could be made.

The industrial revolution made Britain a world power that wass fulled by coal.

BRITAIN'S TRADE

   By trade we mean the act or an instance of buying and selling goods and services either on the domestic markets or on the international markets.  
Raw materials were brought from Britain's colonies. They were made into goods, or products in Britain. Some of these, were sold in the colonies. The money that British made was used to build factories and other bussinesses.

       In this photo you can see the triangle of eighteenth-century trade:

On these images we can see people working before and after the industrial revolution, domestic industry(above), people working in their houses, and the factory system (right).

 

        THE AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION

In parts of Britain the system of farming was the same as in the Midle Ages. This system was the three-field or, open-field. It had faults and could not produce the food needed for the growing population. So there were great changes in farming methods in the eighteenth and part of the nineteenth centuries.

ENCLOSURES

Many areas were enclosure. In this process the three open fields and the common were dividede into frams surrounded by fences and hedges. This acts were passed, and commissioners were appointed to dii¡vide the land into farms.

NEW METHODS

Enclosure made easier introduce new methods of farming and to use machinery.

One of the new methods of farming was the four- field rotation.

NORFOLK CROP ROTATION

 Charles Townshed developed the Norkfol crop rotation that provided turn rips to feed cattle. It helped the soil recober, and it ensured that o the fields were used every year. 

Efects of crop rotations and monoculture

SELECTIVE BREEDING 

Farmers had their own farms, the cattle did not mix with other farms. Robert Bakewell introduced new breedin techniques that improved sheep and cattle. Other farmesr imitated his methods.  

NEW MACHINERY

New machinery was invented tha improved farming. The most important were:

 Inventor: Cyrus McCormick.
 Invention: Reaper.
 Improvement: Faster, more efficient cuting of corn.

 Inventor: Andrew Meikle.
 Invention: Threshing machine.
 Improvement: Faster threshing.

Inventor: Jethro Tull.
Invention: Seed drill
Improvement: Seeds scattered evenly, easier to weed

                 THE EFFECTS OF THE AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION

The changes meant that more food was produced for the growing population of the towns and cities. Less labour was needed on the farms because of the machinery. Labourers could go to work in the new factories and cities.