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.