Industrial revolution in Britain

Industrial Revolution : the innovations timeline

XVIIIth-XIXth century

What is the industrial revolution?

What are the factors and the consequences of this revolution?

1766

1769

1712

1768-69

1779

Richard Arkwright invents the waterframe

James Hargreaves invents the "Spinning Jenny"

Thomas Newvomen invents the 1st practical steam engine

Samuel Crompton invents the spinning mule

James Watt invents and patents his improved steam engine

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Industrial Revolution : the innovations timeline

XVIIIth-XIXth century

1785

1803-1804

1830

1820s-1830s

Edmund Cartwroght invents the power loom

The first steam locomotive

The Rocket on the new railway from Liverpool to Manchester

Faraday's works on electricity : several breakthroughs

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Industrial Revolution : the Daily life

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1802-04

Richard Trevithick invents the 1st steam locomotive

In 1802, R. Trevithick built another steam engine (he had built others before) for the Pen-Y-darren Ironworks. constructed the world’s first steam railway locomotive at Samuel Homfray’s Penydaren Ironworks in South Wales. On February 21, 1804, Trevithick’s pioneering engine hauled 10 tons of iron and 70 men nearly ten miles from Penydarren, at a speed of five miles-per-hour.

1769

James Watt steam engine

1820s-1830s

Faraday's work

1779

The Spinning Mule

AAbout 1779 Samuel Crompton invented the spinning mule, which he designed by combining features of the spinning jenny and the water frame. His machine was capable of producing fine as well as coarse yarn and made it possible for a single operator to work more than 1,000 spindles simultaneously. Unfortunately, Crompton, being poor, lacked the money to patent his idea. He was cheated out of his invention by a group of manufacturers who paid him much less than they had promised for the design. The spinning mule was eventually used in hundreds of factories throughout the British textile industry.

1769

The waterframe

So called because it was powered by a waterwheel, the water frame, patented in 1769 by Richard Arkwright, was the first fully automatic and continuously operating spinning machine. It produced stronger and greater quantities of thread than the spinning jenny did. Because of its size and power source, the water frame could not be housed in the homes of spinners, as earlier machines had been. Instead, it required a location in a large building near a fast-running stream. Arkwright and his partners built several such factories in the mountainous areas of Britain. Spinners, including child laborers, thereafter worked in ever-larger factories rather than in their homes.

1767

The Spinning Jenny

The spinning jenny was a machine used for spinning wool or cotton. English inventor James Hargreaves created it about 1767 and patented it in 1770. The spinning jenny helped to usher in the Industrial Revolution in the textile industry.Up until that time, a craftsperson would operate a spinning wheel that could only spin one thread of yarn at a time. It was a laborious process, and spinners could not keep up with the demand. The spinning jenny had one hand-powered wheel but eight spindles. Thus, a person could create eight strands of yarn simultaneously. Later versions of the spinning jenny had even more spindles. These large machines were put in factories, where fewer, less-skilled workers produced more yarn.However, the yarn that the spinning jenny created was weak and coarse. It was only suitable to be used as filling in woven goods

1785

The power loom

A power loom is a mechanized loom, and was one of the key developments in the industrialization of weaving during the early Industrial Revolution. The first power loom was designed and patented in 1785 by Edmund Cartwright. It was refined over the next 47 years until a design by the Howard and Bullough company made the operation completely automatic. This device was designed in 1834 by James Bullough and William Kenworthy, and was named the Lancashire loom.By the year 1850, there were a total of around 260,000 power loom operations in England.

1830

The Rocket was invented by George Stephenson and his son Robert

The first steam-powered locomotive to carry paying passengers was the Active (later renamed the Locomotion), designed by English engineer George Stephenson, which made its maiden run in 1825. For a new passenger railroad line between Liverpool and Manchester, completed in 1830, Stephenson and his son designed the Rocket, which achieved a speed of 36 miles (58 km) per hour.

1712

Newcomen steam engine

The atmospheric engine was invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712. It was the first machine to be powered by steam and was largely used to pump water out of mines. Hundreds of these engines were made and used all over Britain and Europe in the 1700s. They became known simply as the Newcomen Engine and helped pave the way for the Industrial revolution.