What was one of the major developments in the Second Industrial Revolution was in technology?

Answer 1

The most important change in the industrial revolution is hard to state, as all the changes are closely linked, I believe that they all link so closely that is you lost one the whole thing(Industrial revolution) would not have happened. I think that the first thing that set up the Industrial revolution was the population increase.

Between 1750 and 1900 the population of Brittan increased from 7 million to 41 million! Why? The main reasons for the population increase were Edward Jenner creating a vaccination for smallpox, soap becoming cheaper and people marrying at a younger age.

Firstly more people got married at a younger age after 1750; therefore they had more time to raise children. (Of course then it was unacceptable to have children without being married.) Next in 1796 Edward Jenner discovered how to vaccinate smallpox, the most deadly disease in 1750, once the vaccination, was discovered all children had to take it so they lived longer. So all the children the younger married people had more time to raise were living longer and having their own children.

Following that health improvement three more came:

· In 1800 cotton started to replace wool as Britain's most popular cloth, as a result people bought cotton more because it was softer and much easier to wash, so people could wash their clothes easier and more often.

· After 1800 cheap soap became available, this caused people to be able to wash more often (even though people didn't know germs caused disease), this lead to people being more clean and germ-free and so they lived longer.

· Then after 1860s, councils began to clean up their towns and cities and provide the people of their town clean, fresh water supplies; this meant that people got the clean water they need to survive- rather than dirty water that could make people ill- thus more people were healthier. And healthier people equal longer living people which equal people who have more time to make babies. (Even more time than before as they married early)

Before that though, in 1800 more factories employed children. Consequently poor parents sent their children off to work for more money. Since, More children= More people to send to factories to work= More money, parents had more children to get more money. Also during the Industrial Revolution, the life expectancy of children increased a lot. The percentage of the children born in London who died before the age of five decreased from 75% in 1730-1749 to 32% in 1810-1829.

That is all well and good, but they fact that Brittan got a new favourite cloth must mean that a lot of old clothes were thrown out and new ones made. And if more people want new clothes that are not made out of wool for them and their new children we need a mass production of clothes, and what does that better than factories? They supply the huge demand for clothes. And we can't have more poor people having more children to go to work in factories without there being factories. And if there are factories then surely there will be machines, and so we will see the transformation from Home made to factory produced and from muscle to machine.

Debatably, the first Factory was John Lombe's water-powered silk mill at Derby, which was by up and running by 1721. However, the rise of the factory came later when cotton spinning was mechanised, (Because more people wanted cotton clothing in the 1800, remember.)

Cotton mills were built between 1775 and 1930. Cotton mills, and the mechanisation of the spinning process, were very important in the growth of the machine industry; as they allowed the construction of larger cotton mills. The fact that they needed water helped the construction of the canal system, and the need for power the development of steam engines.

With all these factories soon towns became big cities like Manchester, which was nicknamed "Cottenopolis" and was the first industrial city. Other factories and cities and employers were:

· Warmley near Bristol. In 1746, an integrated brass mill was working there; Raw material went in at one end, was smelted into brass and was turned into pans, pins, wire, and other goods. Housing was actually provided for workers on site.

· Most of the coal needed to make steam engines and produce iron came from the Midlands, around Sheffield, Birmingham and Coventry. Because the burning of coal produced a lot of smoke and darkened the skies this area was also called Black Country.

· Josiah Wedgwood and Matthew Boulton (their Soho Manufactory was completed in 1766) were other famous early industrialists, who employed the factory system.

With these factories came child labour, even though it was there before it became more obvious during the revolution. (It was not nice beatings were given often, your hair could be dyed,[Not the nice way that comes out in 6 months but one that will probably stay your whole life as it is applied regularly and in awful colours like purple an orange] limbs cut off and you slept under the machines.)

As the industrial revolution moved along more and more people found it harder to get jobs in rural areas and moved to big cities where people were needed to work the machinery. Soon mining also became a big industry as more resources were needed to service and build the machines, and with so many people moving (and all the goods made in the factories had to be transported too) travel changed too. In the 1760s the Scottish engineer James Watt invented the steam engine. It was able to run factory machines and was powered by coal, which was Britain's main raw material.

The Industrial Revolution could not have continuedwithout coal and iron. Coal was needed to make steam enginesrun and to produce iron. At the beginning of the 18th century iron makers found a way to extract pure iron out of iron ore. They used coke, which was purer than coal and burned hotter, to melt the ore. (Steam power being added to the processes of printing helped a huge spread of newspaper and popular book publishing, which caused rising literacy.)

The mass production of goods during the revolution meant new methods of transportation were needed. New roads and a system of canals carried products made in factories to markets all over Britain. Coal, which was needed in factories in great quantities, was also transported on canals. George Stephenson built a type of steam engine that could move on rails. In 1830 the Liverpool to Manchester railroad was opened and in the following twenty years railroads linked all major towns in Britain. By the 1850s steam powered ships replacedsailing ships and became the main way of transporting goods and people across the seas. This increasedworld trade because ships were no longer dependent on good and strong winds in order to reach their destinations.

OTHER EFFECTS AND CONCLUSION:

Just as Rome wasn't built in a day, the Industrial Revolution didn't happen overnight. It started in the mid-1700s in Great Britain when machinery began to replace manual labor. Fossil fuels replaced wind, water and wood, which were used for clothing and iron making. Also there was the fact that people were paid for work rather than having to be out in the fields gave enough time for women to raise families and buy rather than grow food.

The Revolution hit its peak 100 years later in the 1800s, when the use of machines to muscle spread throughout Europe and North America. These processes allowed increases in production ability and affected all basic human needs, including food production (Farming to industry), medicine (Better health= more people= increased population), housing(People migrated to cities), and clothing(Brittan wanted more cotton clothes). Before the Revolution manufacturing was often done in people's homes, using hand tools or basic machines.

Then the revolution made a shift to powered, special-purpose machinery, factories and mass production. The iron and clothing industries, as well as the development of the steam engine, were important in the Industrial Revolution, which also improved transportation, communication and banking. While The revolution brought about an increased the amount of manufactured goods and an improved standard of living for some people, it also ended with bad jobs and living conditions for the poor and working classes.

Now that society could have more things faster, it would be able to develop better things. And move slowly into the age of information.

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This is a report I handed in for school so please do not copy and paste the whole thing.

Answer 2

The main Idea behind the Industrial revolution was to make a profit through the use of machinery which was able to produce goods at a far lower price.

Answer 3

Machines to do the tedious work that men, women, and children were doing.

These machines powered first by water, then steam and eventually by electricity.

Answer 4

the use of coal powered machinery and mass producing by machine, not hand made.

Answer 5

The invention of the mills (and being able to harness the mills for power) was one of the most important technological innovations of the Second Industrial Revolution.