The Industrial Revolution

1. The Industrial Revolution By: Chris Wermuth

2. Economic Impact • In the eighty years or so after 1780 the population of Britain nearly tripled, the towns of Liverpool and Manchester became gigantic cities, the average income of the population more than doubled, the share of farming fell from just under a half to just under a fifth of the nation's output, and the making of textiles and iron moved into steam-driven factories.

3. Economic Impact (Cont.) • Because of the huge increase in the numbers of people employed in industrial manufacturing, making goods of all kinds, but especially textiles, iron goods, metal wares and pottery, for both overseas and domestic markets many more of the working population also came to live and work in towns and cities in occupations such as petty trading, retailing, transport and domestic service as well as manufacturing. Because of this, more families were able to bring home a decent wage which positively resulted in a better overall working society and economy of England.

4. Economic Impact (Cont.) • The invention of steam power, which was used to power factories and transport and allowed for deeper mining. • Improvement of iron making techniques allowing for vastly higher production levels. • The textile industry was transformed by new machines like the Spinning Jenny and factories, again allowing for much higher production at a lower cost.

5. Cultural Impact • Rapid urbanization lead to dense, cramped housing and living conditions. • New city and factory cultures affected family and peer groups because they were not used to the way things were run in a big city surrounded by factories. • Debates and laws regarding child labor, public health and working conditions were very common due to the concern of how children were being treated in factories.

6. Cultural Impact (Cont.) • This picture represents how crowded and cramped up London became after the start of the Industrial Revolution

7. How It Affects Us Today • It changed our societies from a mainly agricultural society to one in which industry and manufacturing was in control. • New fuels such as coal and petroleum, were incorporated into new steam engines which basically took over the old fuels like wind and steam. • A new communication medium was invented called the telegraph. This made communicating across the ocean much faster. This also lead the way to the invention of the telephone which is a very important use of technology today.

8. Works Cited • http://www.ehs.org.uk/industrialrevolution/PH_index.htm • http://europeanhistory.about.com/od/theindustrialrevolution/p/OverIndRev.htm • https://www.msu.edu/user/brownlow/indrev.htm