What were the positive and negative effects of technological advancements during the Industrial Revolution?

The Industrial Revolution involved the transformation of a technology based heavily on human and animal labour into a technology characterised by machines. Along with this came the transformation from a reliance on the manufacture of goods for sale in the context of a factory system. The industrial revolution at bottom was a revolution in technology. During the industrial revolution there were many advancements in technology in many different fields but the most significant was the Steam Train which was not only a leap forward in transportation but also a catalyst during the Industrial Revolution. The steam locomotive allowed for the transportation of goods around the country much faster than the traditional way which was by horse and carriage, and with the added speed of transport the cargo would arrive in much better condition as it much harder to rob a speeding train than it is a horse and carriage(Aldcroft,1983,p.223). As more trains and railroads were being built products that were being made in the factories could be delivered much further away and also in a timelier manner which brought down freight transport, which in turn increased profits for many of the factory owners that used this mode of transport and thus with the extra profits that they were acquiring allowed the industrial revolution to gather speed and to give Britain the advantage in terms of capital that was being saved and reinvested in industry. The steam train wasn't just used for the transportation of manufactured goods it was also used to transport people. Shorty after the first freight of goods were being transported around the UK the first passenger train came into service and became available to anybody who could afford it and it quickly became very popular as it cut travelling times by almost 90%(Beggs,1959,p.13), such a benefit was not wasted by the business community and they set out to travel across the country to search out more business opportunities at a much faster rate than the horse and a bumpy road. It also allowed many woman to experience something that they never thought possible and that was the choice to travel without an escort for the first time, so this gave woman some independence(Hillstrom,2005,p.187). As discussed previously the steam locomotive was an very significant advancement but the steam ship was just as important in terms of spurring the industrial revolution on and became an essential part of the trading process. The development of the steam ship would allow the craft to travel almost in any weather because it didn't rely on the quality of the wind which limited the ships beforehand and so revolutionized the way products and people travelled(Hampden,1975,p.126). Another benefit was the ship could maintain a higher speed for longer periods of time, which like the locomotive, cut travelling times significantly and allowed the delivery of products overseas in a timely manner. It wasn't just the transportation of goods that technology had changed, it was also the way that they were manufactured that is synonymous with the industrial revolution. The first

piece of technology that was a positive effect on manufacturing was the 'Spinning Jenny'. The Spinning Jenny was a hand turned spinning machine that made it possible to produce more than one ball of yarn at the same time, which was incredibly more time efficient than making it by hand(Burnette,2011,p.40). The next piece of technology that allowed the production materials to be more proficient was the 'Water Frame'(Deabe,1980,p.90). The Water Frame was a water powered spinning frame that could turn multiple frames much faster than a human could, thus reducing human labour and increasing spindle count that in turn produced stronger yarns. This was the full transformation of the manufacturing industry which moved away from the small home manufacturing of textiles to full factory production. The third major leap forward in the manufacturing of textiles was the 'Spinning Mule'. The spinning mule was a combination of the Spinning Jenney and the Water Frame which allowed the increased production of yarn compared to the previous examples and with the extra spinals that the Spinning Mule has allowed for the production of different types of yarn which allowed for finer clothes to be made(Greenwood,1997,p.7). In short the positives of technological advancements during the industrial revolution were the machines that were far more proficient, such as the water powered textile apparatus that were far more efficient than if the material was made by a human hand which increased profits and allowed the extra income to be invested into the industry. There were many examples of why the advancement of technology were a positive one, but with all new industrialized societies as we can see today for example there are also many negative reactions to the advancement of technology. The first example is the reaction to the newly built factories which in turn cities started to grow rapidly around them which allowed for almost no planning of the city itself which resulted in little or no sanitation(Krech,2003,p.1293) and no running water. As there were no sanitation authorities rubbish and filth filled the streets of the overcrowded cities, this resulted in a breeding ground for disease such as cholera. Slide 8 of the presentation shows the mood at the time, it is a drawing from a magazine called 'punch' in 1858 and it's called 'The Silent Highwayman' and it depicts the Grim reaper rowing down the Thames looking for new victims, the picture is depicting cholera. As the country became more and more industrialized the greater need for resources would become insatiable which led to Britain exploiting her natural resources, the main resource was coal to run the factories and the transport system and this was all done with no regard to the environment. The coal was burnt to heat the water in the steam engine which in turn would pour out massive amounts of smoke which would then mix with the fog and create smog which then hanged over the cities like a blanket, many cities in Britain suffered like London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and Sheffield. In 1872 smog was responsible for the deaths of almost 700 people in London alone(Hilgenkamp,2005,p.26). An example of this can be seen from a primary source photograph that was taken in the middle of the 19th centaury of the Manchester sky line and it shows how much pollution was being pumped into the air(library.thinkquest.org,2012) As with most urban areas there is probably a river that runs nearby or though it and so like the Thames in London it became a receptacle for both human and industrial waste with disastrous consequences. In the first half of the 19th century London experienced a huge

cholera and typhoid out Thames(Thomas,2009.p.1).

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Another negative that the Industrial Revolution caused which many may see as the most unforgiving was child labour. Child labour became a by-product of the low wage that the factories were paying and so a family would need all the extra income they could possible get and so this meant that the younger children of the family would have to work as well and this worked in the favour of the factories owner as they could pay the children even less than their parents even though they were exposed to the same dangers as them(Honeyman,2007,p.175). With all the profit that the factories were making a new way of thinking about the worker and how to exploit them was being to rear its ugly head and this new way of thought can be characterized by a economist at the time called David Ricardo who came up with the 'Iron Laws of Wages'(Eder,2010,p.168) which states that workers should only be paid enough to survive, he justified his beliefs by suggesting that if the worker made more money the poor would have bigger family's and then this in turn would make it impossible to feed the family and thus they would all die of starvation. He also believed that the poor should be happy with their wages because they are in a natural 'level' due to some sort of character flaw that all the poor had in common. In conclusion the negatives and the positives are very significant in terms of what they effect, the positives are obvious, they increase productivity, quality and the speed in which items are made and delivered with 90% less animal and human labour than before. The negatives as some people might suggest today outweigh the positives of an industrialized society, the exploitation of the common man and children, the massive amounts of pollution that clog the air and water and the cramp and unhealthy conditions that people put themselves through to get work.

Reference List Amanda J. Thomas, 2009. The Lambeth Cholera Outbreak of 1848-1849. Edition. McFarland Derek H. Aldcroft, 1983. Transport in the Industrial Revolution. Edition. Manchester Univ Pr. James M. Eder, 2010. Barron's AP European History. 5 Edition. Barron's Educational Series. Jeremy Greenwood, 1997. The Third Industrial Revolution:: Technology, Productivity, and Income Inequality (Aei Studies on Understanding Economic Inequality). Edition. Aei Press.

Joyce Burnette, 2011. Gender, Work and Wages in Industrial Revolution Britain (Cambridge Studies in Economic History - Second Series). 1 Edition. Cambridge University Press.
J. Hampden Jackson, 1975. England Since Industrial. Edition. Praeger.

Kathryn Hilgenkamp, 2005. Environmental Health: Ecological Perspectives. 1 Edition. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Katrina Honeyman, 2007. Child Workers in England, 17801820 (Studies in Labour History). Edition. Ashgate Kevin Hillstrom, 2005. The Industrial Revolution in America [3 volumes]: Iron and Steel, Railroads, Steam Shipping. Edition. ABC-CLIO P. M. Deane, 1980. The First Industrial Revolution. 2 Edition. Cambridge University Press. M.E.Beggs- Humphreys, 1959. Industrial Revolution. Library edition Edition. Allen & Unwin Results of the Industrial Revolution. 2012. Results of the Industrial Revolution. [ONLINE] Available at: http://library.thinkquest.org/26026/History/results_of_the_industrial_revo.html#. [Accessed 28 November 2012]. Shepard Krech III, 2003. Encyclopedia of World Environmental History Vol. 1-3. 1 Edition. Routledge.