Unit 2: Industrial Revolution

Questions to consider:
1. What were the natural advantages of Britain in the early industrial age?
They had natural waterways and canals for transport and usage for
inventions.
Abundance of coal and iron ore.
2. Why did continental Europe lag behind Britain in industrial development?
Environmental & technological: Lack of good roads and problems with
river transit made transport difficult. Customs barriers along state
boundaries increased the costs and prices of goods. Moreover, Continental
entrepreneurs were generally less enterprising than their British
counterparts and tended to adhere to traditional business attitudes that
didnt take risks. Lack of technological knowledge also impacted this, but
the Continental countries possessed an advantage in that they could copy
British techniques and practices.
Political: Governments in Continental countries were used to playing a
big role in economic affairs. Furthering the development of the industry
was an extension of this. For example, government paid workers to build
roads, canals and railroads leads to building of railroad across Europe.
Economic: Britain has the joint-stock banks which pool small and large
investments, creating a supply of capital that could then be put back into
the industry. By starting with less expensive machines, Britain could
develop through the investments of rich people.
Other: Many countries had new industrial laws that prevented the growth
of mechanized industry. For example, India became one of the greatest
exporters of cotton produced by hand labor. In the first half of the 19th
century, most of India came under control of the British East India
Company. With this came expensive factory-textiles and soon thousands of
Indians were unemployed. This shows how Britains expansion would
thwart the spread of the other Industrial revolutions.
3. What are the factors of industrialization?
Capital (good banking system with loans available at a reasonable rate), a
product (commodity), technology (innovation), resources (energy,
minerals, crops), geographic position (ports, rivers, strategic location for
transportation and resources), political stability (no wars and a centralized
government favorable to industrialization, and transportation.
4. Describe life in a textile factory.
Early industrial workers faced wretched working conditions. Shifts ranged
from 12 to 16 hours a day, six days a week, with a half hour for lunch and
dinner. There was no job security and no minimum wage. In the textile
factories and cotton mills, temperatures were debilitating, and mills were
dirty, dusty, and unhealthy.
5. Describe the working conditions of women and children in Britain that worked in
textile mills and coal mines.
Children became an important part of the economy because they were
exploited more than ever. In cotton factories, they were found very helpful
because they had a delicate touch. Their smaller size made it easier for
them to move under machines to gather loose cotton. Moreover, they
were more easily trained. Hence, children made an abundant supply of
labor and were paid only about 1/6 to 1/3 of what a man was paid. Women

6.

7.

8.
9.

were also similar in these respects. By 1830, however, child employment

declined because the Factory Act of 1833 limited their work hours. Thus,
women took their place and made up a huge portion of the labor in Britain.
How did varying economic beliefs support different ideas of industrial growth?
Mercantilism (15 & 1600s)
o Bullionism: Says the economic health of a nation can be measured
by the amount of gold & silver it possesses.

Favorable Balance of Trade: exports are greater than

imports and there is a high tax on goods, while there is a low
tax on raw materials.
o Each nation must try to achieve economic self-sufficiency and those
founding new industries should be rewarded by the state.
o Colonies would provide markets for manufactured goods & sources
of new materials.
o Zero-sum game: Can only gain economically internationally at the
expense of others.
o State action is needed to regulate and enforce these policies. State
sponsors trade monopolies.
Benefits monarchs, merchant capitalists, joint-stock
companies and government officials.
Capitalism (1700s)
o Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations makes a political argument, not
economic.
Says that social analysis should focus on the nation, not the
state.
o Goods and services are produced for profitable exchange
o Human labor power is a commodity for sale: LABOR IS THE SOURCE
OF VALUE
o Invisible hand: market is self-regulating
o Profit motive: the individual has a motive for their profit which ends
up benefiting society as a whole.
o The law of supply and demand
o Law of competition
o Social division of labor will maximize what the individual wants and
needs, given scarce resources, and government should be laissezfaire.
How did industrialization impact development of new social classes? Trade
unions?
Industrial working class/proletariat arises.
Trade unions form to protect workers rights, giving lower class people
more job security.
How did members of the working class attempt to improve their lives?
Combination act Reform attempts such as Luddites and the Peterloo
Massacre
How were sanitary conditions improved in European cities in the late 19 th
century?
Urban reformers pointed to filthy living conditions as the primary causes of
disease, and thus urged sanitary reforms. Governments set up boards of
health to improve the quality of housing. New buildings were provided
with clean water from dams and reservoirs, and gas heaters gave constant

hot water. Around 1890, town councils also began to construct cheap
housing for the working classes.
10. How was the 2nd Industrial Revolution different from the early Industrial
Revolution?

Key Terms/People to Know

Factors of production
Britain had these advantages that made their Industrial Revolution possible.
Capital
Britain had a ready supply of capital for investment in the new machines and
factories. In addition to profits from trade and the cottage industry, Britain
possessed a central bank and credit facilities. Britain also had many people
interested in making profit by investments.
The English revolutions helped create an environment in Britain where power
rested in the hands of a progressive group of people who favored innovation.
Labor
Rapid population growth led to a pool of surplus labor in Britain. This also
increased the demand for products. Colonial expansion increased the national
wealth, and a growing class of entrepreneurs led to a ready group of people to
invest in factories.
Management
They had many individuals who were interested in making profits if the
opportunity presented itself.
Resources
Had important minerals such as coal and iron ore.
Geographic position
Britain was small so the relatively short distances made transportation not
problematic. Moreover, they were located near water that they used to power
several machines. They had many natural harbors and canals.
Technology
Shifted from an economy based on agriculture to one based on manufacturing by
machines and automated factories.
Political stability
Parliament contributed to industrialization by providing a stable government and
passing laws that protected private property. Government protected businesses,

had a large merchant fleet and a navy to protect it, the colonies provided the raw
materials and markets, and they produced patents.
Markets/transportation
The many markets of the Commonwealth gave British industrialists a ready outlet
for their manufactured goods. They were able to produce cheaply the articles
that were of the highest demand. The cottage industry couldnt keep up with the
demand, so clothing manufacturers found new methods of manufacturing that
ignited the Revolution. Transport was made easy by the steam engine and new
roads. Canals also ran throughout Britain.

James Hargreaves Spinning Jenny (1764)

Several spindles allowed many threads to be spun at once. Moreover, it didnt
need any mechanical power so it could be used in the cottage industry (at
home). Overall, it allowed spinners to produce yarn in greater quantities.
Richard Arkwrights Water Frame (1769)
This led to the factory system. It was now more efficient to bring workers to the
machines and organize their labor collectively in factories located next to rivers
and streams, the sources of power for these machines. This invention fixed the
problem of having course, loose threads.
Edmund Cartwright Power Loom (1785)
Powered by water and allowed the weaving of cloth to catch up with the spinning
of yarn. It increased production and boosted textile production drastically.
Agricultural Revolution
Transformation in the 18th century from spread of new crops, improvements in
cultivation techniques and livestock breeding, and the consolidation of small
holdings into large farms from which tenants were expelled.
Significant increase in food production means that Britain could feed more people
at lower prices with less labor. Families spent less money on food, so they could
purchase more manufactured goods. Also, the rapid population growth provided
a pool of surplus labor for the new factories.
Charles Townsend
Developed a four field system (crop rotation) which meant that one of their four
fields was always kept fallow or empty except with clovers to allow the
nutrients in the ground to recover. Clovers acted as fertilizer, which fed the
livestock more nutrients, thus they produced more manure and fertilized the soil.
Also alternated crops which prevented crops from wearing out.
Turnips
Turnips, and clovers, led to the growth of the livestock business.
Turnips were also a huge food source because they could be stored during the
winter.
Enclosure Acts
Fencing off formerly common land in England (public becomes private)
Caused by an increase in searching for more productive farming methods, and
political power of the landowning middle class. Wealthy landowners began

fencing public lands. Enclosures authorized by parliament created private farms,

bettered the technology, and created food supply.
Small farmers and herders were forced into unemployment and were looking for
jobs.

Textile
New inventions led to an increase in textile production. To even greater heights,
the invention of the steam engine pushed this industry (see James Watt). Most
cotton was spun on machines, some powered by water in large factories.
Cotton became Britains most important product in value. By this time, most
cotton industry employees worked in factories, and British cotton goods were
sold everywhere in the world.
James Watt
Invented the steam engine in the 1760s. This engine was powered by steam that
could pump water from mines three times as quickly as previous engines. He
then developed a rotary engine that could turn a shaft and thus drive machinery.
This could now be applied to spinning and weaving cotton, and before long,
cotton mills using steam engines were everywhere. This gave a huge boost to the
cotton industry.
Puddling process
Britain always had a large amount of iron ore, but still they depended mostly on
charcoal. A better quality iron came when Henry Cort developed puddling. In this,
coke, which was derived by coal, was used to burn away impurities of pig iron
and produce an iron of high quality. A boom ensued in the British iron industry
then ensued. This iron was then used to build new machines and new industries,
such as the steam powered locomotives, and railroad.
Locomotive and the Rocket
Richard Trevithick developed the first steam powered locomotive on an industrial
rail line in southern Wales. It pulled 10 tons of ore and 70 people at 5 miles per
hour. Better locomotives soon followed. George Stephenson built the Rocket
which was superior. These railroads contributed to the industrial revolution by
creating new job opportunities, cheaper and faster means of transportations, and
a self-sustaining economy. As the prices of goods fell, markets grew larger;
increased sales meant more factories and more machinery.
Industrial Factory
Factories created a new labor system. Factory owners wanted to use their new
machines constantly. Workers thus worked regular hours and in shifts to keep
them producing at a steady rate.
Early factory workers were used to inactivity, so the factory owners had to create
disciplines were there were rules and workers became used to doing the same,
boring thing. Minor infractions for adults led to discipline, and adults beat their
children because they didnt understand the rules as well.
By the mid nineteenth century, Britain became the worlds first and richest
industrial nation.
Joint Stock Investment Bank

The joint-stock investment bank is a bank that takes all of the savings from small
and large investors and turns it into capital that it reinvests into the industry. By
starting with less expensive machines, Britain was able to industrialize largely
through the private capital of successful individuals who reinvested their profits.
This gave Britain a huge advantage in industrializing.

Urbanization
Food increase, decrease in death rate, factories The growth of cities and
migration from rural to urban areas (urbanization) increase in the physical
growth of the urban area causes overcrowding and pollution
Population growth occurred as a result of the food supply increase, and thus a
better fed and more disease-resistant community. Over 50 percent of the British
population moved and lived in towns and cities by 1850. During the first half of
the century, this growth led to horrible living conditions. Located in the center of
most of these towns were the row houses of the industrial workers. Rooms were
not large and were overcrowded. Sanitary conditions were appalling: sewers and
open sewers were common the streets. Unable to deal with human waste, cities
smelled horrible and were ultimately death traps. Deaths outnumbered births in
most large cities: only a constant influx of people from the country kept them
alive and growing.
Socialism
Economic system where the people control production and distribution through
the government and then share the profits (replace competition w/cooperation).
Under this, everyone and everything was equal.
o Urged an attack on private property in the name of equality; wanted state
control of means of production, end to capitalist exploitation of the
working man.
Becomes associated with Marxism.
Utopian Socialism
Philosophy which hoped to create humane alternatives to industrial capitalism by
building self-sustaining communities whose inhabitants would work cooperatively.
To later socialists, especially followers of Karl Marx, such ideas of cooperation
rather than competition were merely impractical dreams, and with contempt they
labeled these theorists utopian socialists. The term has lasted till this day. For
example, Robert Owen was a utopian socialist.
Robert Owen and New Lanark
Robert Lanark was a British cotton manufacturer who was a utopian socialist. He
believed that humans would show their true natural goodness if they lived in the
cooperative environment.
o At New Lanark in Scotland, he transformed a dirty factory town into a
flourishing, healthy community. But when he tried to create such a
cooperative community in New Harmony, India, in the U.S. in the 1820s,
fighting within the community eventually destroyed his dream.
Trade unions
The formation of labor organizations to gain decent wages and working
conditions were called trade unions. They were formed by skilled workers in a
number of new industries, including ironworkers and coal miners. Some trade

unions were even willing to strike to gain their goal of winning improvements for
the members of their own trades. In the 1820s and 1830s, the union movement
began to focus on creating national unions. The largest and most successful was
called the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, formed in 1851. Its provision of
generous unemployment benefits in return for a small weekly payment was
precisely the kind of practical gains these unions sought.
Corn Laws
This law puts import tariffs in place to protect landowners. (1813-1850)
Keeps the price of corn high and protects British industry.
Combination Act
During the 18th century, a succession of laws prohibited workers from organizing
themselves for the purpose of collective bargaining with their employers. In 1799
and 1800, under the fear of Jacobinism, these Acts further limited the ability of
workers to organize.
o Workers cant change their hours, working conditions, etc.
Not repealed until 1824.
Luddites

Any of a group of British workers who between 1811 and 1816 rioted and
destroyed laborsaving textile machinery in the belief that such machinery would
diminish employment.
o

Luddism- Named after mythical leader, Ned Ludd, machine-breakers

tyrannized parts of Great Britain in an attempt to frighten masters.
Workers damaged and destroyed property for more control over the work
process, but were met with repression.

Peterloo Massacre (1819)

End of the Napoleonic Wars and introduction of the Corn Laws led to a cavalry of
60-80K gathered at a meeting. Workers demanded Parliamentary representation,
which led to a suffrage and repeal of Corn Laws. It occurred at St. Peters Field, in
Manchester.
Reform Act of 1832
This was an act of parliament that changed the electoral system for England. This
affected how parliament members in the House of Commons was selected. It
gave more representation to larger industrial town created by the Revolution.
However, the property requirement for voters was still there, leading to the
Chartist movement.
Chartists and the Peoples Charter
Opposes Reform Act.
Drafted in 1837 by William Lovett, this was a radical campaign for Parliamentary
reform of the inequalities created by the Reform Bill of 1832.

Provided votes for all men, equal electoral districts, abolition of the requirement
that the Members of Parliament be property owners, payment for Members of
Parliament, annual general elections, and secret ballots.
o Government responds with something called the Sadler Commission to
look into the working conditions. They then established the factory act of
1833.

Factory Act of 1833

Bad conditions for children Factory Act
Basically, it said that there should be no child workers under the age of 9, and
that children above this age had special restrictions such as less hours, schooling
requirements, etc. However, children were still exploited.
o Leads to a huge increase in women workers who took the childrens place
and dominated the labor forces in early factories. They mostly worked in
the cotton factories, or unskilled labor jobs and were paid half of or less
than what men received.
o This act also led to a new pattern of work based on a separation of work
and home. Men were expected to be responsible for primary work
obligations, while women assumed daily control of the family and
assumed low paying jobs that could be done at home. Domestic industry
made it possible for women to continue their contributions to family
survival.
Utilitarianism
Making decisions based on what will cause the least suffering.
o Jeremy Bentham: publishes writings and philosophies about how to
maximize the good in a decision.
Jeremy Bentham
He was a British man who started utilitarianism, which is to reduce suffering and
maximize happiness. He though that ones choices affected their
welfare/happiness.
David Ricardo and the Iron Law of Wages
British Iron Law of Wages: increasing population leads to competition for jobs
which lead to lower wages, and economic issues become more sophisticated.
Karl Marx and Marxism
The desire to improve their working and living conditions led many industrial
workers to form socialist political parties and socialist labor unions. These
emerged after 1870, and the theory that made them possible had been
developed more than 2 decades earlier in the work of Karl Marx.
o Blasted earlier socialist movements as utopian
o Saw history as defined by class struggle between groups out of power and
those controlling the means of production
o Preached necessity of social revolution to create proletarian dictatorship.
o Spent most of his life in England, where he witnessed the brutal conditions
of Britain's Industrial Revolution and wrote voluminously about history and
economics. His probing analysis led him to the conclusion that industrial
capitalism was an inherently unstable system, doomed collapse in a

revolutionary upheaval that would give birth to a classless socialist

society, thus ending forever the ancient conflict between rich and poor.

The Communist Manifesto (1848)

This was the treatise where Marxism made its first appearance, on the eve of the
revolutions of 1848. Written by Karl Marc and Friedrich Engels, two Germans, this
publication began with the ideas of the class struggle. They discussed the steps
that it would take to reach their apparent end product of a classless society. This
spread the ideas of Marxism, which influenced socialism, the revolutions of 1848,
and more.
o Said that proletariat and bourgeoisie have always been in warring class
o Said that the Industrial Revolution enriched the wealthy and impoverished
the poor, predicting that workers would overthrow owners
o Inspired revolutionaries to adapt Marxs beliefs to their own situation
Communism
A system where the means of production (business and factories), as well as
virtually every other aspect of social life, are controlled by the government.
Class struggle
The class struggle was the basis of the Marxist analysis of history. This says that
the owners of the means of production always oppressed the workers and
predicts an inevitable revolution. He thought that the bourgeoisie and proletariat
were inherently different. They would eventually butt heads, resulting in a
proletarian dictatorship, whereby the state, now no longer controlled by the very
thing it was built off of (the ruling class), will deteriorate. Thus, the end result
being a classless society.
Proletariat
The proletariat was the industrial working class. According to Marx, they were the
class that would form a dictatorship that would ultimately lead to a classless
society.
Bourgeoisie
The term bourgeoisie denotes the wealthy stratum of the middle class. According
to Marx, they held the means of production, and thus could control government
and society. They believed in capital and property value to protect their social
standing.
Revisionism
Marxist parties divided over the issue of who should control the means of
production. Pure Marxists believed in the forthcoming collapse of capitalism, and
thus, the need for socialist ownership over the means of production. The other
side, called revisionists, argued that workers should organize mass political
parties and work together with other politically progressive elements to achieve
their goals. Workers, at this time, were in a better position than ever to achieve
their aims democratically after winning the right to vote. This idea rejected
Marxs emphasis on class struggle.
Revolutionary Socialism

This was a socialist idea that violent action was the only way to achieve the goals
of socialism. Pure Marxists generally supported this doctrine since they believed
that capitalism would collapse and socialists should own the means of
production. They were opposed by people called evolutionary socialists, which
argued that cooperation and evolution to attain power by democratic means
should be stressed. One important force working for this was the trade unions. In
the 1870s, union workers began to strike. Soon after, the masses of workers
began to strike. Soon after, the masses of workers began to form unions to use
the strike as a weapon of sorts. After WW1, they made substantial progress in
bettering the working and living conditions in the laboring classes.

German Social Democratic Party

The German Social Democratic Party emerged in 1875 and espoused
revolutionary Marxist rhetoric while organizing itself as a mass political party
competing in election for the Reichstag. Once elected, they sought to pass laws
in the favor of the working class. The government tried to destroy it, but it
continued to grow, but by the 1912 elections, they had four million votes,
becoming the largest party in Germany. Their success was one of the most
prominent of all the working-class led socialist parties of time.
Capitalism
An economic system that is based on private ownership (people own the
businesses) of the means of production and the creation of goods or services for
profit (US).
o Goods and services are produced for profitable exchange
o Human labor is a commodity for sale labor is the source of value
o The Invisible hand
o Humans have a drive from self-interest profit motive
o The law of supply and demand, law of competition
o A social division of labor will maximize the satisfaction of what the
individual wants and needs given scarce resources.
o Government should interfere minimally with the free and efficient working
of the market.
Adam Smith and the Wealth of Nations

Adam Smith was born in Scotland, but on his travels to France was influenced by
the writings of physiocrats. He argued that the basic unit for social analysis
should be the nation, not the state. He was against the belief that trade was a
zero-sum game (both nations gained).
Laissez-Faire
The idea that there shouldnt be any government involvement in economics and
trade.
Popularized by Adam Smith.
Invisible Hand
Humans by nature are self-interested individuals. This proposes that the free
market, while appearing unrestrained, is guided to produce the right amount and
variety of goods by an invisible-hand. Therefore, the basic market mechanism
is self-regulating.

Law of Competition
The competitive market system compels producers to be increasingly efficient
and to respond to the desires of consumers.
Middle Class
Commerce, industry, banking, teachers, physicians & government officials
Discovered new markets
First Industrial Revolution: In Britain, the rise of industrial capitalism
produced a new kind of middle class. Originally, the bourgeois or burgher was
simply a town dweller. Because many of them lived comfortable lives, the term
continued. And so as other people began to accumulate wealth, the term
bourgeois came to be applied to people involved in commerce, industry and
banking as well as teachers, regardless of where they lived. The new industrial
middle class was made up of the people who constructed the factories,
purchased the machines, and figured out where the markets were. Their qualities
were resourceful, single-minded, initiative, and more. They sought to reduce the
barriers between them and the landed elite, but it is clear that they tried to still
separate themselves from their lower laboring classes. They were a mixture of
groups in the first half of the 19th century, but in the course of that century
factory workers formed an industrial proletariat that constituted a majority of the
working class.
Second Industrial Revolution: In Europe, the middle class consisted of a
variety of groups. First was a group including doctors, lawyers, and members of
civil service. Beneath this was a solid and comfortable group with shopkeepers,
traders, manufacturers, and prosperous peasants. Standing between the middle
and lower classes was a group of white-collar workers who were the product of
the Second Industrial Revolution. Though often paid little more than skilled
laborers, they shared many middle class ideas such as hard work, which was
open to everyone and guaranteed to have positive results. They were also
regular churchgoers who believed in the good conduct associated with traditional
Christian morality.
Working Class
Refers to factory workers & the proletariat.
The First Industrial Revolution: Industrial working class in Britain faced awful
working conditions. There was no security of their jobs and no minimum wage.
The Second Industrial Revolution: The working classes constituted almost 80
percent of the European population. Many of them were landholding peasants,
agricultural laborers, and sharecroppers, especially in Eastern Europe. The urban
working class consisted of many different groups, including skilled artisans,
semiskilled laborers, and at the bottom, unskilled laborers. Urban workers
experienced a real betterment in the material conditions of their lives after 1870.
A rise in real wages made it possible for workers to buy only food and housing
but also more clothes and even leisure at the same time that strikes and labor
agitation were providing shorter workdays and Saturday afternoons off.
Florence Nightingale
Establishes sanitary nursing care units & is the founder of modern nursing, as
well as the founder of nursing education.

Custody and property rights were only a beginning for the womens movement,
however. Some middle and upper middle class women gained access to higher
education, while others sought entry into occupations dominated by men. The
first fall was to teaching. As medical training was close to women, they sought
alternatives in the development of nursing. An upper class nursing pioneer called
Amalie Sieveking, who founded the Female Association for Care of the Poor and
Sick in Hamburg. Her work was followed by Florence Nightingale, who was a
famous British nurse whose efforts during the Crimean War, combined with those
of Clara Barton in the American Civil War, transformed nursing into a profession
of trained, middle-class women in white.

Suffragists
By the 1840s, the rights for womens movements expanded into politics. Many
feminists thought that the right to vote was the key to all other reforms.
Suffragists pushed for the right of women to full citizenship in the nation-state.
Despite these efforts and a wide popularization of these ideas, many suffragists
were ridiculed and the majority of states and countries, before WW1 did not
answer their demands. It would take the dramatic upheaval of WW1 before the
patriarchal government surrendered on this basic issue.
Mass Education
Mass society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries produced the ideas of
universal education. After 1870, instead of offering education to an elite few,
most Western governments began to give elementary education to both boys
and girls. States also took responsibility for bettering the quality of teachers by
establishing teacher training schools. It aimed for children to have at least a
basic education. Moreover, this provided a greater chance for nationalizing the
masses. Motives for this came from industrialization. The new firms of the 2 nd
Industrial Revolution demanded skilled labors. The chief motive for mass
education, for example, was political. The increase in suffrage created the need
for a more educated electorate. Even more, this education provided opportunities
for greater national integration. The use of a single language created national
unity than loyalty to a ruler did. It also created a demand for women teachers,
and the first female colleges were teacher training schools. The most immediate
result of mass education was an increase in literacy.
Mass Leisure
As a result of the Industrial Revolution, work became polar opposites from leisure,
which came known as what people do for fun outside of work. The new leisure
hours instilled by the industrials system essentially shaped the new concept of
mass leisure. Mass leisure was forms of this that appealed to the masses of
people including the working classes, and was used to serve as amusements
during workers leisure hours. New technology such as the Ferris wheel at
amusement parks could easily be attended due to streetcars and subways.
Another example is team sports, which became strictly organized with a set of
rules and officials to reinforce them by organized athletic groups.
2nd Industrial Revolution
Made possible by new products
o Steel, electricity, internal combustion engine
New patterns
o Increased sales of manufactured goods

Increase in wages with lower prices for manufactured goods because of

reduced transportation costs easier for Europeans to buy products

Kerosene
Petroleum oil began being drilled in 1859, when gasoline was thrown away. Oil
began to be used for kerosene, which provided heat and light, and could be used
as lubricant. In 1863, the Standard Oil Company arose.
Replaced by electricity around 1900, invented by Thomas Edison and Joseph
Swan, which permitted homes and even cities to be lit up,
Bessemer process
Made in 1850 to remove carbon from iron efficiently to create steel.
o This steel is used for railroad tracks, farm machines, cans for food,
bridges, and the frames of skyscrapers.
o Carnegie Steel Company (largest producer in the United States)
Samuel Morse
Invented the telegraph in 1844.
Telegraph
This was a way of sending messages through wires to a remote receiver.
Telegraphy rapidly expanded during the 19th century and by 1851, a cable had
been laid under the channel, connecting Britain and Europe, and then across the
Atlantic (transatlantic cable).
This was refined and improved until in 1876, Alexander Bell invents the
telephone and Thomas Edison develops the phonograph.
o Revolution in communication was crucial to spread of industrialization.
Transatlantic Cable
Telegraph cable connecting Britain and America that allowed communication to
occur between the two in about 7 minutes as opposed to a few days.
Communication by Morse code.
Scientific Management
This was an idea developed by Frederick Taylor that sought to make human work
more efficient. Workers resisted the end of flexibility.
Assembly Line
Invented by Henry Ford
o Each person on the line has one job that is very simple and doesnt require
skill that they do all day every day faster & more efficient.
o Leads to a decrease in skilled workers.
Standardization
Standard Gauge: By 1880, almost 80% of railroads switched to a standard track
so that you could travel farther distances without switching tracks faster &
more efficient.
Standard Time: By 1870, Earth was divided into 24 time zones. By 1918, railroad
time became the standard.
Monopoly
Refers to when an industry is dominated by a singular company.

Biggest corporations often formed trusts which permitted large scale production

Mass Consumption
The action of millions of consumers making similar choices that has a
tremendous impact on the general economy.