Industrialization and its Discontents

CHAPTER 23

The Industrialization of Europe and the West: 1760–1914

• Industrialization began in Britain, which had several advantages.– Abundant coal and iron reserves.– Colonies gave Britain a larger global trading

network.– Colonial trade provided capital for new

businesses.– Thriving merchant class supported by Parliament’s

legislation.

The British Empire, 1904

• Population doubled from 1600 to 1700 to – c. 4.5 million to 9 million– Population centered in cities– Larger cities meant new markets for luxury goods.– Calico Acts, 1700 and 1720• prohibited cheap popular cotton from India • led to its production in England.

• Britain’s wages were high:– This requires labor saving machines.

• Scientific revolution centered in England,– especially in practical application.– scientific societies mixed scientists with inventors

and experimenters.

• 1700–1800 over 1,000 inventions• Many for textiles– Flying shuttle,– Spinning jenny, and– Water frame – All sped up the spinning and weaving process.

• Power loom, 1787, still could not produce enough textiles for market.

• Large machines and • transportation of fuel and materials, – led to large factories.

• Steam engines allowed factories to move – to not be tied to running water for water wheels.

• Locating in cities gave access to roads, canals, and railroads.

• Factories drew workers, dramatically increasing population of cities.

The Steam Engine• Heron’s steam “engine”

• Thomas Savery,– 1698, patents a a steam-driven water pump.

• James Watt produces an engine efficient enough to drive machinery by 1776.

• Steam power augmenting water power in textile manufacture by 1790.

• 1803: steam-driven boats pulling barges on English canals.

• 1807 – 1807: Robert Fulton develops his • steamboat, the Clarmont.

“The Rocket”1829

• Railroads combined a Watt steam engine with a moving carriage.

• First British freight line 1829• First British passenger line 1830.• From 1840 to 1870 miles of rail in Britain had

increased 900% due to popularity.• Railroads moved bulk commodities.• Railroad became its own industry, employing

thousands.

• Robert Fulton steam boats• Used on rivers in America, – then in England, – then in transatlantic crossings.

• 1816 steamship crossed the Atlantic in half the time of sailing.

• In 1830s British East India Company began to use steamships for maritime trade with India.

• First military use in the Anglo-Chinese Opium War, 1839–1842.

“China Clippers” could achieve average speeds of 16 knots (18 mph).

Max. speed of a World War II“Victory Ship” was 15 – 17 kts.

• Industrialism spread to Belgium, northern France, and northern Germany by 1830s.

• Changes since Napoleonic wars prepared them for industrialization– population increases, – large supplies of coal.

• First water-powered textile factory in the United States in 1793, in Rhode Island.– American Civil War interrupted industrialization

but increases after war.

• By 1914 the United States was the largest industrial economy in the world.– Aided by growth of railroads, • 2,800 miles in 1840• 53,000 miles in 1870.

Steel was known in the ancient world,As early as 4,000 BCE?

Steel

• Henry Bessemer, 1856, develops a method of mass-producing high grade cheap steel.

• Germany will take the lead in world steel production by 1914.– Able to use Britain’s industrialization as a model, build upon it.

• Steel was better than iron because it was harder and lighter.– used in railroads, – construction of skyscrapers, and – ships.

The Chemical Industry

• First commercial dye was created in 1856.

“Perkin's mauve.”

• 1839 – 1844, Thomas Hancock and Charles Goodyear develop the “vulcanizing” process for rubber.

• 1867, Alfred Nobel invents dynamite.

• Artificial silk (rayon) production begins in the 1890’s

• 1909, Fritz Haber syntheses ammonia which leads to more the efficient explosives used in World War I.

Electricity

• Electrical power was known by 1850

• Not widely used until Nikola Tesla invented the Tesla Coil and alternating current (AC).

• This led to the invention of – generators, – motors, – transformers, and – power plants.

Electricity and Communication

• Electricity important in the telegraph, first used in 1840s by Samuel Morse.

• First transatlantic cables were laid in 1858, common by 1866.

• Telephone invented in 1876, by Alexander Graham Bell.

• Heinrich Hertz discovered that electromagnetic radiation made radio waves.

• Guglielmo Marconi created the first device to use radio waves in the 1890’s.

The Gasoline Engline

• Gasoline was produced as a byproduct of liquid petroleum refined into kerosene.

• In 1864 Siegfried Marcus linked internal combustion engine to a cart.– Lighter than steam engines.

• Internal combustion engines used in a rigid airship by von Zeppelin in 1900.– Led to the invention of the airplane by 1903.

The “Motorwagon” patented by Karl Benz, 1885

First successful airship flight in 1900Designed by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin

The Hindenburg over New York City2 hours before its explodes on landing.

The Wright Brothers

Orville Wilbur

The First Flight 17 December 1903