The Industrial Revolution

Inventions
1. In 1733 the flying shuttle was invented. At that time it was useful but was still a slow process because the spinning jenny's could not produce enough yarn at the same speed as it was weaved. Fortunately, the water frame was invented a few decades later which meant that the textile industry increased and producing cloth was made very quickly.
2. In 1786 Arkwright had made his own spinning machine ( the water frame)- this invention was too heavy to have in the house and it used water to make it work.This was a good idea because in houses, the "spinning jenny's" were powered by hand and it produced a lot of thread so the men could weave a lot of yarn in factories due to the invention of the flying shuttle..This invention increased the amount of factories and mills in the country.
3. In 1712 the first steam engine were made. Steam engines were very powerful and they replaced the water wheel, wind mill and animal powered machines. The steam engine made it quicker to travel and easier to transport goods as other inventions such as the steam locomotive was powered by the steam engine.
4. More machines for farming were improving near the end of the 18th century which made it quicker for farmers to grow raw materials. Consequently the transport then needed to improve (which it did in the 1800s) so there weren't piles of raw materials waiting to be transported.
Transport
1. In 1750 water transport was very useful as it was cheaper than road transport and it was better for transporting larger and heavier goods. It was quite difficult to transport goods to small towns as there were not many navigable water routes and one of the ways to resolve that was to dig up new channels and create canals. Canals could reduce the price of raw materials in certain areas such as Manchester.
2. Road transport was beginning to become very popular and there would be many carriages, coaches and cars carrying people from place to place or goods. Travelling was very risky because many roads had potholes, vehicles often got stuck and highway men could come and steal goods. Roads where then improved by people who formed a group called turnpike trusts. They repaired the road and unemployment decreased. By 1810 roads had good drainage, strong foundations and journeys took only a third of the time they had taken in 1750.
3. Improved transport meant that it was easier to communicate, trade goods and transport raw materials. Better transport also allowed ideas and inventions to spread quickly.
4. In 1807 the first passenger railway opened. This was an important time for Britain as many roads and canals were congested. It was also a great way to transport raw materials because the transport was so slow, there were often piles of materials in docks waiting to be transported. The new railways meant that farmers would be able to send their produce to markets more quickly and efficiently, it would be more reliable because it would be closed from strong winds and tides and manufactured goods could be carried at half the cost of canal travel.
Agriculture
1. Farming in the 1700's was very slow and it soon improved as more machines took over farming, luckily Britain had enough raw materials to power these.
2. Equipment and tools were improved in the 1800s- new equipment was made out of iron as the iron industry grew, forcing older tools to become cheaper. Hand tasks were speeded up by new machinery. Big machinery meant that they had to be placed in factories so that it was quick to produce material, less unemployment and it caused other industries to grow.
3. As it soon became quicker to produce products and England became richer, more food was given to animals and farmers would sell them for a lot of money.
4. Land owners kept trying new farming methods and large landowners forced small farmers to become tenant farmers or to give up farming and move to cities. This meant that the more machines that were doing the farming, the greater amount of food and products there would be to feed the growing population.
5. Many british families made there fortune from sugar plantations which were raw materials transported from other places of the world.
As industries grew, Britain needed a constant supply of raw materials. Fortunately Britain had an abundance of raw materials such as coal and iron so when production methods improved, the materials were ready, waiting to be exploited.
Empire and trade
1. Due to slave labour, cotton was very cheap in Britain so vast quantities from the West Indies and United States were transport into large cities such as Liverpool. People involved with overseas trade made money, which was invested in developing British industry and transport.
2. Materials such as cotton were brought in large quantities. This meant that merchants could get a lot of money because it was vital for the growth of Britian's textile industries.
3. New materials were imported in the 1800's which changed people's eating habits. Teas, sugar and coffee were brought in and there were more coffee shops in towns where people could communicate with each other. Unfortunately this meant that people were becoming unhealthy and a lot o people teeth fell out.
4. As Britain's population grew, more businesses could sell to them and new factories were built to supply work.

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