What was the Industrial Revolution?

Before about 1750, most people lived in villages and worked on farms. Clothes, tools and furniture were made by hand at home or in small workshops. Then, in Britain, inventors found ways to make things with machines.

Some key steps:

• Textile machines. Inventions like the spinning jenny (about 1764) let one worker spin many threads at once. Cloth could be made faster and cheaper in factories.
• The steam engine. James Watt improved the steam engine in the 1760s and 1770s, and it was soon used to drive machines. It burned coal, so mines grew too. Cheap iron and steel were used for machines, bridges and ships.
• Transport. Canals and then railways carried goods and people. The first public steam railway, from Stockton to Darlington, opened in 1825. Steamships crossed the oceans.

Britain had coal, iron, rivers and ports, plus money to invest, which helped it to lead. The changes then spread to Europe, North America and later to the rest of the world.

Life changed a lot. People moved from the countryside to towns for jobs, so cities grew fast and became crowded and polluted. Factory work was hard. Many workers, including children, worked long hours for low pay in dangerous places. Over time, reformers and laws, such as the Factory Acts of the 1800s, limited child labour and improved conditions. Schools, public health and trade unions grew from this.

There were big gains, too: cheaper goods, faster travel, better food supply and, eventually, longer lives. But burning coal released smoke and carbon dioxide, an early step towards today's global warming. Later, electricity and new machines brought another wave of change. Look at energy and electricity for the science, and the Renaissance for the ideas that came before.

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