CHY 4U1 – Image Analysis
The Industrial Revolution – Improvements in Transportation and
Communication
Discussing the Illustration:
1) Other big breakthroughs in the early Industrial Revolution had to do with transportation
and communication. Using these two British cartoons, can you explain what these
breakthroughs were and why they would have been so important to the Industrial
Revolution?
2) The cartoon on the right is about the collapse of a huge boom in railway construction in
Britain in the 1840s and how it led many investors to lose money. Can you explain what
the phrase a “boom in railway construction” means here and why its collapse would
cause many people to lose money?
3) The other cartoon is about a telegraph cable connecting France and England for the first
time. Across what body of water was this cable laid?
4) Both images also convey something about the Industrial Revolution’s huge effect on
people, especially their feeling about the past and the future. How do the cartoons
suggest this spirit or mood?