Timeline of the Industrial Revolution
in England
1694 First Central Bank established in England
1712 Thomas Newcomen invented the first productive steam engine.
1719 John Lombe starts his silk factory
1733 James Kay invented the Flying Shuttle, a simple weaving machine.
1764 James Hargreaves invented the Spinning Jenny, which allowed one worker to spin
eight spindles
1769 Richard Arkwright invented the water frame, which hooked up spinning machines
to a water wheel.
1769 James Watt patented his revision of the steam engine, featuring a separate
condenser.
1774 Samuel Crompton invented the spinning mule which combined spinning and
weaving into one machine.
1776 Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations.
1781 Watt adapts his steam engine from a reciprocal to a rotary motion.
1785 Edmund Cartwright invented the power loom, which, after 1800 was powered by
new steam engines. Replaced the flying shuttle.
1785 Henry Cort invented highly successful iron refining techniques.
1790 Arkwright changes his huge factories over from water power to steam engines.
1799 Combination Acts make it illegal in England for workers to unionize in order to
bargain for higher pay or better working conditions.
1800 10 million tons of coal mined in Great Britain.
1801 Richard Trevithick drives the Cornish “puffer” steam powered locomotive down the
street of Camborne, England.
1811 Luddite Rebellion begins.
1812 Parliament passes law making it illegal by penalty of death to destroy industrial
machines.
1813 14 Luddites hanged in Manchester after a rushed one-day trial.
1816 George Stephenson patented a steam engine locomotive that ran on rails.
1825 Stephenson commissioned to construct a 30-mile railway from Liverpool to
Manchester.
1829 Stephenson’s Rocket wins the speed contest on the new Liverpool to Manchester
railroad. 51 miles of railroad track in Great Britain and the entire world.
1832 Sadler Committee investigates child labor in factories and issues report to
Parliament.
1833 The first Factory Act provides first small regulation of child labor in textile
factories.
1834 Poor Law created “poorhouses” for the destitute.
1835 106,000 power looms operating in Great Britain.
1844 Friedrich Engels publishes his observations of the negative effects of
industrialization in The Condition of the Working-Class in England.
1848 British government sets up the General Board of Health to investigate sanitary
conditions, setting up local boards to ensure safe water in cities.
1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto.
1849 10,000 people die in three months in London from Cholera epidemic.
1849 6,031 miles of railroad track in Great Britain.
1875 Public Health Act gives government responsibility to ensure public health for
housing and sewage.
1880 Education Act made school compulsory for children up to age 10.
1890 90% of all ships in the world are built in Great Britain.
1890 35,000 miles of railroad track in Great Britain.
1901 This Factory Act raised the minimum work age to 12 years old.
1905 236 million tons of coal mined in Great Britain.
1918 Education Act made school compulsory for children up to age 14.
1944 English government mandates and funds compulsory education for all citizens
through age 18.