The Industrial Revolution
-Describe how goods were produced differently as a result of the Industrial
Revolution.
-Describe the contributions of James Watt.
-Identify the factors that allowed Great Britain to get a head start in the
Industrial Revolution.
-Explain why so many people moved from the country to the city between
1800 and 1850 in Great Britain.
-Explain what made conditions so bad in London factories and London slums.
The Old Ways
• Between 1000 and 1750, humans and
animals did all the work.
• Machines were powered by hand, foot, or
animal.
• Most of the goods were made at home.
• Textiles, or cloth that is either woven or
knitted, was made at home.
• This was known as the Domestic
System.
The New Ways
• In Europe, new ideas began to arise about how to use
machines to produce goods.
• The change from human and animal power to
machine power is known as the Industrial
Revolution.
• The creation of the steam engine kicked off the
Industrial Revolution.
– James Watt improved the steam engine so that it could
power large machiens.
• The next step was to lower costs by grouping
machines together into one large place, a factory.
– This became known as the factory system.
Reasons why Great Britain
launched the Industrial Revolution
• There were many reasons why Great
Britain launched the Industrial Revolution.
• Great Britain had important natural
resources, such as iron and coal.
• It had many skilled workers.
• People had money to invest in factories.
• It had colonies to supply raw materials to
buy goods.
Great Britain and the Steam Engine
• George Stephenson attached a steam engine
to heels and put it on rails.
• The train engine could do the work of 40 teams
of horses.
• The steam engine reached a top speed of 36
miles per hour.
• This began the Railroad Age.
• Steam power was also used by Robert Fulton
who built the first successful steamboat and
sailed it up the Hudson River from New York
City to Albany.
The Steamboat
Terrible Conditions
• Early factories were dark and dirty, with poor air
quality.
• Workers labored 12 to 15 hours a day, six days
a week.
• Most of the workers were women and children
and they were paid far less than the men.
• Children as young as five could be sent to work
in textile mills.
• Safety conditions were very poor.
– Workers often suffered injuries such as lost arms or
legs and were then fired if that occurred.
Job of a Scavenger
• A scavenger had the
worst job.
• They had to pick up
the loose cotton from
under the machinery
by crawling under the
running machines.
Growing Cities Have Many
Problems
• During the Industrial Revolution, the population
of Europe began to grow.
• In Great Britain, the population went from a little
more than 10 million to more than 20 million.
• European cities began to grow and people
started moving from farms and small villages to
towns and cities.
• Many workers lived in overcrowded slum
apartments, called tenements.
• There were few public services and some cities
still used pigs to eat garbage that the residents
produced.
Tenements