The Industrial Revolution
Changes in the Textile Industry
James Hargreaves and Edmund Cartwright
James Hargreaves greatly changed the textile industry with his invention of the spinning jenny, which helped spinners create yarn in greater quantities. This prevented shortages and increased efficiency, but the cloth production couldn't keep up. This ended in 1787 when Edmund Cartwright created a water powered loom that wove cloth efficiently enough that it kept up with the spinning of yarn.
James Watt and the Steam and Rotary Engines
James Watt was a Scottish engineer who changed the cotton and coal industries greatly with his inventions of the rotary and steam engines. They both brought productivity and efficiency to new heights. The steam engine could pump water from mines 3 times as fast, and the rotary engine could turn a shaft much more efficiently which helped out the cotton industry greatly.
Richard Trevithick, George Stephenson, and the Locomotive
Richard Trevithick built the first steam powered locomotive for industrial rail use in southern Wales. It wasn't all that impressive, boasting a maximum speed of 5 mph and could pull 70 people and 10 tons of coal. While in today's standards that isn't all that impressive, it was huge for its time. The next major step was taken by George Stephenson. He created a much better engine and was the first public locomotive. It was in England, and the railway stretched from Manchester to Liverpool, and the locomotive was able to traverse the 32 miles at 16 miles per hour.
Electricity
The Telephone and Radio
Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876 and Guglielmo Marconi sent the radio message across the Atlantic 1901. This sparked an age of communication that is still in affect today. These evens were the sparks that brought us to the age of communication with phones and computers that we have now.
