Ken’s Notes Session 4

‘Industrial Revolution’.............what does it mean to you? Brainstorm!

Cameron argues that the term is misleading as Revolution implies a ‘suddeness’ which is not
really characteristic of economic progress.

By the beginning of 18th Century there were sizeable concentrations of manufacturing

industry in Textiles (Cloth and Clothing) that can be referred to as ‘Proto-industrialization’

(definition: Proto-Industrialization was a possible phase in the development of modern

industrial economies that preceded, and created conditions for, the establishment of fully
industrial societies)

The ‘Putting Out System’ or ‘the Domestic System’ was such type of system in the textile
industry The putting-out system was a system of domestic manufacturing that was prevalent
in rural areas of western Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It was the
production of goods in private homes under the supervision of a merchant who "put out"
the raw materials, paid a certain sum per finished piece, and sold the completed item to a
distant market.
This proto-industry was all down by the hands of individuals working on small machines in
their own cottages (little farm houses) Cottage industry. Inventors had been working hard
on the machines to improve the process of making textiles. See the notes in Moodle

But the big question was why not make some of these small mechanisms which were used
for creating cloth 100 times bigger and put them in a building that would be big enough to
house them. They would have had a source of power strong enough to drive the mechanism.
They used in the ‘Domestic System’ human power – pedal power. Later they used the
power of water and built water mills. But these required a source of water so industry had to
be located near to the rivers. What else could they do?

One of the developments that helped them arrive at a solution was through another innovation
in the metals industry. Blacksmiths working in forges and iron foundries used to use
Charcoal.

They would get a material like this:

They used it to smelt (extract metal from its ore by a process involving heating and
melting) iron as the temperatures it produced were quite high.

But then they discovered that if they used coke (coal that has all of its impurities taken away
through a heating process) they could get even higher temperatures. Abraham Darby
discovered this process. If you heat the coal you will drive off the impurities and you will be
left with pure carbon. Through a process of ‘Puddling and Rolling’ where you stirred the
liquid metal and you made the iron purer you could make what is known as wrought iron
which is iron that can be shaped very easily. So, now they needed lots of coal.

In Britain there was evidence of coal in many places on the surface but they knew that there
was a lot more of it under the ground. So, they mined it. While mining they realized that
there was always a danger of flooding which would halt the process of mining. That problem
was solved by another important innovation the Steam Engine which produced steam power
and was applied to pumping the water out of the coal mines. It needed big quantities of
coal to do so but it worked.

It was Thomas Newcomen who created the ‘Atmospheric Steam Pump’. James Watt later
took out a patent on the steam engine and eventually teamed up with Boulton to apply the
technology directly to bigger textile production facilities. Edward Cartwright – a
clergyman inventor produced the power loom which greatly increased the capacity to
produce cloth. Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin sped up the process of producing cotton which
contributed in the same way. The increased demand for cloth was accompanied by these
innovations and matched by ever increasing imports of cotton from the Caribbean islands
and Southern USA (worked by African slaves and their descendents). As the cost of
production went down –production went up and as cotton imports went up the cost of
cloth went down making it more affordable. This was a positive cycle of growth. The
gains made in the cotton industry served to stimulate innovation in the wool and linen
industries.

Transportation

With increased commercial activity cheaper and more efficient transport was required.
Britain already had excellent water routes and a very long coastline with excellent natural
harbours. These systems had already seen high capital investment but Britain was going to
need even more.

The 1750s is often referred to as the ‘Canal Age’.

Now used for tourism

Between 1750 and 1820 4,500 km of canals were added to the 1,500km already in
existence.

Private firms had charters (like a license or permission) from Parliament so they could
operate toll roads. There had been Turnpike Trusts that operated ‘turnpike gates’ which
opened to allow you to use good roads for a fee.
Transport still needed to improve. The railways came to the fore first as a system to carry
coal away from the mines.

Richard Trevithick from Cornwall in England is credited with inventing the first high-
pressure steam engine and the first operational steam locomotive (train) at the turn of the
19th century. With his work in the mines, he learned of the importance of the steam engine
for pumping and hoisting the ore from the mine. Because Cornwall had no coalfields, it was
expensive to import the coal required for the steam engine and it was important that the
engine operated efficiently. Trevithick focused on improving the efficiency of the
extremely large, low pressure steam engine invented by James Watt. Trevithick thought
that utilizing steam at high pressures would enable the engines to be made much more
compact and more efficient.
Richard Trevithick’s “Puffing Devil”.

Trevithick's interests soon turned to designing high-pressure steam engines to power

locomotives. On Christmas Eve in 1801, he unveiled his first high-pressure steam locomotive
and took seven friends on a short journey. Known as the "Puffing Devil," the locomotive
was able to keep up the steam pressure for short journeys. Three years later, Trevithick
produced the world's first steam engine to run successfully on rails, which he believed
would be more effective than horse drawn wagons pulling the heavy loads of coal and
iron to and from the mines. The locomotive was capable of hauling ten tons of iron, 70
passengers, and five wagons from the ironworks at Penydarren to the Merthyr-Cardiff Canal.
The locomotive reached speeds of nearly five miles an hour over the nine mile journey,
which was completed in 4 hours and 5 minutes. Unfortunately for Trevithick, his inventions
were a bit ahead of their time as the cast-iron rails were not strong enough to support the
weight of his locomotives and kept breaking. It was several years before steam locomotion
became commercially viable.
From asme.org’s website link: https://www.asme.org/engineering-
topics/articles/transportation/richard-trevithick

George Stephenson was born on 9 June 1781 near Newcastle-upon-Tyne. His father was an
engineman at a coalmine. Stephenson himself worked at the mine and learned to read and
write in his spare time. In 1814, Stephenson constructed his first locomotive, 'Blucher', for
hauling coal at Killingworth Colliery near Newcastle. In 1821, Stephenson was appointed
engineer for the construction of the Stockton and Darlington railway. It opened in 1825
and was the first public railway. The following year Stephenson was made engineer for the
Liverpool to Manchester Railway. In October 1829, the railway's owners staged a
competition at Rainhill to find the best kind of locomotive to pull heavy loads over long
distances. Thousands came to watch. Stephenson's locomotive 'Rocket' was the winner,
achieving a record speed of 36 miles (54 Km) per hour.

The opening of the Stockton to Darlington railway and the success of 'Rocket' stimulated the
laying of railway lines and the construction of locomotives all over the country. Liverpool to
Manchester in 1830 was the first big one to be opened. Stephenson became engineer on a
number of these projects and was also consulted on the development of railways in Belgium
and Spain.

From the BBC History website link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/stephenson_george.shtml

Overview

Whatever we may say or disagree about what the era should be called i.e., whether it should
be called a ‘revolution’ or not we can say that the period is characterized by:

1) The Extensive use of mechanically powered machinery

2) The introduction of new sources of power
3) The widespread use of material that normally does not occur in nature
4) Larger scale of enterprise/business in most industries
The changes were not just ‘Industrial’........... ...there were Social changes

Intellectual changes

Commercial changes

Financial changes

Agricultural changes

Political changes

Of these you could say that the ‘Intellectual Changes’ was the most profound as the 18th
Century in England could be said to be the age of the ‘autodidacts’ - the self-taught, the
tinkerers, the mechanical people.....the ones who were prepared to try things-inventors! The
appliance of science came more in the 19th Century. The 18th Century was more about a
society that was happy to experiment and to innovate.

Nowhere was this more obvious than in the area of agricultural innovation. Again this
was a trial and error situation.

Crop Rotation

Fodder Crops

Selective Breeding

The Enclosure System – see the Prezi in MOODLE

The increased agricultural productivity (farming producing a lot more per person
employed in the industry) helped to feed an increasing population. Agriculture became
more market-orientated.........producing goods for a profit and not just a surplus that was
sold after a farmer took what he needed to feed himself and his family. It became a more
capitalistic agriculture.

Britain had an advantage as after the Glorious Revolution it was the interests of the landed
classes and the merchants that steered and influence economic policy in Britain. Britain
had constitutional monarchy. Tax was highly regressive (Under a regressive tax system,
individuals with low incomes pay a higher amount of that income in taxes compared to high-
income earners). The rich paid relatively little and this allowed for the accumulation of
capital for investment which contributed greatly towards industrialization.
The most obvious change was the use of machinery/mechanical power in the process of
making things. In the beginning this power was generated by water power in the production
of grain milling (bread), textiles and metallurgy.

The nucleus of the technological changes were concentrated in Cotton, Iron and
Steam.........and from these came about great changes in Pottery, Soap, Paper, Glass, Dyes as
huge commercial enterprises. Industries that would help Britain become the industrial
superpower.

Remember – the combination of the surplus labour in the agricultural sector and the
creation of areas with new industry requiring labour to produce the new products we saw
a major demographic shift (population shift) from rural to urban. We also saw a general
raising up of living standards but a time when income distribution became much more
unequal.

19th Century
The 19th Century was characterized much more by the appliance of science and
innovation rather than invention. Now scientific theories were applied in the production
process particularly in electricity, optics, metallurgy, power production, food production,
agriculture and chemicals. The technological improvement of the 19th Century can be best
understood in terms of the interaction of scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs. Output
in manufacturing industry was greatly accelerated by ‘numerous minor technical
improvement’ Cameron. Manufacturing became bigger, better and more powerful.

On the continent and in the USA industrialists and the governments of different countries
could be said to have ‘devoted themselves to acquiring and naturalizing the technological
gains of British Industry’ Cameron. Britain had made huge advances in textiles and Iron
which were being extensively supported by coal. Coal had become incredibly important.
By 1850 half of the British population lived in urban areas.

Britain’ rise to manufacturing superiority an political power has often been described
as the triumph of ‘Laissez-faire liberal economics – a complete myth.

USA and Germany (both as yet un-united) were the two big industrial movers of the 19th
Century.

In the USA the politics of Henry Clay and the theories of Henry Charles Carey were
instrumental in driving the industrialization process there.
The centre-piece of Clay’s statecraft was an integrated economic program called ‘the American System.’ This
envisioned a protective tariff, a national bank jointly owned by private stockholders and the federal
government, and federal subsidies for transportation projects (‘internal improvements’). Public lands in the
West were to be sold rather than given away to homesteaders so the proceeds could be used for education and
internal improvements. The program was intended to promote economic development and diversification,
reduce dependence on imports, and tie together the different sections of the country.

The History Channel Link: http://www.history.com/topics/henry-clay

All of the following about Henry Charles Carey comes from

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Henry_Charles_Carey

Henry Charles Carey (December 15, 1793 –October 13, 1879), was an American economist and sociologist,
often regarded as the founder of the American school of economics. He is best known for his criticism of what
he called the "British System" of laissez-faire free trade capitalism, and advocacy for the "American System"
of developmental capitalism, based on tariff protection and government intervention to encourage production.

Although Carey recognized that there were natural economic dynamics that would allow a society to prosper,
he also realized that the selfishness of individuals, and groups of individuals, often worked to prevent the
prosperity of society as a whole. Thus, he advocated the intervention of government to protect society.

Principles of Political Economy became the most comprehensive as well as the most mature exposition of
Carey's views. In it, Carey sought to show that there exists, independently of human will, a natural system of
economic laws. He regarded this as essentially beneficent, the spontaneous result of which is the increasing
prosperity of the whole community, and especially of the working classes, and which is defeated only by the
ignorance or perversity of man resisting or impeding its action. He rejected the pessimistic Malthusian doctrine
of population, claiming that the only situation in which the means of subsistence will determine population
growth is one in which a given society is not being radically productive (by introducing new technologies or
adopting forward-thinking governmental policy). He argued that numbers regulate themselves sufficiently in
every well-governed society, but their pressure on subsistence characterizes the lower, not the more advanced,
stages of civilization. He denied as universal truth, for all stages of cultivation, the law of diminishing returns
from land.

Views on land

Carey's fundamental theoretical position relates to the antithesis of wealth and value. Carey held that land, as
people are concerned with in industrial life, is really an instrument of production that has been formed as such
by humans. He suggested that its value is due to the labor expended on it in the past, not by the sum of that
labor, but by the labor necessary under existing conditions to bring new land to the same stage of
productiveness. He studied the occupation and reclamation of land with the peculiar advantage of an American,
for whom the traditions of first settlement were living and fresh, and before whose eyes the process was indeed
still going on.

Carey rejected the Ricardian theory of rent, as a speculative fancy, contradicted by all experience. Cultivation
does not, as that theory supposes, begin with the best land, and move downwards to the poorer soils in the order
of their inferiority. Carey argued that, in reality, the light and dry higher lands are cultivated first; and only
when population has become dense and capital has accumulated are the low-lying lands, with their greater
fertility, but also with their morasses, inundations, and other challenges, attacked and brought under
cultivation. Rent, regarded as a proportion of the produce, sinks, like all interest on capital, over time, but, as
an absolute amount, increases. The share of the laborer increases, both as a proportion and an absolute
amount. And thus, in Carey's view, the interests of these different social classes are in harmony. But, Carey
proceeded to say, in order that this harmonious progress may be realized, what is taken from the land must be
given back to it.

Views on free trade

Although Carey initially supported the free trade laissez-faire system of economy, in his book, Principles of
Political Economy, he made a fundamental departure from those ideas. The economic crisis of 1837 struck him
hard, causing him to revise many of his ideas. He became a fierce advocate of protectionism and opponent of
free trade. He attacked classical economics as being rooted in the “wrong” premise. That whole British
system:
has for its object an increase in the number of persons that are to intervene between the producer and the
consumer—living on the product of the land and labour of others, diminishing the power of the first, and
increasing the number of the last…. The impoverishing effects of the system were early obvious, and to the
endeavour to account for the increasing difficulty of obtaining food where the whole action of the laws tended
to increase the number of consumers of food and to diminish the number of producers, was due the invention of
the Malthusian theory of population (The Harmony of Interests: Agricultural, Manufacturing and
Commercial, 1851).

He also criticized the economy based on the slave system. In his The Slave Trade, Domestic and
Foreign (1853), he wrote:
By adopting the "free trade," or British, system, we place ourselves side by side with the men who have
ruined Ireland and India, and are now poisoning and enslaving the Chinese people. By adopting the other, we
place ourselves by the side of those whose measures tend not only to the improvement of their own subjects, but
to the emancipation of the slave everywhere, whether in the British Islands, India, Italy, or America.

Carey, who had set out as an earnest advocate of free trade, accordingly arrived at the doctrine of protection:
the coordinating power in society must intervene to prevent private advantage from working public mischief. He
attributed his conversion on this question to his observation of the effects of liberal and
protective tariffs respectively on American prosperity. This observation, he said, threw him back on theory, and
led him to see that the intervention referred to might be necessary to remove (as he phrased it) the obstacles to
the progress of younger communities created by the action of older and wealthier nations. However, it seems
probable that the influence of Friedrich List's writings, added to his own deep-rooted and hereditary jealousy
and dislike of British predominance, also had something to do with his change of attitude.

Legacy

Henry Carey is often regarded as the founder of the American school of economics. He challenged the
pessimism of British classical economic theory, which assumed that landlord and tenant, capital and labor,
always had opposing interests. Carey’s views were more optimistic. He claimed that by raising wages the
purchasing power also grows, which in turn produces economic growth. With this idea, Carey can be seen as a
predecessor of Henry Ford’s "wage motive.”

Carey’s treatise Principles of Political Economy, which was translated into Italian and Swedish, became the
standard representation of the American school of economic thought that, with some variance, dominated the
economic system of the United States until 1973. His other major work, Principles of Social Science, was
translated into five European languages as well as Japanese. Thus, his work was influential abroad as well as
in the United States, often used to argue for an alternative to laissez-faire policies.

In Germany it was the theories of Frederich List that aided industrialization there.

19th Century Inventions and Innovation

YEAR INVENTION INVENTOR

1800 Electric Battery  Alessandro Volta

1821 Difference Engine Charles Babbage

1824 Braille Louis Braille

1827 Ohm's Law George Simon Ohm

Electromagnetic Induction Michael Faraday

1831

1832 Electric Carriage Robert Anderson

1836 Revolver Colt Samuel Colt

1842    

1843 computer program Ada Lovelace

Fax Machine Alexander Bain
Printing Press, Rotary Richard Hoe
 Vulcanized Rubber Charles Goodyear
1846 Sewing Machine Elais Howe

Safety Pin Walter Hunt

1849

Elevator Elisha Graves Otis

1852 Francis Wolle
Paper Bag

1855 Bessemer Furnace Henry Bessemer

Brick Making Machine John Williamson Crary 

1858
Can Opener Ezra Warner

1859 Escalator Nathan Ames

Vacuum Cleaner Daniel Hess

1860
Yale Lock Linus Yale

1863 Printing Press, Web Rotary William Bullock

1866 Dynamite Alfred Nobel

Baby Formula Henri Nestlé

1867
Typewriter Christopher Sholes

Air Brake    George Westinghouse

1869
Motorcycle Sylvester Roper

1870 Chewing Gum Thomas Adams

1872 Lubrication System Elijah McCoy

Barbed Wire Joseph Glidden

1873 Blue Jeans Jacob Davis and Levi Strauss

QWERTY Keyboard Christopher Sholes

1875
Steel Industry Andrew Carnegie

1876 Arc Lighting System Charles Brush

Carpet Sweeper Melville Bissell
Internal Cmbustion Engine Nicholaus Otto
Refrigerator Carl Linde
 Telephone Alexander Graham Bell

1877 Toilet Paper Seth Wheeler

1878

Light Bulb Thomas Edison & Joseph Swan

1879
Ivory Soap Harley Procter

1881 Carbon Filament Louis Latimer

1882 Christmas Lights Edward Johnson

1884 Roll of Film George Eastman

1885 Halftone Printing Process Frederic Eugene Ives

Avon Cosmetics David H. McConnell

Coca-Cola Dr. John S. Pemberton
1886
Linotype Ottmar Mergenthaler
Transformer William Stanley

 Multiplex Railway Telegraph    Granville Woods

1887
Pneumatic Tire John Dunlop

Camera, Kodak George Eastman

Electric Power AC Nikola Tesla Thomas Edison
1888
Spray Atomizer Allen De Vilbiss
Teleautograph Elisha Gray

Automobile Karl Benz

1889 Electromagnetic Theory of Light Heinrich Hertz
Matches Joshua Pusey

1890 Punched Card Machine Herman Hollerith

Swiss Army Knife Carl Elsene

1891
Travelers Cheques Marcellus F. Berry

F.W. Rueckheim
1893
Modern Architecture Frank Lloyd Wright

Pupin Inductance Coil Michael Pupin

1894
Scientific Business Management Frederick Winslow Taylor
 Wireless Telegraph Guglielmo Marconi
1895
Schwinn Bicycle Ignaz Schwinn

1896 Peanut Agricultural Science George Washington Carver

Aspirin Felix Hoffmann

1897
Jell-O Pearle B. Wait

1899 Paper Clip William Middlebrook