Реферат the industrial revolution работу

INDUSTRY

By the mid-18th century, population growth and increasing foreign trade created a greater demand for manufactured goods. Mass production was achieved by replacing water and animal power with steam power, and by the invention of new machinery and technology. Among other innovations, the introduction of steam power was a catalyst for the Industrial Revolution. James Watt’s improvements to the steam engine, and his collaboration with Matthew Boulton on the creation of the rotative engine, were crucial for industrial production: machinery could now function much faster, with rotary movements and without human power. Coal became a key factor in the success of industrialization; it was used to produce the steam power on which industry depended. Improvements in mining technology ensured that more coal could be extracted to power the factories and run railway trains and steamships. Britain’s cotton and metalworking industries became internationally important, but the manufacture of glass, soap and earthenware also flourished. [3]

The early mechanization of the textile industry and the applications of new technologies, including Richard Arkwright’s water frame for the cotton spinning wheel, revolutionized production in the textile mills. More efficient ways of weaving cotton helped Manchester become the most important British centre of the cotton industry (often called ‘Cottonopolis’) and the world’s first industrial city. Paper money issued in Lancashire shows the importance of the textile industry in the county.

Like Manchester, Dewsbury grew substantially during the 19th century. It became an important centre of the ‘shoddy’ industry: that is, the recycling of old woollen products for the creation of blankets and other woollen goods of inferior quality. A banknote issued in Dewsbury bears an image of a local cotton recycling factory.

The metal industry developed into one of the most profitable in the country from the late 18th century onwards. Exported wares increased the flow of capital into the British economy, and the iron, copper and steel industries played an important role in changes to the country’s infrastructure and in the expansion of transportation networks. By the late 18th century, the west Midlands had become one of Britain’s major industrial centres and the area became known as the ‘Black Country’ because of its landscape of foundries and furnaces. Birmingham saw its metalworking industry flourish: brass fittings, buttons, guns, nails and pins were some of the most important goods that were mass-produced.