224
power became clear. The earliest
steam engines had been used
mainly as pumps. Watts’s rotating
engine, on the other hand, could
power machinery. The engineering
company he and Matthew Boulton
established in Birmingham in 1775
produced over 500 steam engines.
When Watts’s patents expired
in 1800, others started producing
their own steam engines. The
textile industries in the northwest
benefited in particular from the
increased availability of steam
power, and large-scale, almost
entirely mechanized, factory
production soon replaced small,
home-based manufacturing. By
1835, there were more than 120,000
power looms in textile mills. No
longer dependent on rivers as
power sources, factories could be
built anywhere, and they came to
be concentrated in towns in the
north and Midlands of England that
rapidly grew into major industrial
centers as the century progressed.Social changes
Huge numbers of workers were
drawn to these new cities, which
became synonymous with poor
living and working conditions forthe workforce, many of whom were
children. This influx led to the
creation of an urban underclass. It
took a long time before the workers
saw any improvement in their lives,
and the realization that they should
share in the rewards of this social
and economic transformation, rather
than simply be exploited as mere
drudges, came very slowly. In the
meantime, however, the increasingly
wealthy factory owners emerged as
a significant political voice.The wider world
As late as 1860, Britain was, by
some way, still the world’s leading
industrial and mercantile power, but
other Western nations were quick to
see how they too could benefit. In
continental Europe, industrialization
was initially uncertain, inhibited
by the kind of political instability
Britain had managed to avoid, such
as the revolutions of 1848. Later, the
pace of its development would rival
Britain’s. In 1840, Germany and
France each had around 300 miles
(480km) of railway lines; in 1870,
both had 10,000 miles (16,000km).
Similarly, pig-iron output from each
rose from about 125,000 tons in
1840 to 1 million in 1870.STEPHENSON’S ROCKET ENTERS SERVICE
However, the most startling
developments came in the United
States, where there were around
3,300 miles (5,300km) of railway
in 1840, almost all in the northeast.
By 1860, this had increased to
32,000 miles (51,500km), and by
1900 it had soared to 193,000 milesIsambard Kingdom
BrunelNo figure better encapsulates
the determination, ambition, and
vision that drove the first phase of
the Industrial Revolution in Britain
than the prodigiously hard-
working Isambard Kingdom
Brunel (1806–59). He was
responsible for an extraordinary
series of firsts: the world’s longest
bridge (the Clifton Suspension
Bridge), the world’s longest tunnel
(Box Tunnel in Wiltshire), and the
world’s largest ship (the Great
Eastern). In 1827, still only 21, he
was appointed chief engineer of
the Thames Tunnel. In 1833, he
became engineer to the newlyformed Great Western Railway,
which by 1841 linked London
directly with Bristol, whose
docks he had rebuilt from 1832.
Believing it should be possible
to travel directly from London to
New York, Brunel also designed
the world’s first practical ocean-
going steamship, the Great
Western. He followed this with
the screw-driven iron-built Great
Britain. Despite his great vision,
delays and cost overruns dogged
many of Brunel’s projects, but
his works include some of the
grandest feats of engineering
the world had yet seen.The Bessemer process, devised by
the English engineer of the same name
to convert iron into steel, improved the
efficiency of all industries—from
transport to the military.US_220-225_Stephensons-Rocket.indd 224 15/02/2016 16:43
225
(310,600km) of rail track. The
production of pig iron rose similarly:
in 1810, it was a little less than
100,000 tons a year; in 1850, it was
approaching 700,000 tons; in 1900,
it was over 13 million.The role of steel
By about 1870, in both Europe
and the United States, a second
wave of industrialization began,
in which oil, chemicals, electricity,
and steel became increasingly
important. The production of steel
had been transformed after 1855,
when English engineer Henry
Bessemer devised a way to make
the metal lighter, stronger, and
more versatile; from that point
forward, steel would prove the
linchpin for industry. In 1870,
total world steel production
was 540,000 tons, but within
25 years it had risen to 14 million
tons, and railways, armament
production, and the shipbuilding
industry all benefited from its
ready availability.
While Germany was beginning
to threaten Britain’s industrial
preeminent position in Europe,
quadrupling its industrial output
between 1870 and 1914, the United
States was rapidly becoming the
world’s largest industrial power.
In 1880, Britain was still producing
more steel than the United States,
but by 1900 the United States was
producing more steel than Britain
and Germany together.
At the same time, steam-
powered ships were also being
introduced. Sailing times, no longer
dependent on the vagaries of the
wind, became more controllable,
and journey times were shortened.
The ships were significantly larger,
too. While the largest wooden ships
rarely exceeded 200ft (60m) in
length, the Great Eastern, launched
in 1858, was 689ft (210m) long.Total world steamship tonnage in
1870 was 1.4 million. By 1910, it
had reached 19 million.Winners and losers
The benefits of industrialization
were unevenly spread. Southern
Europe was slow to react to it, and
Russia also struggled to catch up.
The Chinese and Indian empires
proved unwilling or unable to
industrialize, Latin America did so
only intermittently, and Africa
was dominated by technologically
superior powers. By contrast,
after 1868, Japan’s single-minded
pursuit of industrialization made
it a world power.
Industrialization also made
possible a new kind of warfare, one
capable of bringing death on a scaleCHANGING SOCIETIES
never seen before. An enduring
irony of industrialization is that the
nations that benefited most from it
turned it against themselves in two
world wars, deploying weapons of
extraordinarily destructive power.
The Industrial Revolution laid
the foundations for the modern
world. Fueled by an enormous
sense of new possibilities, in
some places it raised living
standards across all sections of
society in ways unimaginable
in earlier ages. However, in the
wealthy West, it also produced
a sense that material superiority
was equivalent to a kind of moral
superiority, one that not merely
made it possible for the West to
dominate the world, but demanded
that it do so. ■The Industrial
Revolution was driven
by several factors, chief
among them science,
agriculture, finance
(cost and reward), and
transport networks.Industrialization
was made possible by
a scientific revolution
that began in the late
1600s and transformed
understanding of the
natural world.Improved crop
yields wiped out
famine in much of
Europe and directly
contributed to the
growing populations.Steam-powered
ships were
bigger and faster,
and they made a
genuinely global
market a reality.Mass production
cost companies less,
and the ability to
produce more goods
also meant higher
potential sales.US_220-225_Stephensons-Rocket.indd 225 15/02/2016 16:43