Industrial Revolution

Essay by orangeteaB+, January 2009

download word file, 8 pages 4.0 1 reviews

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was a transformation of culture in Europe in the 18th century. It was not just an improvement in terms of technology, but also a change from rural to urban markets and from family-based to industry-based economy. Even though some argued that the Industrial Revolution in Britain brought negative effects such as pollution and social turmoil, the revolution made impressive economic improvements in the development of Britain, which included technical advancements, the emergence of economic liberalism, expansion of the middle class, agricultural development and better living conditions for the lower class.

At first, the Industrial Revolution introduced contamination and social disorder to Britain. New factories were built and the waste they produced went into the rivers and polluted the water. The pollutants produced from the factories were not properly filtered and therefore, contaminated the air. Lands were over cultivated to produce more yields for the rising population.

The divorce rate, crime rate, and suicide rate were higher than before, and diseases were more widely spread because of the congregation of people and their poor hygiene in crowded cities. Some critics marked this era as the beginning of environment devastation since humans started to have control over their environment.

Despite the harmful outcomes the Industrial Revolution brought, its economic impact on technology allowed more production and trading in Britain, for which the Spinning Jenny was invented, canals were built, and steam power was discovered. One of the many technical inventions was the Spinning Jenny, a multi-spool spinning wheel. Manufacturing cotton was time consuming before the invention, but with the Spinning, a worker could work eight or more spools simultaneously. Thus, the invention of the Spinning Jenny made cotton much cheaper and more marketable by producing it in greater quantity and better quality with less labor and time.