industrial revolution

First Central Bank established in England

Thomas Newcomen invented the first productive steam engine.

John Lombe starts his silk factory

James Kay invented the Flying Shuttle, a simple weaving machine.

James Hargreaves invented the Spinning Jenny, which allowed one worker to spin eight spindles

Richard Arkwright invented the water frame, which hooked up spinning machines to a water wheel.

James Watt patented his revision of the steam engine, featuring a separate condenser.

Samuel Crompton invented the spinning mule which combined spinning and weaving into one machine.

Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations.

Watt adapts his steam engine from a reciprocal to a rotary motion.

Edmund Cartwright invented the power loom, which, after 1800 was powered by new steam engines. Replaced the flying shuttle.

Henry Cort invented highly successful iron refining techniques.

Carkwright changes his huge factories over from water power to steam engines.

Combination Acts make it illegal in England for workers to unionize in order to bargain for higher pay or better working conditions.

10 million tons of coal mined in Great Britain.

Richard Trevithick drives the Cornish “puffer” steam powered locomotive down the street of Camborne, England.

Luddite Rebellion begins.

Parliament passes law making it illegal by penalty of death to destroy industrial machines

14 Luddites hanged in Manchester after a rushed one-day trial.

George Stephenson patented a steam engine locomotive that ran on rails.

Stephenson commissioned to construct a 30-mile railway from Liverpool to Manchester.

Stephenson’s Rocket wins the speed contest on the new Liverpool to Manchester railroad. 51 miles of railroad track in Great Britain and the entire world.

Sadler Committee investigates child labor in factories and issues report to Parliament

The first Factory Act provides first small regulation of child labor in textile factories.

Poor Law created “poorhouses” for the destitute

106,000 power looms operating in Great Britain.

Friedrich Engels publishes his observations of the negative effects of industrialization in The Condition of the Working-Class in England.

British government sets up the General Board of Health to investigate sanitary conditions, setting up local boards to ensure safe water in cities.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto.

10,000 people die in three months in London from Cholera epidemic.

6,031 miles of railroad track in Great Britain

Public Health Act gives government responsibility to ensure public health for housing and sewage.

Education Act made school compulsory for children up to age 10.

90% of all ships in the world are built in Great Britain.

35,00 miles of railroad track in Great Britain.

This Factory Act raised the minimum work age to 12 years old

236 million tons of coal mined in Great Britain.

Education Act made school compulsory for children up to age 14

English government mandates and funds compulsory education for all citizens through age 18.