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Narratives : First Industrial Revolution http://www.zum.de/whkmla/sat/texts/narrindrev.html |
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Energy. The event which marks the beginning of the First Industrial Revolution (1769-1829) is the improvement
of Robert Newcomen's steam engine of 1705/1712 by James Watt in 1769. By attaching a cooling mechanism,
Watt turned the steam engine into a reliable, efficient supplier of kinetic energy, based on the burning of
coal. Prior to the First Industrial Revolution, energy sources used for production were wood, charcoal, coal (in kilns, forgeries etc.), human and animal power. In order to use kinetic energy, windmills and watermills were the most frequent suppliers, watermills being more reliable, as water could be stored in ponds and released in the desired amount. Reasons for coal hitherto not being a widely used source of energy were several : (a) it was heavy, and transportation over longer distances cost prohibitive and (b) coal could only be produced at the surface; pits deeper than a few meters quickly filled up with water. Only the steam engine would be capable of supplying sufficient energy to operate pumps which pumped the water out of the mines and thus permitted the mining industry to enter hitherto untouched deposits below the surface. And the coming of the railroad permitted transporting coal over large distances, thus turning it into the dominating energy source of the 19th century. Proto-Industries. In mediaeval Europe, proto-industrial production was mainly conducted within the framework of the guild system. Master craftsmen operated workshops, which usually were located in the first floor of their houses; they oversaw the work done by a few journeymen and apprentices. The market was regulated, as the guild controlled the supply of raw material allocated to individual master craftsmen (for example, leather for shoemakers) and regulated the number of members (to avoid ruinous competition). The guild ensured quality standards; it enjoyed a privilege which forbade any competition within a ban mile. The last new industry to be organized within the guild system was the printing press, following Gutenberg's invention in the 1450es. In the following centuries, new industries / forms of production arose. (a) Cottage Industries. A cottage is not defined by the size of the house, but rather by the size of the land belonging to it; a cottager does not have enough land to feed his family, and thus is dependent on additional income. This could be provided by spinning or weaving, an entrepreneur bringing the raw material, picking up the finished product and paying for the work done. In mountain regions, farmers and cottagers used their idle time to produce items based on wood (toys, furniture, the Black Forest cuckoo clocks). The latter were produced and sold by cooperatives, did not involve entrepreneurs. (b) Glass producing factories emerged in mountain regions, where both silicate and wood were available in abundance, the wood having to be processed into charcoal in order to achieve the right temperature. Many of these factories were outside of towns; they operated on a scale larger than that of a master craftsman's workshop. (c) Watermills. The early metal industry required a combination of factors : a valley location, so that the energy of a descending rivulet could be tapped, and the availability of coal and metal ores nearby. Such enterprises, which, in Germany in the Ruhr and Wupper regions, in Belgium on Maas and Sambre etc., produced metal tools, wire, anvils, usually were operated in small, often family-run enterprises. The founder obtained a permission from the territorial lord (to be safe in case he was sued by a guild). Such enterprises often were compatible in size to guild workshops, but not in the scale of energy used. The main supplier of energy was the main axle, powered by the waterwheel. Through belts, rotation energy was transmitted to secondary axles, which powered individual machines. (d) Manufactures. Factory-size enterprises, where several stages of a production process were combined in one enterprise, employing a considerable number of workers. For instance, porcelain manufactures, where shaping the pots / plates etc., burning them, painting them etc. were combined in one enterprise. As the name indicates, most of the work was still be done by hand. The new industries of the late 17th and 18th century were often organized this way, porcelain already mentioned. Manufactures often were granted a monopoly, fitting into the Mercantilistic economic policy of the time. In the scope and organization of production, they were predecessors of the factories of the 19th century. Why England ? The citical invention, the steam engine, requires an abundance of coal. England has it, France has little, Italy practically none. But Belgium and Germany do have coal; yet - despite even a stronger tradition in metal protoindustry, the Industrial Revolution in Belgium and Germany took off decades after it had started in England. The main explanations are twofold : (a) in England, the Agricultural Revolution had both set free a considerable segment of the population hitherto employed in food production in the countryside (thus creating a class desparate for any kind of paid work) and created a demand for machinery, intended to further reduce the need for workers on the farms. By contrast, in continental Europe (with the exception of the Netherlands, again a country practically without a mining industry), held on to the institution of serfdom until the French Revolution or beyond. (b) England had a better infrastructure, regulations providing for the protection of patents; scientific societies offering incentives for inventions. England, in part due to her colonial trade, had a class of persons affluent enough to put up such incentives; Prussia, by contrast, focussed most of her energies on her military, and lacked regulations regarding the protection of patents, introducing these only comparatively late. The First Industrial Revolution : Major Industries mining industry, steel production (large scale steel mills producing poor quality steel; this was overcome only by the Bessemer technique - blowing oxygen into the furnace), machinery industry, textile industry, transportation. Textile industry - automatization of the spinning and weaving processes; transportation - locomotive Trevilock 1804, steam ship 1817 (contested), train 1829 Stephenson. Environment in which the Industrial Revolutiion took place : a Laissez-Faire economic policy; a large demand for weapons, ammunition, uniforms triggering a boom in key industries (Wars of the Coalition 1792-1815). A seemingly insatiable demand for coal and steel. The rapid progress of the Industrial Revolution triggered the various, competing institutions issuing patents in England being combined, similar intitutions being established in countries in the continent, the process of establishing industrial standards begun. The Industrial Revolution spread beyond the United Kingdom, to the U.S., to Belgium and further into Prussia. The factory, a comparatively large scale production unit, where a number of processes were combined in one enterprise, became the standard unit of industrial production. For the following chapter in the history of technology, click here (Science and Technology 1829-1914) |
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