3-2-1 Summary

3 Things I Learned

1. While Thomas Savery invented the first primitive steam engine in 1698, Thomas Newcomen and James Watt both improved the original design to make it more efficient.

2. The inventions of Richard Arkwright (the water frame), Samuel Crompton (the spinning jenny), and Edmund Cartwright (the power loom) were combined into a textile factory.

3.  The Agricultural Revolution improved farming, making it more efficient and causing it to require less labor. The unemployed farmers who were no longer needed on the farms went to the cities and worked in factories and provided cheap labor for factory owners. However, much of the early factory labor was done by small children, especially intendants.

2 Things that Interested Me

1. The Agricultural Revolution started in England partially because no part of the country was far from navigable water, which was used for transportation.

2. "The sun never set on the British empire"

1 Question I Still Have

1. How did the Industrial Revolution spread to Asia?

Spotlight On

 Most people know Eli Whitney as the man who invented the cotton gin. However, that wasn't his only great accomplishment in life. He also came up with the idea to use interchangeable parts to make muskets in 1798. "If standard parts were made by machine, then they could be assembled at the end much more quickly than before." (Americanhistory.about.com) This idea became an important part of American Industry but barely gets any credit. 

Important US Events

1852: Ben Franklin discovers electricity

Ben Franklin believed that electricity could be harnessed from lightening. He had a creative idea for an experiment to test this theory. "Franklin prepared the kite by tying a handkerchief to two crossed sticks of proper length. Extending vertically about a foot from the vertical stick was a wire. The apparatus was extended into the air by a length of string. Along the string of the apparatus was a metal key that would apparently conduct the electricity" (MrNussbaum.com) His experiment was a success and Franklin was able to harness the power of electricity by building a lightning rod on his house. 

Connection across time: After Franklin was able to harness electricity, everyone used it. This is similar to how in modern times, Mark Zuckerberg created the widely used social networking site, Facebook. At first, many people though Zuckerberg was crazy an would never be able to fulfill his ideas. They thought the same about Franklin and electricity. Now, everyone uses electricity and almost everyone uses Facebook. 

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1787: The First cotton mill in America was founded

This is the Beverly Cotton Manufactory,  the first cotton mill to be built in America. It was built by the Thomas Somers and the Cabot brothers. It was the largest cotton mill of its era. It was also a significant milestone in the research and development of cotton mills in the future. The mill was originally designed to be powered by horses, but that turned out to be ineffective. Thus, a water powered milling structure was developed to power the mill.

Connection across time:
The Boeing Everett Factory was built in 1967. It is the largest building in the world, by volume. It can be compared to the Beverly Cotton Manufactory because it is the largest building of this era, like the Manufactory was the largest cotton mill of its era. Both buildings were also new ideas at the time they were built in America.

Important People of the Industrial Revolution

Richard Arkwright

Pioneer of the factory system and inventor of the water frame

He is significant to this time period because he was on of the leading entrepreneurs of the Industrial Revolution. It was with him ideas that the first factory was created to mass produce yarn and thus, he is credited with the invention of the modern day factory system.

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Thomas Savery

He is significant to this time period because he created the first primitive steam engine in 1698. The steam engine was one of the most important inventions of the Industrial Revolution. Savery's original design was later improved by Thomas Newcomen and James Watt.

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Richard Trevithick

He is important to this time period because he created first full-scale working railway steam locomotive. The railway was very important to the Industrial Revolution because it offered fast, reliable transport of manufactured goods and raw materials all throughout the European mainland.

Introduction

The Industrial Revolution

 

The Industrial Revolution was a period between 18th and 19th centuries in which great advancements in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology led to major cultural changes. Throughout this chapter, I hope to learn how different advancements and inventions influenced the cultural aspects of the time. The Industrial Revolution began in England and spread to the rest of Europe. I hope to learn why and how. 

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Essential Question: How did the different advancements and inventions of the Industrial Revolution lead to a completely changed culture in Europe?

*Answer: Advancements in farming from the Agricultural Revolution led to more efficient farming, which required much less labor to get the job done. This left many farmers unemployed and with nowhere to go. The invention of the factory system (The water frame, spinning jenny, and power loom) gave these people somewhere to go, the factories. Thus, less people were left to work on farms and more moved to work in industrialized cities, changing Europe from an agricultural society to an industrialized one.