Tuesday, February 18, 2014
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| 3 Things I Learned |
- New farming techniques and enclosures created unemployment among agricultural workers, leading many to migrate to the towns where they provided cheap labor supply.
- Britain became the first industrialized nation
- Children's small size meant that they could work in confined spaces such as narrow mining tunnels, chimneys, and beneath machinery in factories
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| 2 Interesting things |
-How inventions evolved over the years
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| 1 Question |
Picturing the Past
During the Industrial revolution Turner played a key role in displaying the effects of the new technology. The dreamy affect given off of nature makes one think about how serene and cleansed it was until the industrial revolution began and seemed to sweep out the natural world with its toxins which it displayed in heavy contrast with the darker hues of the steamboat
US Event #2
The economic problems faced by the Congress deeply touched the lives of most Americans in the 1780s. The war had disrupted much of the American economy. On the high seas the British navies had great superiority and destroyed most American ships, crippling the flow of trade. On land, where both armies regularly stole from local farms in order to find food, farmers suffered tremendously.
When the fighting came to an end in 1781, the economy was in a shambles. Exports to Britain were restricted. Further, British law prohibited trade with Britain's remaining sugar colonies in the Caribbean. Thus, two major sources of colonial-era commerce were eliminated. A flood of cheap British manufactured imports that sold cheaper than comparable American-made goods made the post-war economic slump worse. Finally, the high level of debt taken on by the states to fund the war effort added to the economic crisis by helping to fuel rapid inflation.
US Event #1
The Cotton Gin and Eli Whitney
Whitney was born in Westboro, Massachusetts on December 8, 1765 and died on January 8, 1825. He graduated from Yale College in 1792. By April 1793, Whitney had designed and constructed the cotton gin, a machine that automated the separation of cottonseed from the short-staple cotton fiber. With the invention of the cotton gin, mass production of cotton became an easier product to produce.
I relate this to Richard Arkwright's water frame. The water frame thus required large specialized mills, factories that employed as many as one thousand workers from the very beginning. The water frame could spin only a coarse, strong thread, which was then put out for respinning on hand-powered cottage jennies. This allowed for more production to be made as well.
(cotton gin upper photo)
(water frame upper photo)
Samuel Crompton
By definition a spinning mule is an 18th century invention that spun textile fibers into yarn by an intermittent process: in the draw stroke, the roving is pulled through and twisted; on the return it is wrapped onto the spindle. In 1779, Samuel Crompton invented the spinning mule that combined the moving carriage of the spinning jenny with the rollers of the water frame. The spinning mule gave the spinner great control over the weaving process, many different types of yarn could be produced. It was improved upon by William Horrocks, known for his invention of the variable speed batton in 1813. This contribution allowed for the Industrial Revolution to take one step in front of the other.
John Kay
John Kay was the son of a wool manufacturer in Bury, Lancashire. He was just a young man when he became the manager of one of his father's mills. Kay developed skills as a machinist and engineer. He made many improvements to the machines in the mill.In May 1733, Kay patented his "New Engine of Machine for Opening and Dressing Wool". This machine included the Flying Shuttle. Before the invention of the Flying Shuttle, weavers had to pass the shuttle through the warp threads by hand. Kay's invention put the shuttle on wheels and controlled it with a driver. The weaver operated the shuttle by pulling a cord attached to the driver. When this cord was pulled to the left, the driver caused the shuttle to shoot through the warp in the same direction. Pulling the cord to the right sent the shuttle back.The Flying Shuttle was able to do the work of two people even more quickly. In 1753, an angry mob of weavers, afraid of the competition, wrecked Kay's house and destroyed his looms. However, since it halved labour costs, the textile industry was quick to adopt Kay's invention, but it was not so keen to pay him anything for it. The manufacturers formed an association which refused to pay Kay any royalties. Kay lost all of his money in legal battles to defend his patent. He eventually moved to France where he is thought to have died a poor man.
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