���˿���

The Industrial Revolution involved innovation, capital investment and increased output:

Textiles

• John Kay’s Flying Shuttle was a very successful innovation in weaving. Spinning technology needed frequent development over the next fifty years before weaving experienced further major changes.
• James Hargreaves' Spinning Jenny (1764) and later Water Frame (1769), Samuel Crompton's Mule (1779) were spinning machines that all improved upon the quality and quantity of spun yarn. Power Loom (1785) was the first steam-powered weaving machine. Many of these inventions were powered by steam engines (1765).
• Large purpose-built factories were a new idea, eg Arkwright's Mill at Cromford, full of machines.
• Output increased 15-fold in the century 1815-1914.

Iron and steel

• Abraham Darby smelted iron using coke (1709), Henry Cort's puddling process made wrought iron (1784) and Henry Bessemer's Bessemer converter (1856) and the Gilchrist-Thomas process (1879) made steel.
• Huge ironworks, eg Richard Crawshay's Cyfartha works in South Wales and John Roebuck's Carron Works in Scotland.
• Production of 'pig' iron increased 30-fold in the century 1815-1914.

Coal

• Better coal mining techniques allowed deeper mines, eg 'roof and pillar' working to support the roof, upcast and downcast shafts to provide ventilation and the Davy Lamp (1815) invented by to help prevent gas explosions.
• In 1914, the coal industry employed a million men in 3,000 collieries.
• Production of coal increased 20-fold in the century 1815-1914.

Steam power

• In around 1712, built the first commercially successful steam engine to pump water out of mines.
• James Watt made steam engines much more efficient in the 1760s and 1770s giving huge savings on fuel. His other improvements meant steam engines could replace water and horse power in a wide variety of industries, which in turn allowed factories to be built anywhere.