Industrial Revolution
This chapter covers the start of industrialization and automation of production beginning in the 18th century. First the print and paper industries were transformed, while a string of inventors began to understand electricity and how to turn it into both a power source and a medium of communication.
TOPICS
• Power, steel and plastics
• Key developments: Print media, Photography, Electronic media, Energy production, Construction materials
• Steam power
• Electricity
• Thomas Edison
• Nikola Tesla
• Metallurgy
• Plastics and synthetics
• Science in the modern world
• Industrialization and society
• Steam engine graphic
• Electricity basics graphic
• Motors and generators graphic
• Electric motor graphic
• Periodic table graphic
• Modern communication technology timeline
• Thomas Alva Edison portrait
• Nikola Tesla portrait
• Edison Menlo Park lab
The Industrial Revolution, beginning in the 1700s and extending into the late 1800s, and the Modern Era of the 1900s were both times of dramatic change in technology, which led to equally dramatic changes in how people live.
There have in fact been several industrial revolutions according to many historians. The first began about 1760 CE with the introduction of new manufacturing methods and with a new power source, steam. It came to an end between 1820 and 1840 when societal advantages of increased wages and productivity stalled.
The second industrial revolution began around 1870 with a new round of inventions, improved mass production and steel manufacturing methods, and with another new power source, electricity.
Communication technology made dramatic improvements beginning in the 1800s, with machines for paper making and printing that greatly improved production, and then during the second revolution with the emergence of entirely new media: audio recordings, photography, movies, the telegraph and telephone.
The 1900s saw the emergence of electronic media, including radio and television, as electricity became available to most households. Within a few decades movies gained sound and television color. Improved methods of recording and distributing electronic media became available by mid-century, such as audio and video tape. Integrated circuits using transistors made electronic devices cheap and portable.
Following World War II plastics manufacturing provided an inexpensive and easily molded material with which to manufacture a wide range of products including electronic devices.
It was during these two centuries, the 19th and 20th, that communication technology was transformed. By the 1970s and on the threshhold of the Digital Age, people in most parts of the world had access to an unprecedented amount of news and information through print, film, broadcast and recorded media.
James Watt
History—James Watt. BBC, 2014.
Electricity
Nikola Tesla: The Extraordinary Life of a Modern Prometheus. Richard Gunderman, The Conversation Jan. 2018.
Power from the people: Rural Electrification brought more than lights. Harold D. Wallace Jr., National Museum of American History, Feb. 12, 2016.
An introduction to electric motors. st.com.
Lightning and Sparks: Did Benjamin Franklin’s Kite Actually Exist? bbvaopenmind.com, Oct. 18, 2018.
List of Edison patents. Wikipedia.
Electric motors. Chris Woodford, explainthatstuff.com, July 25, 2020.
The invention of the electric motor 1800-1854. Martin Doppelbauer, Elektrotechnisches Institut (ETI).
Benjamin Franklin and the Kite Experiment. Nancy Gupton, The Franklin Institute, June 12, 2017.
The Kite Experiment, 19 October 1752. National Archives.
Thomas Edison. history.com editors, June 6, 2019.
The True Story Behind Ben Franklin's Lightning Experiment. Rachel Semigran, mentalfloss.com, Aug. 10, 2015.
Michael Faraday’s generator. The Royal Institution.
Michael Faraday’s motor and generator. The Royal Institution.
The Rise and Fall of Nikola Tesla and his Tower. Gilbert King, Smithsonian Magazine, Feb. 4, 2013.
The History of Electricity – A Timeline. Gilbert King, thehistoricalarchive.com.
History of Electricity. Mary Bellis, thoughtco.com, Oct. 7, 2019.
A Biography of Michael Faraday, Inventor of the Electric Motor. Tuan C. Nguyen, thoughtco.com, Oct. 28, 2020.
Steel
The ‘Copper Age’—A History of the Concept. Mark Pearce, Journal of World Prehistory Vol. 32, pages 229–250, 2019.
History of Metal Casting. Dr. Altan Turkeli, Marmara University, Turkey.
Copper Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age. factsanddetails.com.
Steel Production. Lumen Learning: History of Western Civilization II.
History of Casting. industrialmetalcastings.com.
The History of Steel. Terence Bell, thoughtco.com, Aug. 21, 2020.
Global crude steel output increases by 3.4% in 2019. World Steel Association, Jan. 27, 2020.
Plastics
The Early History of Insulated Copper Wire. Allan A. Mills, Annals of Science Vol. 61, No. 4, 453-467, 2004.
Gutta Percha Company. wikipedia.org.
Types of Synthetic Rubber. industrialrubbergoods.com.
Bakelite: The Plastic That Made History. American Chemistry Council, Oct. 29, 2018.
History and Future of Plastics. Science History Institute.
The Early History of Insulated Copper Wire. Allan A. Mills, Taylor & Francis, Nov. 5, 2010.
Elements
Cyclopædia of Useful Arts, Mechanical and Chemical, Manufactures, Mining, and Engineering. Charles Tomlinson, G. Virtue & Co. 1854.
Your old phone is full of untapped precious metals. Bianca Nogrady, BBC, Oct. 18, 2016.
Free Printable Periodic Tables. sciencenotes.org.
Properties of the Basic Metals Element Group. Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D., thoughtco.com, Nov. 13, 2019.
Social Impact
A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World (The Princeton Economic History of the Western World). Gregory Clark, Princeton University Press 2009.
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Last update: May 2021
Content related to this chapter’s topics will be periodically posted here.
The origin of the employee
Why the Law Still Can’t Tell an Employee When It Sees One and How It Ought to Stop Trying. Richard Carlson, UC Berkely School of Law, 2001.
In this paper the author discusses how one of the effects of the Industrial Revolution was to create the concept of a paid employee, in contrast to servants and serfs beholden to a noble house.
Congratulations! You’re an entrepreneur now. The Uncertain Hour 3-part podcast, Feb. 3, 2021.
This series discusses how employees are now being shifted into 'entrepreneur' positions as companies seek to avoid the responsibilities the come with employing full-time workers.
Pony Express
A Brief History. National Park Service—History & Culture.
In an early example of technology displacing traditional systems, the Pony Express only lasted 18 months before a transcontinental telegraph line made it obsolete.
Plastics and petroleum
The First Step Is Admitting You Have a Problem. Michael Patrick F. Smith, The New York Times, Feb. 5, 2021.
In this opinion piece the author discusses how the demand for petroleum, from which modern plastics are made and thus a vital component for most communication devices, has become a significant environmental problem.
Last update: July 2021