Introduction to the Revolution The Industrial revolution was a time of drastic change marked by the general introduction of power-driven machinery. This change generally helped life, but it had its disadvantages as well. Pollution, such as Carbon Dioxide levels in the atmosphere rose, working conditions declined, and the number of women and children working increased. The government, the arts, literature, music, architecture and man's way of looking at life all changed during this period. Two revolutions took place.The first Industrial Revolution was based upon the cotton industry. Most of the inventions made during that period were mainly for manufacturing and producing cotton. John Kay, an English weaver invented the flying shuttle, a product that could cut cotton twice as fast. When other inventors saw what Kay had made, they wanted to do the same. One problem still remained. Yarn was not being fed fast enough through the weaver, but in 1769, two new inventions solved the problem. The spinning jenny and the water-powered frame, both of which fed yarn through the flying shuttle faster. Cleaning the cotton was a boring and time consuming job, so in 1793, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. The gin cleaned cotton up to 50 times faster than a human could. The Steam EngineThe first steam engine was patented in 1769. Invented by James Watt, this steam engine was a combination of previous made engines. The first important development by Watt was a separate cylinder for the steam to exit. Another special design in Watt’s steam engine was that it used atmospheric pressure instead of steam pressure.The Assembly LineThe Assembly Line, often attributed to Henry Ford, was a brilliant idea, which allowed items to be produced at a less expense, and at a faster rate. The principle behind the assembly line was that a worker would stand in one place, a belt would bring the pieces or goods to the worker and he or she would simply ...
