The Industrial Revolution

Great Britain was the world leader in the creation of modern industry.The industrialization process began in the eighteen century and was called the Industrial Revolution.  This revolution caused invention of machines and the construction of canals and railways.Before 1698,the only power people had was that produced by their own muscles and those of animal. In that year an  English engineer, Thomas Savery , built a steam pump to remove water from mines.The first invention that transformed the textile industry was the flying shuttle invented by John Kay in 1733.Later in 1764 James Hargraves invented the spinning jenny that enabled one person to spin as much thread as sixteen. The most important invention was the steam engine by James Watt in 1765.                                                                                                                                                        The Industrial Revolution  was important because changed living condition: before most people lived in the country and worked on the land after many factories developed in or near town and a lot of families moved from the countryside to the cities to find work in the new factories.

Their living and working condition were very poor. In town worker lived in slums(very dirty and poor quarters in industrial cities)  and in factories women and children worked in bad condition, sixteen hours a day near noisy,dusty and dangerous machinery and they were forced to accept many hours of labour and lower wages,a third or a sixt of a man’s wage.