Inventors and Inventions: Patents, Protest and Power in the Industrial Revolution 1750-1890

This exhibition has now finished

This exhibition explored how some key inventors and their inventions contributed to England´s Industrial Revolution. Mechanisation and new working practices did not unfold in a smooth linear fashion. Protest and resistance formed part of the response to the introduction of new industries like textiles.

Textiles

The textile industry provided the initial response to the Industrial Revolution. The industry was characterised by domestic outwork in the home using very simple devices such as the spinning wheel. James Hargreaves´ Spinning Jenny advanced this hand technology further. Its small-scale construction meant that it was suitable for a domestic environment and easy for children to use. This was in contrast to Richard Arkwright´s water frame which he did not invent, but which was patented in his name and which helped launch the era of large-scale production. Edmund Cartwright revolutionized the weaving industry with his invention of the power loom. However, unlike Arkwright who was a highly successful businessman, Cartwright´s talents lay in thinking up new inventions rather than making money from them.

Agriculture

Changes in agriculture during the agricultural revolution had less to do with the introduction of machinery and more to do with the transformation of land ownership and employment. This was known as ´enclosure´which meant that landowners and farmers effectively privatised common lands, reducing the smallholders to agricultural labourers. This provoked the ´Swing Riots´ which were rural disturbances that took place in mainly grain growing regions between 1816 and 1842. The rioters tactics ranged from wage meetings, incendiarism, rioting, smashing threshing machines, threatening letters, theft, maiming of animals and poaching.

The Steam Age

Steam provided the foundation for modern industry but the pace at which it replaced other sources of power was gradual. Early pumping engines were only suitable for draining water from mines; they could not power the wheels of industry. James Watt was among the first to experiment with rotary motion and was granted a patent in 1782. Cotton manufacturers, such as Richard Arkwright, were the first to adopt steam in their mills as an alternative to the waterpower. Steam power also enabled the development of new machinery needed for heavy industry. James Nasmyth´s initial experiments with the steam hammer were in response to I K Brunel's request for an instrument to forge large pieces of metal for shipbuilding.

Transport

The mining industry provided the initial impetus behind railway development. Within fifty years of the first experiments, over 6,000 miles of railway had been laid in Britain. Richard Trevithick first demonstrated that a locomotive engine could haul carriages along rails at the Penydarren Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil. In 1808 he offered novelty rides to the public with his locomotive Catch-me-who-can in 1808 near Euston Square. His experiments were however hindered by weak rails. George Stephenson´s Rocket won the competition to find an engine to provide the first locomotive drawn passenger service, which opened on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830. As engineer of the Great Western Railway, Isambard Kingdom Brunel promoted the laying of a seven foot gauge to provide a more stable and faster journey. His other achievements include the steam ship the Great Western. Its maiden voyage in 1838 initiated a regular transatlantic passenger service between Bristol and New York.

Telegraph

William Fothergill Cooke and Charles Wheatstone patented their first needle electric telegraph in 1837. Their ABC telegraph was a simpler system, as the message could be read directly from an alphabetical dial. The Electric Telegraph Act of 1846 empowered the Home Secretary to take control of the telegraph network at times of a threat to public order. During Chartist activity in 1848 the government exercised this right. Telegrams could be sent from across the country, providing information on disturbances in each city.

Public health

The urbanisation of towns as a result of industrialisation created deteriorating standards of public health. Poor sanitation contributed to these low standards. Joseph Bramah invented a flushing water closet as early as 1783 but this invention was restricted to the homes of the wealthy. By 1848 the Public Health Act tried to address the problem of inadequate drainage and insufficient water closets but its powers were not compulsory. Low standards of public health contributed to the increased death rate and from the 1720s to 1830s, body snatchers stole corpses from graves to sell to surgeons for dissection. John Hughes was granted a patent for a reinforced coffin in 1818 to prevent bodies from being stolen.

Photography

Eadweard Muybridge produced his first study of animal movement in 1872 as a commission for Leland Stanford, a Californian railroad entrepreneur. Stanford wanted to find out whether all four legs of a galloping horse ever left the ground at the same time. Muybridge captured the idea of movement using a line of cameras, triggered by a trip wire as the animal galloped by. From 1884-86 Muybridge worked at the University of Pennsylvania where he researched the series Animal Locomotion. This included studies of birds and mules, as well as horses. He also investigated the movement of people, using additional cameras to introduce a spatial aspect into the studies.

Curiosities

At the same time as mechanisation enabled a greater volume of goods to be produced, there was a simultaneous trend during the Industrial Revolution to produce non-standardised, more specialised designs which followed the dictates of fashion and created novelties for the growing middle and working class.

Podcast lecture by Maxine Berg, Professor of History, Eighteenth Century Centre, University of Warwick

This lecture explores the inventions, making and buying of goods during the eighteenth century in Britain. It explores the role of the consumer which economic historians have tended to ignore and provides a refreshing and original re-assessment of the early industrial revolution by arguing that it should be treated more as a 'product revolution'.

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