Jasmine Lopez

Oct 30, 2015

Block 2
Essay #2
The Industrial Revolution began in the United Kingdom and most of the
important technological innovations were British. Eventually the Industrial
Revolution progressed to the United States in the early 19th century. It was
first created to raise people's standard of living which was, Americans living
on farmland, small towns, or villages where there was little manufacturing.
The Industrial Revolution helped companies to be able to create quality
goods instead of using an entire family. Many knew that with machinery the
value of goods would be lowered and a rapid demand. Once many people
saw the opportunity to invest in the new factories it opened an opportunity
for new banks to open due to an increase of capital. The new banks were
giving loans so the factories can buy new equipment, hire employees, and a
location. Previous banks were not doing these loans due to here trust in the
new upcoming. The everyday people that were making these
investments merchants, retail merchants, farmers, wholesalers.
During this time the demand for cloth grew, but there was an upside
and a downside to this situation. Many of the women who did this for living
were raising the cost due to the time consuming situation. To solve this
problem a man named Francis Cabot Lowell set up the first American textile
factory. The American textile does many things such as, tasks that were
needed to transform raw cotton into finished cotton, and another man
named James Hargreaves who invented the first machine connected multiple
spinning wheels in such a manner that up to eight threads can be processed
at once. In addition, the man who brought textiles to America was Samuel
Slater in 1789 with the secrets to textile manufacturing and brought them
over to America to build the first water-powered cotton mill in America.
Another great addition to the inventions was the steam engine in 1698.
Then in 1712 Thomas Newcomen improved it, but then realized it wasted too
much heat and fuel. Furthermore a man named James Watt attempted to
improve Newcomen's steam engine in the 1760's, and in 1785 he had done
so, by using heat more efficiently with less fuel. Abraham Darby developed
"coke" to do this instead, which was said to be not as strong as the charcoal
that they had been using. Around 1750, Darby's son developed a process
that made coke iron easier, and by 1760 it had become the more popular
choice. This industry also improved when grooves were added to the rolling
cylinders, which allowed the iron to be shaped differently.

The Industrial Revolution drastically changed lives, but the most

impacted were the middle and upper. The middle class was composed of
businessmen and other professionals. The larger the Industrial Revolution grew, the
more powerful these individuals became. Individuals and groups formed new
libraries, schools, and universities because there was a sudden need for education.
The middle and upper classes had better food and housing, which led to fewer
diseases and longer living among these groups. Since these classes were treated so
well, their population grew and thus had minimal difficulty living during the
Industrial Revolution.
Many things changed during the Industrial Revolution for the worst or the
better. Many great inventions that helped and kept being improved throughout the
century to people taking risks in investing in new factories. Furthermore, people
living better lives than they did to the poor being replaced by machinery. Now we
live in a world where Industrial Revolution impacted everyone and very new uprising
entrepreneur.