THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

MAN,MACHINES,INVENTIONS,EVOLUTION
 *
* The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in the period
from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. This transition included going from
hand production methods to machines, new chemical manufacturing and iron production
processes, improved efficiency of water power, the increasing use of steam power, and the
development of machine tools. It also included the change from wood and other bio-
fuels to coal.
* The Industrial Revolution marks a major turning point in history; almost every aspect of
daily life was influenced in some way.
* The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain, and spread to Western Europe and North
America within a few decades
* Some economists say that the major impact of the Industrial Revolution was that the standard
of living for the general population began to increase consistently for the first time in history,
although others have said that it did not begin to meaningfully improve until the late 19th and
20th centuries
* Important technological developments were:
Textiles
Steam power
Iron making
 *
* The biggest impact of the Industrial Revolution on 19th century architecture was
the mass-production of iron and later steel in quantities where it became an
economically plausible building material (as opposed a limited material for weapons
and tools).
* The application of iron, and particularly steel, to architecture greatly expanded the
structural capabilities of existing materials, and created new ones. Steel has
tremendous strength to weight and allowed to engineers to design increasingly bigger,
lighter, more open spaces even while architecturally the traditional style was
informed by the limitations of brick and masonry, as found in curious case of the
popular Gothic Revival, with its claustrophobic feel.
This magical
material, steel, was
a game changer in
architecture. It's
hard to overstate the
importance of it in
modern life.

Mass manufacturing of iron and steel

 *
* There is a curious dialogue between the architectural taste of the mid-19th cent and
the structural possibilities made possible by the use of iron and steel. The first major
applications of steel occurred in public works, namely railroads and bridges which
quickly made the best use of steel.

Paddington Station, part of Brunel's Great Western

Railway network and still a functional testament to
steel's efficient reliability.

Parliament building with Big Ben

 *
* A humble steel truss bridge--this sort of cheap structure made the building of railroad networks
and later comprehensive road networks possible. Note how little material this bridge required
and the architectural need to add some sort of decoration on the portal frame facing the viewer.

The Crystal Palace at the

London Exposition. Note the
steel framed mezzanines and
the open web steel joist
modular roof: very similar to
a contemporary indoor
shopping mall
 *

The Eads Bridge in St. Louis, MO. Extremely long, self-

supporting steel arches.

Eiffel Tower, a monument to the Hell's Gate Bridge between the Bronx and Manhattan, an
possibilities of iron; for a time the tallest elegant steel arch
man-made structure on Earth
 *
The Brooklyn Bridge, a suspension bridge
in which the bridge deck is hung from
steel cables that are draped over masonry
piers: a very elegant use of material. Note
the heavy Gothic Revival brick arches
compared with the light, almost gossamer,
use of steel cable.

Penn Station,
NYC--almost
looks like a
contemporary
stadium.
 *
Eventually the applications of steel lead to the opening up of architectural possibilities in private construction.
In particular the advent of railroads and large manufacturing facilities gave rise to functional building designs-
-the modern factory and the modern office complex.

Up until the early 19th century mills and manufactories were generally small, crowded, dank, brick or stone
buildings beside a river that had become cramped with increasingly complex, and cumbersome machinery.

The new factory was spacious with wide bays, plenty of skylights and high ceilings for ventilation, and
usually a interfaced with a railroad for efficient loading and unloading of materials and finished product.
 *
Steel lead to reinforced, and even later post-tensioned concrete. This cheap combination between an extremely
strong material in tension and an extremely strong material in compression made high-rise construction possible.

As corporations and their internal bureaucracies grew in size the analogous need to house large, centralized office
operations pushed architects to design taller and taller office buildings on urban lots...giving rise to the skyscraper.

In particular steel, extruded and shaped at a mill, then sent to the site
for bolted or riveted erection made construction less a custom craft
and more an wholesale, unskilled endeavour.

Prior to the Industrial Revolution builders had to be highly skilled,

almost like ship builders or sculptors, and had to have intimate
knowledge of a particular material--wood, stone, brick, etc in order
to deal with imperfections in the material in the field. Mass-
produced, homogenous materials from the factory made the practice
of construction more an exercise in following elaborate plans to put
pieces together than looking at an architects' concept and figuring
out how to build it in the field.

This streamlining of the construction process made it easier for

architects to design more ambitious buildings for their clients, and it
made construction faster and safer.