INDUSTRIAL

REVOLUTION
Industrial Revolution.
■ in modern history, the process of change from an agrarian and
handicraft economy to one dominated
by industry and machine manufacturing. This process began
in Britain in the 18th century and from there spread to other
parts of the world
■  when agricultural societies became more industrialized and
urban. The transcontinental railroad, the cotton gin, electricity
and other inventions permanently changed society..
The main features involved in the Industrial
Revolution: Technological, socioeconomic and cultural
■ Technological  changes included the following:
■ (1) the use of new basic materials, chiefly iron and steel.
■ (2) the use of new energy sources, including both fuels and motive power, such as coal, the steam
engine, electricity, petroleum, and the internal-combustion engine.
■ (3) the invention of new machines, such as the spinning jenny and the power loom that permitted
increased production with a smaller expenditure of human energy.
■ (4) a new organization of work known as the factory system, which entailed increased division of
labor and specialization of function.
■ (5) important developments in transportation and communication, including the steam locomotive,
steamship, automobile, airplane, telegraph, and radio, and (6) the increasing application
of science to industry. These technological changes made possible a tremendously increased use of
natural resources and the mass production of manufactured goods.
 There were also many new developments in
nonindustrial spheres, including the
following:
■ (1) agricultural improvements that made possible the provision of food for a larger nonagricultural
population.
■ (2) economic changes that resulted in a wider distribution of wealth, the decline of land as a source of
wealth in the face of rising industrial production, and increased international trade,
■ (3) political changes reflecting the shift in economic power, as well as new state policies corresponding
to the needs of an industrialized society.
■ (4) sweeping social changes, including the growth of cities, the development of working-class
movements, and the emergence of new patterns of authority.
■ (5) cultural transformations of a broad order. Workers acquired new and distinctive skills, and their
relation to their tasks shifted; instead of being craftsmen working with hand tools, they became
machine operators, subject to factory discipline. Finally, there was a psychological change: confidence
in the ability to use resources and to master nature was heightened.
The First Industrial Revolution

■ In the period 1760 to 1830 the Industrial Revolution was largely confined to Britain. Aware of their
head start, the British forbade the export of machinery, skilled workers, and manufacturing
techniques. The British monopoly could not last forever, especially since some Britons saw profitable
industrial opportunities abroad, while continental European businessmen sought to lure British
know-how to their countries. Two Englishmen, William and John Cockerill, brought the Industrial
Revolution to Belgium by developing machine shops at Liège (c. 1807), and Belgium became the
first country in continental Europe to be transformed economically. Like its British progenitor, the
Belgian Industrial Revolution centered in iron, coal, and textiles.
■ France was more slowly and less thoroughly industrialized than either Britain or Belgium. While
Britain was establishing its industrial leadership, France was immersed in its Revolution, and the
uncertain political situation discouraged large investments in industrial innovations. By 1848 France
had become an industrial power, but, despite great growth under the Second Empire, it remained
behind Britain.
The First Industrial
Revolution
■ Other European countries lagged far behind. Their bourgeoisie lacked the wealth, power, and
opportunities of their British, French, and Belgian counterparts. Political conditions in the other
nations also hindered industrial expansion. Germany, for example, despite vast resources of coal and
iron, did not begin its industrial expansion until after national unity was achieved in 1870. Once
begun, Germany’s industrial production grew so rapidly that by the turn of the century that nation
was out producing Britain in steel and had become the world leader in the chemical industries. The
rise of U.S. industrial power in the 19th and 20th centuries also far outstripped European efforts.
And Japan too joined the Industrial Revolution with striking success.
■ The eastern European countries were behind early in the 20th century. It was not until the five-year
plans that the Soviet Union became a major industrial power, telescoping into a few decades the
industrialization that had taken a century and a half in Britain. The mid-20th century witnessed the
spread of the Industrial Revolution into hitherto non industrialized areas such as China and India.
Steam and coal
■ Because there were limited sources of power, industrial
development during the early 1700s was initially slow. Textile
mills, heavy machinery and the pumping of coal mines all
depended heavily on old technologies of power: waterwheels,
windmills and horsepower were usually the only sources
available.
■ Changes in steam technology, however, began to change the
situation dramatically. As early as 1712 Thomas Newcomen
first unveiled his steam-driven piston engine, which allowed
the more efficient pumping of deep mines. Steam engines
improved rapidly as the century advanced, and were put to
greater and greater use. More efficient and powerful engines
were employed in coalmines, textile mills and dozens of other
heavy industries. By 1800 perhaps 2,000 steam engines were
eventually at work in Britain.
■ New inventions in iron manufacturing, particularly those
perfected by the Darby family of Shropshire, allowed for
stronger and more durable metals to be produced. The use of
steam engines in coalmining also ensured that a cheap and
reliable supply of the iron industry’s essential raw material was
available: coal was now king.
 The Second Industrial Revolution

■ Despite considerable overlapping with the “old,” there was mounting evidence for a “new” Industrial
Revolution in the late 19th and 20th centuries. In terms of basic materials, modern industry began to
exploit many natural and synthetic resources not hitherto utilized: lighter metals, new alloys, and synthetic
products such as plastics, as well as new energy sources. Combined with these were developments
in machines, tools, and computers that gave rise to the automatic factory. Although some segments of
industry were almost completely mechanized in the early to mid-19th century, automatic operation, as
distinct from the assembly line, first achieved major significance in the second half of the 20th century.
■ Ownership of the means of production also underwent changes. The oligarchical ownership of the means
of production that characterized the Industrial Revolution in the early to mid-19th century gave way to a
wider distribution of ownership through purchase of common stocks by individuals and by institutions
such as insurance companies. In the first half of the 20th century, many countries of Europe socialized
basic sectors of their economies. There was also during that period a change in political theories: instead of
the laissez-faire ideas that dominated the economic and social thought of the classical Industrial
Revolution, governments generally moved into the social and economic realm to meet the needs of their
more complex industrial societies. That trend was reversed in the United States and the United Kingdom
beginning in the 1980s.
DIGITAL AGE
What is Digital Age
■ This is otherwise referred to as the Information Age, a historic
period in the 21st century characterized by the rapid shift from
traditional industry that the Industrial Revolution brought through
industrialization, to an economy based on information technology
■ Time frame in history that the use of digital technology became
prevalent and of common use throughout the world. The digital
age began in earnest with the widespread use of the Internet.
■ This current era whereby social, economic and political activities are
dependent on information and communication technologies.
The Three ages of digital:
 Pre-digital age, Mid-digital & Post-digital
Pre-digital age
■ It’s easy to remember this age as a time where devices had just one function. It was where media was
physical, and where technologies lived alongside and in parallel to each other, but rarely intertwined.
Retail was either in-store or via home shopping. Media channels were labelled after the singular device
we consumed them on: TVs, newspapers, magazines, radio.
■ it may not have seemed like it at the time, but in retrospect, life was simple. Progress was steady but
largely linear. Of course, things changed: we moved from VHS to DVD; cassettes fell to the compact
disc; companies offered to sell products “direct.” These, however, were comparatively small changes.
They didn’t change the retail landscape or logistics supply chain. Rights management and the
management of intellectual property stayed as-was.
■ Companies were arranged around production and products. Demand was stoked by advertising and
marketing. Attention was abundant, but information was scarce. At first, the pre-digital
age evolved slowly. Products became digitized. Photos became bits. Knowledge moved from
encyclopedias to Wikipedia. The phone book became an online directory. Printed magazines became
websites.
■ This first age was all about physical products becoming digital. It led to creative destruction in retail,
manufacturing and distribution, which is where we are now: the mid-digital age.
Mid-digital
■ This is a period that straddles the age where digital is just becoming accepted into the mainstream, and the
age where digital is fully immersed into our society.
■ Mid-digital represents an age where the BBC won’t play certain content in the U.K. because global digital
rights have not been cleared. It’s where some buses only accept cards, and some only cash.
■ It’s where headlines featuring Trump or Apple rule the world, because eyeballs pay the bills.
■ To watch TV, I need to select the input device and then an app or channel, rather than just navigate by
show. TV itself is beloved by advertisers, who focus on the medium rather than just the message; they
care about when, where and how their ads are served. The audience, on the other hand, couldn’t care less.
■ We have retailers that won’t accept the collection or return of online goods in real stores. They are being
killed off by companies like Amazon and a multitude of smaller eBay-based retailers.
■ Amazon wins by scale, whereas the niche eBayers simply need a rented locker from which to run their
world-beating e-commerce operation. In this age, as exemplified by Amazon — with its all-conquering
ease of use (including in self-publishing, e-books and web hosting); its flexibility; and its reluctance to
pay its operatives no more than is legally acceptable, retail as we know it is about to die.
■ This is because the next shift is the one that really changes everything.
Post-digital
■ Like pre-digital, nobody will think of “digital” in this age. The concept of it will move into the
background and, much like oxygen or electricity, we’ll understand digital to be transformative yet
irrelevant. There will be no more Chief Digital Officers in the same way that a Chief Electricity Officer
doesn’t exist today. In the post-digital age, digital technology will be a vast, quiet element forming the
seamless backbone of life. The internet will be a background utility, noticeable only in its absence.
Smart homes will work. Video will follow us around. Content will be paid for all seamlessly and
effortlessly.
■ We will no longer talk of TV versus online, or mobile versus desktop. Retailers won’t consider online-
versus-physical as a divide of merit; they will just celebrate sales. Advertising will work around people,
seamlessly telling sequential stories to move people to purchase. Content won’t care about national
boundaries; even contemporary notions like currency or language will become less central to life.
People will be born truly digitally native.
■ These publishers and vendors will be bigger than governments. They will be the holders of data and the
arbiters of mass behavioral change. Governments will be subservient to their needs (for insight into
citizen activity, as payment gateways and much more) rather than the other way around. Manufacturing
will be just-in-time. Products will be made to order and shipped by autonomous vehicles.
Replenishment is either handled automatically or by the press of a network-connected button.
 Post-digital
■ Parents won’t feel as anxious as they currently do regarding their children using these
technologies. Kids will instinctively use them as babies, and continue to develop and
nurture them as they grow alongside technology. They will be in safe environments,
locked down by huge multinational publishers who track their customers’ every
move.
■ Of course, while this automation seems to make the post-digital world feel much
more frictionless, it is far from a panacea. We will all be working for ourselves, as
freelancing and the gig economy becomes commonplace. Those running businesses
will benefit from weakened governments, hampered by lower tax receipts through
complex financial structures. The self-employed might have even fewer opportunities
for social mobility, as competition comes from every corner of the world and
working 24 hours a day offers only slim pickings to the even most dedicated.
■ Ref:
■ https://www.bl.uk/georgian-britain/articles/the-industrial-revolution
■ https://www.britannica.com/event/Industrial-Revolution
■ https://techcrunch.com/2016/06/23/the-three-ages-of-digital/
■ https://www.igi-global.com/dictionary/resource-sharing/7562