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INTRODUCTION
The first industrial revolution is characteristically associated
with invention of the Newcomen steam engine around 1712 in England.
Some historiographers find this stipulation too confining. They
realize and are quick to point out that many aspects of this revolution
began at least two centuries earlier among the artisan guilds
of Europe (Lucie-Smith, 1984). Historians are willing to push
these feats of technology even further back into time and document
numerous engineering accomplishments that already existed in the
ancient Roman world (Landels, 1978). Members of the Roman Legion
were, after all, trained as engineers. They needed these skills
to construct new settlements among the provinces that they inhabited.
It is important to note that the industrial revolution involved
technological advancements, but it symbolized much more than mere
technology. It represented a major shift in the use of energy.
Prior to the industrial revolution the oxen were used in Southern
Europe and the horse was used in Northern Europe to plough the
fields. After 1712, machines replaced human and animal power.
Steam power, for example, was used to drive machinery. Water power
was used to operating spinning wheels, and coal replaced wood
as a source of energy. What is at stake here is not technology,
but a shift from an agricultural community to an industrial society.
Prior to discussing the details of these structural changes, it
would be interesting to consider some of the technological changes
that preceded the rise of industrial society and foreshadowed
its rapid expansion.
ANIMAL POWER
As one travels through time and leave the Mediterranean area for
northern Europe, one finds that the horse was used as a source
of animal power. This animal had speed and elegance when compared
to the slowness of the oxen used in portions of southern Europe.
It was also an animal that was associated with the aristocracy
because they were expansive to buy and maintain. Only the wealthy
could own horses. Consequently, the poor farmers of southern Europe
used oxen. This difference in social class explains why horses
were used by wealthier classes as a form of onstantation. The
Greeks even had a word for the aristocratic family that could
afford to maintain a four-horse racing chariot, the tethrippotrophon.
What is interesting about this shift from man-power to animal
power is the invention of the harness. Such a device could have
been used to extract loads of metals form mines, but they were
not. The harness could have been used to operate a rotary mill,
but they were not. While northern Europe was moving towards the
use of animal power, southern Europe was still holding on the
man-power to accomplish its work. When the use of the rotary mill
finally materialized among the Romans, it took the form of two
oxen operating a turnstile about ship. Their rotary movements
were used to propel ships around the fourth century A.D.
WATER POWER
The use of water wheels among the ancient cities of Rome and Greece
are not common occurrences in their literature. The reason for
this is simply that in order for a water wheel to be function,
there must be a steady supply of water all year round. When these
conditions were met, one finds examples of the use of water power
among the ancients. This is particularly true of the city of Mithradates
that was located close to a substantial river, Lycus. This river
did was successfully used for water power, not because of heavy
rains in the area, but because of a large catchment area near
the city that supplied it with a constant water source. The significance
of the water mill is that it functioned as an early form of industrialization.
The women of Greece were responsible for the grinding of grains,
but with the advent of the water wheel, they were provided with
technological assistance. It should be noted that such early use
of technological power do not fit the mind set of industrialization.
If the Greeks had deliberately engaged themselves in damning river,
constructing conduits, and related engineering feats for the commercial
preparation of food services, they could have been considered
precursors of industrialization. The water wheel will continue
to appear among the cultures of Europe demonstrating that this
technology spread rapidly. They even improvised. There is a special
kind of undershot water wheel with buckets, the Vitruvian, that
emerged as a variant of vertical shaft overshot water wheel. In
the undershot water wheel the water source is located underneath
the water wheel. The same source came from above in the case of
the overshot water wheel. These water wheels were even modified
with gear systems that connected to a vertical shaft and a toothed
disc (dentatum). Among the Romans, there were wood and metal pinions
with toothed gears. These models of gear systems spread into Germany
and the Netherlands during the Middle Ages. As a matter of fact,
most monasteries were powered by water wheels.
WIND POWER
There is no large scale evidence of the use of wind power in classical
antiquity. Perhaps this is because such technological accomplishments
were tied to the use of geared systems that emerged from the water
wheels of Europe. The Greek pneumatica was an exception. It functioned
like a water wheel located over a constant wind source. The paddle
wheel were pushed by the energy of the wind. This system was connected
to a piston that further harnessed air power to function as a
gigantic wind system. The device was seen as a toy. Consequently,
one can argue that the harnessing of wind power was not part of
the mentality of the times. It would be many centuries later because
wind mills were to populate the country sides of Europe. This
makes the use of wind power a late technological development in
Europe.
STEAM POWER
The Greeks and Romans failed to harness steam. It is not that
they did not know about the power of steam and its potential as
a source of energy. Hero of Alexandria invented a steam power
machine. However, the invention remained an oddity and was not
used as a practical source of power. It is this same inventor
who experimented with the use of wind power, and water power.
He was the Edison of his day, but his accomplishments were all
viewed as toys and not as viable forms of industrialization. Hence,
one returns to a common theme: the ancients were not of the right
mind set. They did not hold the proper attitude's needed for industrialization.
Historians have provided other reasons for this lack of industrialization.
The two fuels that were in general use were wood and charcoal.
The latter was preferred for cooking because it burned slowly.
Pure carbons, on the other hand, were used for smelting but the
Romans and Greeks had difficulty in maintaining their furnaces
about the required 1150 degrees of Centigrade needed for the successful
development of an iron technology. By the time that the Romans
occupied Britain, charcoal burners were used as a heating source
in the home. When one compares these meager uses of charcoal with
the events that took place centuries later in northern Europe,
one can readily see that technological advancement and industrialization
are two different kinds of accomplishments.
THE STORY OF THE CRAFTS AND GUILDS
One begins to find the proper mind set for the industrial revolution
in the crafts and guilds of the Middle Ages. These artisans fought
class struggles for centuries. Prior to the Renaissance, they
were considered to be lesser being, manuali (people who made things
by hand). Those who were above them were the literatti (people
of the aristocracy who were men of letters). This hidden dichotomy
still pervades contemporary culture. A social theorist is held
to be of higher esteem than a social worker; a theoretical linguist
is s viewed positively while an applied linguist (language teachers)
are not. Even i the medical profession the medical researcher
is held to be of higher esteem than the general practitioner.
One of the early patterns away from this dichotomy came during
the Renaissance in the personage of Leonard da Vinci. The aristocrats
of the time felt that his contributions were those of fine art
and not merely craft skills. The true success of his art was that
it was the product on an inborn genius. Hence, the contempt for
handiwork remained. They were seen to be purely physical endeavors
and did nothing to contribute to the life of the mind.
The craftsmen had one characteristic that the intellectuals secretly admired. They were transformers of nature. They held the power of changing material forms. In their idealized forms, they were alchemists. To add to the mystique of the craftsmen was the fact that they protected their trade secrets. When a new skill of transformation was found, they formed a new guild and protected its trade secrets. Medieval furniture, for example, was heavy and clumsy. They were made of large solid pieces of riven oak. In the sixteenth century, furniture was joined. They were constructed of small panels that were set into frames and uprights and held together with wooden dowels. This made them lighter and more movable. In the damp climates of northern Europe they also allowed the pieces to expand or contract without splitting. These new craftsmen created a new guild, the joiners. They distinguished themselves from mere turners and carpenters.
What made the craftsmen different from the inventors of the past is that they were interested in using their skills for commercial gain. So the question remains: Why didn't the industrial revolution take place during this period of history? The answer comes from the aristocracy. They did not own the rights of production. They did not own the guilds. Consequently, they did not want to see them grow and develop. They imposed laws on them that would inhibit their power. The craftsmen (clothmen) were not allowed to have more than one loom in his house. Although capitalists despised this social class of artisans, they needed them. For example, the craftsmen produced hand tools. These tools were a vital part of the organization and construction of the early factory systems. They needed the skills that these craftsmen brought with them, especially the knowledge of how gears and screws could be utilized for mass production. Next, they need them as part of the greater division of labor that would make a factory system successful. What the capitalists would bring to this division of labor is a vision. Adam Smith noted that the greatest English clockmaker of the late 17th century, Thomas Tompion, produced about 6,000 watches in his lifetime. Smith argued that all watches could be made better and cheaper if one man made the wheels, another the spring, another engraved the dial plate, and still another made the cases. Of course, no craftsmen would allow such a vision to take place. They took pride in their handicraft. They would never compromise the quality of their work. Perhaps this mind set did more to prevent the emergence of the industrial revolution earlier in European history. In addition, these craftsmen were not driven beyond the demands of local trade. They knew their market and they were able to successfully fill their needs. It is only when industrialization was used to supply needs of larger trade routes did the need for factory systems emerge.
The crafts had their heyday. Their decline came from the industrial
movement itself. In 1840, for example, G. R. Elkington took out
a patent for electroplating. By means of electrolysis he was able
to deposit a thin layer of silver on various metals. Prior to
this invention, craftsmen were able to layer metal objects with
silver. Their expertise was needed because of the great range
of metal shapes involved. After the invention of electroplating,
any shaped object made of metal could be placed in a large vat
and electroplated. Elkington was able to create multiple copies
of his productions. His products, however, were created impersonally.
They lacked the skills of the craftsmen. Similar forms of mechanization
weakened the power of the guild system. Carpet design was supplanted
by the mechanized Jacquard loom. Michael Thonet created bentwood
furniture by means of lamination. Each new technological advancement
replaced the need for skilled workers. Each invention supplanted
the need for master craftsmen.
FROM NATURAL TIME TO FACTORY TIME
Among hunter and gather societies, time was measured by natural
events. The diurnal moments of time were daybreak, sunrise, high
noon, sunset, and darkness. Over longer periods of sidereal time
one found these moments in the equinox and the solstice, the journey
of the position of the sun throughout the sky. As societies settled,
they also reconstituted their concept of time. Among the ancients,
for example, time was marked by religious events and figures.
Just as each city gate had god or goddess, so did the hours of
the day. The Romans announced their days as god days. These gods
may have been planets (the Moon, Saturn, Mars, Jove, or the Sun),
but they were god like representations of time. The same patterns
of worshiping time can be found among the Nordics (Wotan, Frieda,
Thor, and the Moon). The next remaking of time can through political
worship. Heads of state thought of themselves as gods. Augustus
(August) and Caesar (July) had months of the year named in their
honor. The calendar was again modified to fit the scheme of a
nation state (the Gregorian calendar). Finally, one arrives at
a modern city state immersed in commerce and find that time has
been fully commercialized. It can be found in the language of
everyday interaction.
Thank you for your time; Time is money; power lunch (business meeting at noon), interest (money loaned on time); salary (money paid monthly or yearly); parking meter (car space rented by segments of time); hotels (roomed rented in daily units); leasing (cars or homes rented on time); Tax day (April the 15th, day to pay annual taxes); punch the time clock (paid by the hour at work); retirement (the end of a commercial pay cycle); leisure (out of the time commercial time cycle); wasted time (time used not making money); save time, keep time; spend time, waste time, and so on.
In the old days, nature was the time-giver (Zeitgeber). Today, the exigencies of the business world dictate time. The sundial is obsolete and has been replaced by a machine, a time piece that has no clear model of relevance to nature. This artificial time piece was known as the horologium during the Middle Ages. It was a generic term for the keeping of time. The first mechanical clock appeared in the fourteenth century, the tower clock. Roger Stoke built one for Norwich Cathedral in England. Soon others were built at Richard of Wallingford at St. Albans around 1330. It would be another three hundred years before these clocks would be seen on belfries and the towards of city halls and churches. A new profession, the horologeur (the time piece maker), came into being. Soon the agrarian rhythms that dominated the economy of the Middle Ages were replaced by religious time and then commercial time.
| Greek Chronos (look back into the future) | |||
| Greek Time moves from behind the speaker towards the font of the speaker |
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| Roman Linear Time (look forward into the future) | |||
| Roman Time: Te future moves from the font of the speaker towrds the speaker. . |
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There is another aspect of time that marks the language of
Europe. It is well known that the Greeks had two words for time:
kairos (eternal time) and chronos (linear time). Much has been
made of this dichotomy. What has been missing from these discussions
is whether or not one moves through time or waits for it to appear.
In Greek, for example, there is an expression "to look back
into the future." This is because they believed that the
future was behind them and that it approached them and became
the present and left them to become the past (located ahead of
them). The opposite view of moving time was used by the Romans.
For them, the future was ahead of them and it approached them
to become the present and left them to go behind them into the
past. In each of these cultures, chronological time moved.
What began to emerge during the Middle Ages was a different concept
of time. In this new conceptualization, time stood still and man
walked into the future. Under this new way of visualizing time
and space, one could speed up the process of time. One could literally
save time, make time, and borrow time. This new concept of time
began among the university towns of northern Italy and eventually
became a new way of looking at time among scientists. Hence, today
scientists use both concepts of time without being aware of their
epistemological differences. The Big Bang Theory of physics, for
example, assume that time moves towards the present and astronomers
have to wait for it to emerge into the present in order to document
its movements through space. Einstein's Theory of Relativity,
on the other hand, assumes that time is part of space and that
time moves. The faster that time moves, the shorter it becomes.
Under this new way of looking at time and space, time is relative
to the vantage point of the observer. What is most important about
the concept that time stands still and that humans can move faster
and faster into the future is the fact that it was the model of
time that was adopted by the industrialists. They saw time as
the enemy. They need to produce more and more in shorter periods
of time. Such a concept could not even be imaginable is time could
not be manipulated. But, if time could be manipulated, then so
could their factory schedules, their production quotas, and their
commercial goals. In the business world, time is money. One save's
time, makes time, and even buys time. The march of time is such
a commercial view of time. In English, the future is ahead of
the speaker, the past is behind him, and he can walk into the
future. He can speed up his position with regard to time. He sets
his own boundaries and horizons. The gods and goddesses no longer
control time, he does.
| THE SECOND INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION |
THE NEWCOMEN ATMOSPHERIC ENGINE
There were numerous technological events that cascaded into the
newly urbanized cities of Europe. These were characterized by
the creation of factory systems, large movements of people from
rural communities to urban centers, and great demands for the
massive production of goods. The Newcomen engine led the movement
towards industrialization. In 1712, the Newcomen steam engine
was invented. It was used for getting water out of mines. Thomas
Newcomen (1663-1729), an engineer from Darthmouth constructed
the atmospheric engine in 1712. It was based on a principle developed
by Giambattista della Porta (1538-1715). Thomas Savery (1650-1715)
worked on the della Porta's steam engine and deveoped a practical
pumping engine in his workshop on Fleet Street in London. What
was different about the Newcomen engine was that it was a condensing
engine. It admitted steam to a cylinder and condensed it thereby
allowed energy to be transformed into work. This atmospheric engine
worked because of the partial vacuum created by the condensing
stem at 212 degrees Fahrenheit. Steam occupies a volume that is
approximately 1200 times greater than the same volume of water
and thus contained a tremendous energy force. Newcomen's engine
worked well. It could pump water seven days a week, 24 hours a
day. One of the drawbacks of this engine is that it consumed large
quantities of coal, 12 tons of coal per day.
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| Industry creates a new kind of societal type. It also changes the nature of social interaction. The factory replaced the manor and the king was replaced by the bourgeoisie. |
THE DUDLEY PROCESS
The increased need for coal as a substitute for wood came about
through the Dudley Process. The forests of Europe were ravaged
by the Industrial Revolution. The Black Forests were almost completely
leveled to smelt iron. One forgets how wooded Europe was at one
time. Civilization was carved out of the forests. Those who lived
in these cleared sites were in the light. Those who dwelled in
the forest were in the dark. The forests contains all of the fears
of nature, wild animals, marauders, and mysticism. The city became
the place of light, understanding, and rationality. The dangers
of the dark forests existed even through the Middle Ages where
people never traveled at night away from the city and subjected
to the perils of the forest. With the advent of industrialization,
on the other hand, the forests were rapidly being destroyed. The
wood was needed to produce coal. This is where Dud Dudley comes
into the picture. He wanted to find a substitute for wood as a
fuel. He knew that the forests were in danger of being totally
destroyed. He performed numerous experiments on the process of
creating Coke from charcoal. He found that a second blast of the
coal in the furnace would produce a good marketable iron. At some
point, he was able to control the process of smeling iron with
fuel made from pit-coal. Where others had failed before him, Dudley's
process worked. These changes led to the first Iron Works at Coalbrookdale,
the use of the Reverbatory Furnace by Reynolds, the invention
of cast-iron rails by Reynolds, the building of the first iron
bridge, the invention of steel by Benjamin Huntsman, and the development
of Bessemer steel.
THE TEXTILE INDUSTRY
The production of cotton was a significant change for the inhabitants
of the British Isles. In 1740, the majority of the English people
wore woolen garments that were scratchy, fungus-filled and soggy.
With the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1793, the
textile industry flourished. This American invention was followed
by the flying shttle and the carding machines of John Kay, the
water frame of Richard Arkwright, the spinning jenny of James
Hardgreaves, and various improvements made by Samuel Crompton.
The new source of power was the steam engine developed in England
by Thomas Newcomen, James Watt, Richard Trevithick, and in the
US by Oliver Evans. Within a 35 year period (1790-1830) more than
100,000 power looms with more than 9,330,000 spindles were put
into service in England and Scotland.
| FAMOUS INVENTORS AND
THEIR NATIONALITIES o Knitting machine, 1589 William Lee, English o Flying shuttle, 1733 John Kay, English o Spinning jenny, 1764 J. Hargreaves, English o Spinning frame, 1769 R. Arkwright o Spinning mule, 1779 Samuel Crompton, English o Power loom, 1785 E. Cartwright, English o Cotton gin, 1793 Eli Whitney, American o Jacquard loom, 1800 J. M. Jacquard, French o Mackintosh raincoat, 1823 C. Mackintosh, Scottish o Sweing machine, 1830 B. Thimonnier, French o Rubber vulcanization, 1839 C. Goodyear, American o Mercerized cotton,. 1844 John Mercer, English o Sewing machine, 1845 Elias Howe, American o Rotary printing press, 1846 Richard M. Hoe, American o Web-fed rotary press, 1865 William Bullock, American o Shoe welt stitcher, 1874 C. Goodyear, American o Telephone, 1876 A. G. Bell, American o Phonograph, 1877 T. Edison, American o Microphone, 1878 D. E. Hughes, American o Linotype, 1883 O. Mergenthaler, American o Rayon, 1884 H. de Chardonnet, French o Halftone engraving, 1886 f. e. Ives, American o Movie projector, 1893 T. Edison, American o Zipper, 1893 L. Judson, American o Rubber heel, 1896 H. O'Sullivan, American o Telephotography, 1904 Arthur Korn, American o Cotton-picking machine, 1936 John and Mack Rust, Americans o Nylon, 1937 W. H. Carothers, American |
The power loom is basically similar to that of a hand loom. The warp threads are raised off of upright wires called hooks. By a series of horizontal movements to and fro the fabric was shed producing cloth. Many different types of looms evolved, but they all had the same operations. The mechanized production of cotton was well protected by the British. They wanted to keep its industrialization a secret. The Americans, on the other hand, wanted to develop that technology in their own country and offered rewards for anyone who could build a cotton-spinning machine in the United States. The British countered by forbidding any of their workers from leaving the country. Samuel Slater, an apprentice at the English cotton factory disguised himself and left for America where he reconstructed a cotton-spinning machine from memory. He is heralded with the inception of the Industrial Revolution in the United States. He has been given the dual titles of the Father of American Industry and the Founder of the American Industrial Revolution. Later, Francis Cabot Lowell would build his mills in the United States after visiting England and seeing how the British cloth factories operated. He came back with these ideas and build his own mills for spinning and weaving.
Eli Whitney was only 23 when he invented the cotton gin (abbreviation
of cotton engine). This machine was used for getting seeds out
of cotton. Before this time, the seeds were picked by hand. Whitney
also became famous for building muskets with interchangeable parts.
His guns became very popular due to their low cost and during
the Civil War they became as widely known as his Cotton Gin.
BRITISH INDUSTRIALIZATION AND THE CANAL
SYSTEM
During the eighteenth and nineteenth century, there was a great
demand for roads in British. This need led to the use of canals
as a form of transportation. provided much need forms of new transportation.
They opened up new lands which till then had not been encompassed
by previous development. The relationship between transportation
and the economy is of special interest to economists H. A. Innis
(1951; 1956) who argued that transportation was the force behind
the renewed economy. Others believed that commerce was the driving
force behind the Canal Era. Whatever the sequence of events in
the general development of the world as a whole, in Britain's
Industrial Revolution, 1750__1840, the sequence was not transportation
and commerce first, and agriculture and manufacturing later. It
was agriculture and manufacturing first, in that order, and expansion
of transportation, in the form of roads and canals, as a consequence.
The industrial revolution in England was much more than a new
emphasis in and on manufacturing. It was, as the members of the
German Historical School said, a new perception of the world.
It was a new behavioral style, and a new economic system. It was
a new attitude formed in a newspaper and print informational environment.
It affected enterprise in agriculture, manufacturing, commerce,
and finance alike.
From the first, coal transport had been a dominant factor in the canal movement. The fuel famine of the eighteenth century would have stopped the growth not solely of industry but of population, in many districts, had not means been devised for overcoming it. The Duke of Bridgewater was a coal_owner and his canal had halved the price of coal in Manchester. Eight years later the first section of the old Birmingham Canal had done much the same for Birmingham (Clapham, 1956:78.). Important as was the movement of fuel along the inland waterways, on the chief through routes it was subordinate to that of general merchandise. There was a huge local coal trade on the Black Country, South Lancashire, and Yorkshire canal systems; but between those areas coal obviously would not move. The manufacturing districts now brought such of their raw materials as were not locally produced, and sent away the bulk of their finished produce, by water. London drew in immense quantities of manufactures, building materials, and agricultural produce by way of the Thames basin navigation systems and the Grand Junction Canal. Owing to her unique shipping, she was relatively, a more important distributing center than she became later. Not merely her own fine finished goods and imported colonial wares, but such raw materials as wool, tin and cotton were regularly shipped to the manufacturing Midlands and the North along the Grand Junction Canal. Throughout the country, stone for building, paving and road making; bricks, tiles and timber; limestone for the builder, farmer or blast furnace owner; beasts and cattle; corn hay and straw; manure from the London mews and the mountainous London dust heaps; the heavy castings which were coming into use for bridge_building and other structural purposes__all these, and whatever other bulky wares there may be, moved along the new waterways over what, half a century earlier, had been impossible routes or impossible distances (Clapham, 1956:79.).Lipson`s account is instructive (Lipson, 1949: 229__233). In the middle of the eighteenth century it took the Edinburgh coach fourteen days, the Manchester coach and the York coach each four days, to reach London. The London_Oxford coach in a journey of fifty_five miles started at 7 am. and arrived on the evening of the following day. ... The manifold consequences of this situation did not escape attention. It was recognized that defective communications hampered economic progress and rendered the carriage of commodities by land both difficult and costly. Henry Homer in 1767 wrote: `The trade of the kingdom languished under these impediments. The natural produce of the country was with difficulty circulated to supply the necessities of those counties and trading towns which wanted [them].' The imperfections of the existing methods gave rise to the turnpike system which embodied the principle that every person, other than foot passengers, ought to contribute to the repair of roads in proportion to the use he made of them. Turnpike roads were constructed by private trusts that recouped their expenses plus a profit from collecting tolls. Under the aegis of these enterprises, road making became part of engineering. Ultimately public opinion awoke to the fact that for centuries the methods of improving communications had been to suit the traffic to the roads instead of suiting the roads to the traffic: hence the attempts of the legislature to regulate the character of the vehicles and the weight of their loads. No real progress was possible until highways were constructed and maintained on scientific principles. Development on these lines is associated with Telford, one of the leading British engineers, and McAdam. The latter won a great reputation as a road repairer who sought to cover the surface with an impenetrable crust by spreading over it small broken stones uniform in size, which under the pressure of traffic would consolidate to form a smooth and hard surface.
McAdam's surface also had the very desirable quality of remaining smooth and hard in wet weather. The universal discontent with the condition of the roads inspired attempts to utilize as much as possible an alternative method of transport, namely, the rivers. Experience, however, showed that river navigation was attended by serious drawbacks: rivers suffered either from an excess or from a deficiency of water, their course was irregular, they were not evenly distributed throughout the kingdom. Hence in the second half of the eighteenth century artificial waterways were made. They had certain advantages over natural waterways: they did not suffer from floods or droughts and they could be built where they were wanted [to some extent]. In view of the superiority of canals the delay in their construction requires some explanation. So long as corn and timber were the chief commodities for which carriage was needed, it did not seem profitable to embark upon expensive undertakings; moreover the necessary capital was not readily available in earlier times. In the eighteenth century the situation changed in both respects. The expansion of coal mining and the iron industry made new methods of transport indispensable; and the accumulation of capital together with the advances provided by London bankers furnished the means for costly enterprises. In their origin railways, like canals, were connected with the coal industry. When coal began to be consumed in increasing quantities, one obstacle to its production lay in the difficulty of getting the mineral from the pits to the river. The first attempt to deal with the situation was by the construction of wooden rails. This was the starting_point of the railway as it was known in the sixteenth century. To secure traction four_wheeled waggons were drawn by a horse, sometimes preceded by a man with a bundle of hay which he held just in front of the horse to stimulate it to greater exertions. The next stage in the evolution of the railway was the substitution of steam engines for horses. A stationary engine was placed at the top of a slope and drew up or controlled the descent of the loads. This was the beginning of steam_power on the railways. The third development occurred when the Surrey Iron Railway between Croydon and the River Thames, a `public' railway not connected with either collieries or canal navigation, was built in 1801. The trucks were drawn by horses, mules or donkeys. The company did not own the trucks, the notion being that railways were to be treated like canals __ that is, the company provided the route and the users supplied the wagons or barges and paid tolls. Then came the Stockton and Darlington Railway opened in 1825: it furnished wagons for goods traffic and coaches for passengers. At first horse_power was contemplated, but the company was persuaded by George Stephenson to employ locomotive engines ... Between 1750 and 1850, mail and passenger services were improved by means of improved roads. Bulk transport still relied largely on canals, less so, of course, in Britain, than else where, though Britain's lead in steam locomotive railways was not more than twenty years, and perhaps less. The improvement of road surfaces increased the speed of travel. ... by 1830 the fast mail and passenger coaches had an average speed of 1__10 miles per hour, about double what it had been prior to 1750. The London to Manchester journey had taken four and one half days in 1754, but by 1830 it was reduced to 20 hours. Increased speed of travel, together with the growing specialization of production, multiplied the volume of passenger travel. In 1801 seven coaches left Chester daily, but in 1831 twenty_six. Wagons carrying goods travelled, of course, much more slowly. Even the `fly wagons' went only two and one half miles per hour on the average. It is probable that road_rates for goods had changed but little (Smith, p.~153__54.).
The first few British canals showed great profits. Great profits
were followed by over building. The first canal of the Era was
the Newry Canal, built in northern Ireland, in 1742. By 1760,
there were 1,400 miles of canals in Britain. By 1790, `canal mania'
had set in. There were 3,691 miles of canals, and London, Bristol,
Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds were linked by inland navigation.
England was crossed diagonally in two ways, and horizontally from
London to Bristol. Then, suddenly, the great expansion was over.
The year 1814 brought losses and government regulation to canal
companies. Between 1815 and 1850, only 330 miles of new canals
were built, while England, Scotland (south of Edinburgh and Glasgow),
and northeastern Ireland were netted with railways.
AMERICA'S FIRST PAPERMILL: THE RITTENHOUSE
The first papermill in the United States was built on the banks
of the Monoshone Creek near Germantown , Pennsylvania. It was
constructed by William Rittensouse who was born in Germany in
1644 near the city of Mulheim. He learned his paper making skills
in Holland and along with his family settled in German Town in
1688. In addition to being the founder of the first papermill
in America, William was a Mennonite and became the first minister
of that church in German Town. Eventually, he rose to become the
first Menonite bishop in America. Rittenhouse teamed up with William
Bradford, his printing partner. Both were weary of depending so
heavily on imported paper from Europe. Rittenhouse agreed to work
with Bradford on the condition that he would supply him with paper
for at least ten years. In 170-4 Bradford sold his interests in
the mill to William Rittenhouse and his sons and this gave them
a monopoly in the market. The yearly output of paper at that time
was about 1,200 reams per year.
BELL INVENTS THE TELEPHONE
Alexander Graham Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1847.
He came from an educated family. What made his life so different
from other educated children was that his life was consumed with
matters of hearing. His mother was nearly deaf. Furthermore, his
father and grandfather were speech experts. Not surprisingly,
Alexander Graham Bell trained to be a speech expert. In 1879,
he moved to the United States with his father and become a professor
of vocal psysiology at Boston University. His inventions were
attempts to improve telegraphic communications. Bell began studying
the phonoautograph, a device for recording sound waves. This device
was reconstructed into a harp apparatus that created electrical
currents of sound waves along a magnet. The modern world would
know this as the telephone. His invention was presented at the
Centennial exhibition in Philadelphia and by 1876 was known as
the electrical speech machine. By 1884, the technology had improved
and long distance communication between Boston and New York City
was successful.
THE IRON LAW OF WAGES (1817)
There were certain thinkers and theorists in the early nineteenth
century who laid down the principles of free enterprise and wage
control that were used by the industrial capitalists of Britain.
The idea of a laissez faire economy, for example, was established
by Adam Smith (1776) in his book on The Wealth of Nations. Thomas
Malthus (1766-1834) is often cited for the implications of his
statistical theory of population explosions. However, the principle
economists used by the capitalists of this period was David Ricardo
(1772-1823) who espoused a theory that would become known as The
Iron Law of Wages. Ricardo (1817) stated his views in The Principles
of Political Economy and Taxation. Ricardo noted that it is natural
in advanced societies for the wages of labor to fall whenever
they are regulated. These factors are controlled by the laws of
supply and demand. However, regardless of what happens to this
fluctuation, the supply of laborers will continue to increase
at the same rate. As these populations increase, they provide
greater numbers to the work force and this would create a greater
demand for goods. This greater demand for goods would also lead
to a greater cost of producing those goods. Under these circumstances,
Ricardo notes, the cost of the commodities would be doubly affected.
This increase in costs would interfere with the earnings of the
laboring classes. Hence, he favored the return to a supply and
demand economy. Why was this a concern for Ricardo? The answer
can be found in the Poor Laws promulgated in Britain to provide
relief to the poor classes in British society. Ricardo wanted
to restrict those Poor Laws so that the vagaries of the marketplace
would operate as intended. What is interesting about these economists
is that their ideas continue to create the agenda for the monopoly
capitalists of the United States. They still promulgate laws that
favor their own class structures over others.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
What is more important than this feud about cause and effect among
economists is what is universally asserted by historians that
seventeenth and eighteenth century, viz., that Europe witnessed
the triumph of a capitalist mentality. That is to say, those who
owned wealth came to perceive that either it should be turned
to the making of more wealth, or it should be let out to someone
who would turn it to the making of more wealth. Wealth surperceded
social status, and bought social status, in the minds of those
who wanted to excel. Energy, pouring into whatever pursuit, was
increasingly expected to pass through a market. This change in
mentality can be attributed to changes in the informational environment,
which, in turn, can be attributed to changes in instruments forming
the informational environment, primarily innovations stemming
from the invention of paper and the printing press.
By 1500, for example, paper made from rags had replaced parchment as a medium for written communication. Paper was considerably cheaper to manufacture, and the supply of rags exceeded that of sheep hides. In fact, the increasing manufacture and use of cotton textiles that was an element of the Industrial Revolution increased the supply of worn clothing. Making paper became a way of recycling a costlessly increasing supply of otherwise useless material. As in other upswings in innovation, one thing led to another. Cheap paper, in part, was a byproduct of the sixteenth and seventeenth century clothing revolution. Under the influence of mercantilist policies at the beginning of the eighteenth century, paper making migrated from France to England. Demand for paper was such that, by 1725, there were 150 mills in England; by 1800, 500. In 1799, when hand processes in manufacturing paper were stretched to the limit, a paper making machine was invented in France. Its use spread rapidly throughout Europe. The environment of economic decision making, a critical factor in the triumph of the capitalist mentality, interacted with the growing use of paper. Cheap paper facilitated the keeping of business accounts. It generated a revolution in business communication. It changed and multiplied the principal instruments of information storage. These changes, in turn, increased the demand for paper. Paper, combined with the invention of the printing press, in 1440, created a publishing industry that completely escaped guild control. It was capitalistic from the start. With a view to financial gain, capitalistic publishers undertook production of relatively large quantities of vernacularizations of classic texts. The vernacular bible was just one among many such commercial ventures.
The effect on religious organization was the Protestant Reformation, but that was just one dimension of what happened to society in general. Having itself escaped feudalism, the publishing industry liberated the rest of society. Reading, writing, information, and education became relatively inexpensive, and more common outside ecclesiastical and monarchical administrations. New kinds of knowledge, including technical and business related information, entered into information exchange and accumulation. There was a Renaissance of pre-Christian Greek and Roman thought. Economic activity was most profoundly affected because, whatever else they had in common, `the bourgeois bought books and sent their sons to school' (Clough, p.~92.). Perhaps most important of all, paper and the printing press generated pamphlets, weekly newspapers and, eventually, dailies. As early as 1716, in England, lead articles in weeklies, which, with the advent of lower postal rates, achieved a wider circulation, were replacing pamphlets. About the time that coffee and tea replaced gin as a popular beverage, the exchange of news and the availability of newspapers in tea and coffee houses increasingly became a facilitator of business. The London Stock Exchange came into existence, in 1773, when the city's brokers moved from Jonathan's Coffee House to the Stock Exchange Coffee House. In the last quarter of the eighteenth century daily papers replaced weeklies. Between 1777 and 1784, the number of daily mail coaches out of London, carrying the daily papers, rose from 0 to 16.