Steam Ahead With This Industrial Revolution Quiz

Throughout the 1860s, Alfred Nobel worked on making nitroglycerin safer, until he received a patent in 1867 for a safer explosive that combined it with a silica-based compound called kieselguhr. He named the mix “dynamite” after the Greek word for power, “dynamis.” Its success made Nobel very wealthy, a fortune he dedicated to establish the famous Nobel Prize for the arts and sciences in 1901. Dynamite allowed for deeper mines and more ambitious building projects, making it a crucial component of the Industrial Revolution.

Although English inventor Sir Henry Bessemer was honored with the name, it took contributions from several scientists to reach the final production method for Bessemer steel. The Bessemer process involves injecting air into molten iron to make the resulting material stronger and purer. After the method was patented in 1856, the resulting glut of cheap steel helped the growth of railroads and industry in Britain and the U.S.

Though he lacked traditional engineering training, Joseph Monier experimented with iron wire and concrete to create stronger flower tubs for his garden. He realized the material might have far-reaching applications, and patented the design. Monier promoted the innovative material at the 1867 Paris Exhibition, and reinforced concrete caught on, eventually allowing larger and stronger structures to be built worldwide.

The ability to keep meat, fruits, and vegetables fresh on long rides helped butchers and farmers broaden their markets beyond local towns and cities. Refrigerated rail cars also helped disperse wealth and industry in 19th-century America toward the midwestern part of the country, since farmers and meat producers there were able to keep costs lower than in large East Coast cities.

In the second half of the 19th century, the mass production of textiles combined with relative economic stability in the post-Civil War era helped create a new retail phenomenon: the massive department store. With huge windows, high ceilings, and an assortment of goods, these stores ushered in a new era of consumerism, and led to the rise of advertising.

Coal was one of the driving materials of the Industrial Revolution, but mining it was a dangerous task. One of the risks was the large concentration of highly flammable methane gas in the mines, which could ignite and cause explosions when miners lit lanterns. Sir Humphry Davy, a prominent chemist, invented a safety lamp that prevented the lamp’s flame from igniting the methane gas. The Davy lamp saved thousands of lives and allowed ever deeper mines to be dug.

At a young age, inventor Thomas A. Watson left school to travel to Boston and work in the growing field of electronics. In the 1870s, he worked with Alexander Graham Bell on developing the telephone, and on March 10, 1876, Bell used a transmitting instrument connected via wire to a receiver to speak to Watson in a different room. “Mr. Watson, come here,” was the simple message of what’s considered the first phone call in history.

Coal power is one of the most enduring symbols of the Industrial Revolution. The exponential growth of the sector was driven by two catalysts: advancements in extraction technology that allowed more coal to be mined from an area deeper underground, and surging demand for fuel from fast-growing industries such as railroads, textile mills, and food processing.

The steam engine was a monumental invention that helped spur industrialization beginning in the second half of the 18th century. In 1763, inventor and engineer James Watt upgraded a steam engine design by inventor Thomas Newcomen, making it more stable and efficient. Mass production of steam engines began in 1800, and in the ensuing decades they became a driving factor in the rise of the railroad, textile, and mining industries.

Before the assembly lines of Ford Motors and other industrial giants churned out products at a record pace, most goods in Europe and the U.S. were produced under a collaborative system. Artisans working in a section of their home — hence the term “cottage industry” — would handle individual tasks such as spinning, sewing, and woodworking. The Industrial Revolution popularized mass-production factories with all the steps to create a product under one roof.

Before railways were invented in the 1820s, the only way to transport the growing mass of manufactured goods was by river or canal. Roads were not an option, as there were no vehicles that could support such heavy freight. Canals were human-made rivers built across long distances. A path was created alongside the canal, where teams of horses were able to pull heavy loads through the water with relative ease.

Weaving a pattern into fabric is an incredibly complex task, and working a loom requires concentration and an understanding of how the pattern will take shape. In 1804, Joseph Marie Jacquard invented a system that allowed weaving to be programmed using holes punched in cards. These punch cards were read by machines and allowed textile patterns to be perfectly reproduced every time.

Cotton’s fibre strands grow around its seed, so to use cotton to make fabric the seeds must first be removed. This was originally done by hand and involved backbreaking labor done by enslaved workers. Then in 1793, American inventor Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. The device combed the seeds from the cotton and vastly sped up production, leading cotton to become one of the staple crops of the southern United States.

In 1871, Orville and Wilbur Wright’s father brought home a helicopter toy powered by a rubber band for his two young boys. For the rest of their lives, the Wright brothers obsessed over powered flight. In 1892, the brothers opened a cycle shop to help fund their flight experiments. After years of trial and error, they finally took a 12-second airplane flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on December 17, 1903.

For thousands of years, the fastest form of communication was a person on a horse, but that all changed with the advent of electrical telegraphs in the 1830s. Samuel Morse helped invent the telegraph and developed Morse Code, which translated written words into a series of dots and dashes. A network of telegraph wires spread across the world, allowing near-instant communication between far away places.

Britain’s damp climate played a role in sparking the Industrial Revolution that began in the late 18th century. The rainy countryside was ideal for raising sheep, so textiles became a key export in British trade. Factories powered by steam made the production of textiles even more efficient, helping the nation supply cloth to its expanding empire.

Steam power was one of the most important developments of the Industrial Revolution. While water-powered turbines were the first form of mechanical power, it was steam that allowed factories to expand away from rivers and waterfronts. By using steam locomotives to pull trains, goods could cross large distances at previously unheard of speeds.

As the Industrial Revolution took hold in Britain and other parts of the West during the late 18th century, capitalist ideals rose in conjunction, and capitalism became the predominant economic system of the rapidly industrializing societies. It replaced other economic systems such as mercantilism, which focused on growing a country’s wealth through trade.

Henry Ford, creator of the Model T automobile, was determined to make his cars as affordable as possible — and that meant increasing efficiency. He developed the moving assembly line in 1913, in which each worker specialized in a single task that they could complete quickly. With this system, the production time for a Model T dropped from over 12 hours to just 1 hour and 33 minutes.

Not everyone was happy with the changes that came with the Industrial Revolution, and a popular story spread about a fictional textile worker named Ned Ludd who smashed the knitting machines that had taken his job. In the 1810s, crowds of people attacked factories and destroyed the machines inside to protest the loss of skilled jobs. They called themselves Luddites in Ned Ludd’s honour.

Before the Industrial Revolution, most manufacturing occurred in the home, where families worked out of their houses turning raw materials into products. With the creation of factories, people moved to larger cities to be close to their new jobs. Entire towns and cities sprang into existence around these industrial centers.