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Richard Arkwright
Richard Arkwright, an English inventor and early entrepreneur of the Industrial Revolution, was born in December 1732. He lived a rather average life of a moderately successful inventor until his invention of the spinning machine in 1767. This machine made it much faster and easy to spin cotton, leading to an excess of the material, lowering the price of cotton and clothes. -
James Watt
James Watt, a Scottish inventor and chemist, was born right before the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in January 1736. The basis of Watt's life consisted of having successful parents, marrying his cousin, and inventing the Watt engine. This Watt engine improved on the steam engine by adding a condenser to prevent the excess loss of steam like in a normal steam engine would. -
Thomas Malthus
Thomas Malthus was an English economist born in February 1766 who thought population was becoming an issue. In response to the increasing population, Thomas Malthus had a theory that "population growth will always tend to outrun the food supply." Which basically means that, even though as we become more advanced as a society and are able to create more food, population will always be increasing alongside it, up until we run out of new ways to produce food, and still have a growing population. -
Spinning Jenny
The spinning Jenny was invented by James Hargreaves in 1770. This was the first hand-powered, multiple spindled machine for spinning wool or cotton. This machine made spinning cotton much easier and quicker, therefore reducing the labor costs to create, and lowering the prices. -
Mutual-Aid Societies
A Mutual-Aid society is an organization that provides benefits or help to it's members. The first mutual aid society was the Free African Society, found in 1787. These organizations helps people who might need extra help with disability, aging, or other various things. -
Socialism
The idea of socialism was first made popular in 1789, during the French revolution and reintroduced by Karl Marx. The main idea is that the market and everything in it should be controlled by the people as a whole governing body. The plan is to make everyone equal by having no large corporations or strong centralized government. -
Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin, the man who first theorized natural selection, was born in February 1809 in the heat of the industrial revolution. Darwin was given credit for the idea of natural selection, the idea that the more able and adapted species will thrive longer in an ecosystem. This led to many new ideas in biology and the study of the history of animals and humans. -
Karl Marx
Karl Marx, a rather interesting German philosopher with a generous amount of facial hair (see image), was born in May of 1818. Marx (apparently) lived in a very impoverished family, and was the founder of the idea of Marxism. The very minimal basis of Marxism is that the 'working class' should destroy the entire idea of 'classes' by making itself the 'ruling class.' "In a Marxist society, no social classes are in conflict, and there is no government anymore." -
Communism
Communism is a political theory from Karl Marx. The goal of this philosophy is to create a society where everything is public owned and everyone is paid according to their abilities. It was first popularized in 1848 by the infamous Karl Marx with his famed manifesto. -
Social Democracy
A Social Democracy is a socialist government which comes about through democratic means. Basically it simply means that people DECIDE that they want to be in a Socialist government, as opposed to them being forced into it. The idea is related to Marxist ideas since about 1868. -
Social Gospel
The idea of Social Gospel is people who practice the Christian faith applying religious ideals to societal problem. The goal of this is to solve problem that society has and work together as a religion as a community instead of a personal calling. -
Automobile
Karl Benz invented the first motor car in 1886. This first automobile had three wheels, a throttle system, and even a water radiator. This was the first gas powered automobile vehicle. -
Airplane
The first airplane was invented and flown in 1903. This was known as the "first sustained and controller heavier-than-air powered flight." The creators of this first aircraft were Orville and Wilbur Wright, the famous 'Wright Brothers.' -
Assembly Line
The assembly line is production method in which production of a large product is split in to several smaller, basic steps as to make mass production both simpler and faster. First installed in late 1913, Henry Ford was able to reduce the time it took to create one car from twelve hours to under two hours. The idea revolutionized factories, as workers needed to be trained less and were able to become skilled at one aspect of a job rather than many. -
Cotton Gin
The cotton gin was a revolutionary invention from Eli Whitney, which greatly increased the speed at which one could remove the cotton seeds from the fibers. Whitney's idea was that with a faster way to produce cotton, less slaves were needed to produce it, therefore decreasing slavery. Instead, cotton became a lucrative export as it was so easy to make, and plantations made more money to buy more slaves with it.