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THE FLYING SHUTTLE: John Kay
It worked by allowing the shuttle to carry the weft, that was to be passed through the warp threads, faster over wider clothes, thus, allowing the weaver to produce wider fabrics in lesser duration of time. This, in turn, helped increase the productivity of the weaver, also by reducing the labor involved. -
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for more detailsThe most important inventions during the First and Second Industrial Revolution. -
THE SPINNING JENNY: James Hargreaves
Prior to the Industrial Revolution, Britain's textile industry worked with the help of artisans who worked from home, using the spinning wheel and the hand loom. However, the traditional methods of producing yarn restricted large-scale production of goods. With the invention of the spinning jenny, artisans could spin almost 120 threads at a time, instead of only a single thread. -
THE STEAM ENGINE: James Watt
Watt developed the improved version of the steam engine, more efficient than the one invented by Thomas Savery. Though mainly known for its use in running a train, the steam engine was also used to run machinery in factories and mines. The engine was powered by high pressure steam, and was able to work at places which lacked a nearby source of water. Thus, it was able to overcome the problem faced by the water frame, which could work only at places where water was available. -
THE BATTERY/VOLTAIT PILE: Alessandro Volta
Based on his experiments related to electricity, Volta was able to separate the basic components in water viz., oxygen and hydrogen. Through his experiments he came to know that electricity could be made to flow through a conductor. The idea helped him produce the world's first battery, which later came to be known as the 'voltaic pile'. As a tribute to the great scientist, the electric potential, volt, has been named after him. -
THE LOCOMOTIVE: Richard Trevithick
The power of steam was initially used by Richard Trevithick for running carriages on the roads. Later in 1804, he became the first person to utilize steam power to run locomotives on the rail track. Later, George Stephenson, an engineer in the mining industry, further developed more powerful locomotives and led to the establishment of the first two rail lines in England (1825 and 1830). -
THE ELECTRIC DYNAMO: Michael Faraday
Faraday went on to interrelate his electromagnetic induction studies to invent the first dynamo, which is said to be the predecessor of modern-day generators and alternators. Later, the developed dynamo was able to provide power for industries and factories on a large scale. -
THE TELEGRAPH AND MORSE CODE: Samuel Morse
Bettering the invention of Samuel Sommerring's telegraph, Samuel Morse went on to develop the electric telegraph that brought about a revolution in the field of long-distance communication. Moreover, he also developed the Morse code, which was quite effective in facilitating communication. As a result, the first transatlantic cable was laid in the year 1858. -
THE TELEPHONE: Alexander Graham Bell
Two inventors Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell both independently designed devices that could transmit speech electrically (the telephone). Both men rushed their respective designs to the patent office within hours of each other, Alexander Graham Bell patented his telephone first. Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell entered into a famous legal battle over the invention of the telephone, which Bell won. -
THE ELECTRIC BULB: Thomas Alva Edison
The first electric light was made in 1800 by Humphry Davy, an English scientist. He experimented with electricity and invented an electric battery. The inventor Thomas Alva Edison (in the USA) experimented with thousands of different filaments to find just the right materials to glow well and be long-lasting. In 1879, Edison discovered that a carbon filament in an oxygen-free bulb glowed but did not burn up for 40 hours.
