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Lincoln Darby/ Iron Smelting
Smelting is a process of applying heat and a chemical reducing agent to an ore to extract a desired base metal product. It is a form of extractive metallurgy that is used to obtain many metals such as iron, copper, silver, lead and zinc. -
Thomas Newcomen/ The Steam Engine
Machine that uses steam power to perform mechanical work through the agency of heat. In a steam engine, hot steam, usually supplied by a boiler, expands under pressure, and part of the heat energy is converted into work. -
John Kay/ The flying shuttle
The flying shuttle is a type of weaving shuttle. It was a pivotal advancement in the mechanisation of weaving during the initial stages of the Industrial Revolution, and facilitated the weaving of considerably broader fabrics, enabling the production of wider textiles. -
John roebuck/ leadon condensing chambers
These chambers were tall tapered cylinders that were externally cooled by water flowing down the outside surface of the chamber. Sulfur dioxide for the process was provided by burning elemental sulfur or by the roasting of sulfur-containing metal ores in a stream of air in a furnace. -
Adam Smith/ The invisible hand theory
a metaphor for how, in a free market economy, self-interested individuals operate through a system of mutual interdependence. This interdependence incentivizes producers to make what is socially necessary, even though they may care only about their own well-being. -
James Hargreaves/ Spinning Jenny
The spinning jenny is a multi-spindle spinning frame, and was one of the key developments in the industrialisation of textile manufacturing during the early Industrial Revolution. It was invented in 1764 or 1765 by James Hargreaves in Stan hill, Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire in England. -
Richard Arkwright/ Water frame
water frame, In textile manufacture, a spinning machine powered by water that produced a cotton yarn suitable for warp. The water frame set the stage for centralized textile production in factories, leading to economies of scale and the concentration of resources. -
Edmund Cartwright/ Power Loom
A power loom is a mechanized loom, and was one of the key developments in the industrialization of weaving during the early Industrial Revolution. The first power loom was designed and patented in 1785 by Edmund Cartwright. -
Eli Whitney/ Cotton Gin
A cotton gin—meaning "cotton engine"—is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation. -
Robert Fulton/ Steam Boat
A steamboat is a boat that is propelled primarily by steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S or PS; however, these designations are most often used for steamships. -
David Ricardo/ The comparative advantage theory
agents have a comparative advantage over others in producing a particular good if they can produce that good at a lower relative opportunity cost or autarky price, i.e. at a lower relative marginal cost prior to trade. -
Cyrus Field/ Transatlantic Cable
Transatlantic telegraph cables were undersea cables running under the Atlantic Ocean for telegraph communications. Telegraphy is now an obsolete form of communication, and the cables have long since been decommissioned, but telephone and data are still carried on other transatlantic telecommunications cables.