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Flying Shuttle, John Kay
The Flying Shuttle, invented by John Kay during the Industrial Revolution, is an innovation of the previous hand loom, which was used to weave thread. The Flying Shuttle"carried" yarn in the threading process. Textile owners used the device to quickly weave yarn at lower costs, and today, it has evolved into automatic spinning devices, such as the CNC spinning machine. Despite its efficiency, it had drawbacks, such as a greater need for cotton, which called for more slaves to clean said cotton. -
Richard Arkwright's Water Frame
The Water Frame, invented by Richard Arkwright, consisted of a water-powered, mechanical machine capable of creating, weaving and refining numerous threads at once. Although they aren’t used anymore, robotic, sewing, spinning, and refining machines are often seen in modern factories. Although it significantly improved the textile cloth’s durability by “powering” the machines that create it, the Water Frame also created harsher cloths that weren’t quite as fine as those of the Spinning Jenny. -
James Watt's Separate Condenser Steam Engine
The Watt steam engine was an innovation of the first steam engine; the latter often lost steam, its power-source, as most condensed steam was unusable. Watts countered this loss by installing a separate condenser, which cooled steam while saving it for later use. Although this invention improved the steam engine by saving fuel, it was bulky and it could not power vehicles. Engines today are no longer steam-powered, they're condensed in size, and typically use gasoline or batteries as power. -
James Hargreaves' Spinning Jenny
The Spinning Jenny, invented by James Hargreaves, was capable of spinning 8 threads at once, so the workers could finish making cloth at a quicker pace, thus increasing cloth production. Although this bettered cloth production, cloth made with the Spinning Jenny was very weak until Richard Arkwright’s water frame substantially powered it. Today, it spins thousands of threads, and its robotic features are controlled remotely rather than by hand, often taking the form of a complex spinning mule. -
Samuel Crompton's Spinning Mule
The Spinning Mule is a Water-frame/Spinning Jenny hybrid that could carry thousands of spindles at a time, spin them into yarn, and wrapping the refined fibers around themselves; today, Spinning Mules take the form of automated, rather than manually-powered machines, and they’re often found in modern textile factories. The Spinning Mule produced very fine, soft, and polished threads, but at the same time, the yarn was weak, and spinning wasn't constant, as the machine was complex for its time. -
Robert Fulton's Steamboat
The steamboat is a steam-powered, metallic aerodynamic ship meant to carry passengers or valuables to distant destinations while moving against strong water currents; today, most commercial ships, or ferries, are propelled by electric energy, and they often contain computers with a pre-installed global positioning system. Fulton’s machine, although durable, fast, and powerful for its time, the hull (bottom) was too bulky and often scraped against objects, thus causing the ship to sink. -
Richard Trevithick's Steam-Powered Locomotive
A steam locomotive used a steam engine, without a condenser to save weight and space for efficient transportation. The train typically transported goods (usually coal), which was used on the first public railroad track (used for trains to travel on) in 1825; today, the train can be seen as a magnetic/electric subway train system. Although the train and railroad made transportation faster and more accessible to the public, the pair was incompatible, as rails were frail and often collapsed. -
George Stephenson's Rocket
Stephenson's rocket was an experimental vehicle that harnessed a steam engine's composition and used them for power. It often carried freight, such as coal, across commercial railroads, and today, they can be seen as freight trains, which often run on an underground subway. Although this made transportation of goods faster and more effective, its bulky, heavy design often snagged or cracked fragile, wooden railroads. -
Sir Henry Bessemer's Steelmaking Process
The Bessemer process is an inexpensive way to refine iron by melting it in a furnace/structure, forcing air drafts on it, thus allowing other compounds to escape before the alloy hardens. Today, we can see this process in use when we smelt (extract metal from ores) for alloys. Advantages of this process included strengthening architecture by making steel more accessible to workers, so they built structures with steel rather than iron. However, this process only affected select types of iron. -
Louis Pasteur- Pasteurizing
Pasteurization is a process in which raw milk or another beverage is heated, killing any preexisting bacteria, and allowed to cool down for commercial use. Although this was typically done on a machine, today, we see pasteurization take place in computerized machines and devices: Although this killed harmful bacteria, thus expanding milk's shelf life and nutritional value, this process was only accessible to a select few at the time of its inception. -
Thomas Edison's Light Bulb
Thomas Edison's Incandescent light bulb, which was typically lit by heating carbon rods with nitrogen gas and powering this with a direct current.. It's often regarded as the first stable light bulb made and patented for public use. Today, we often see light-bulbs in use, be it in toys, sirens, lamps, etc. Although the bulb was a low-cost and essential item for late-night factory workers to see their dim work spaces, owners also used this as an opportunity to extend their work hours. -
Tesla's Alternating Current
Alternating current is a current in which the electricity changes direction, which saves more energy than the direct current, in which electricity only flowed in one direction; today, we see alternating current power most of our electronic appliances, such as telephones or computers, and on Tesla's other inventions. An advantage of this included the fact that it saved energy unlike the DC, but this didn't internally work on motors, as they treated them the same as generators, which was unneeded.
