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Jethro Tull invents the seed drill
He was one of the first scientific farmers, who solved the problem that many seed failed to take root in the usual way of sowing seeds, with an invention called the seed drill in about 1701. This allowed farmers to sow seeds in well-spaced rows at specific depths, therefore a large share of the seed took root, boosting crop yields. -
John KAy invents the flying shuttle
John Kay’s flying shuttle speedily carried threads of yarn back and forth when the weaver pulled a handle on the loom. The flying shuttle greatly increased the productivity in weaving. -
James Watt builds the first steam engine
In 1765, Watt figured out a way to make the steam engine work faster and more efficiently while burning less fuel. Watt joined with a businessman named Matthew Boulton. Boulton was an entrepreneur, a person who organizes, manages, and takes on the risks of a business. He paid Watt a salary and encouraged him to build better engines. -
Marx and Engels publish The Communist Manifesto
He and Friedrich Engels, outlined their ideas in a 23 pages pamphlet called The communist Manifesto. In the pamphlet, they argued that human societies have always been divided into warring classes. In their time, it was “haves”, the middle class, called the bourgeoisie and the “have-nots” or workers, called the proletariat. While the wealthy controlled the means of producing goods, the poor performed backbreaking labor under terrible conditions, and this situation resulted in conflict. -
US Civil War ends; US experiences technological boom
it began in textile industry, even though Britain tried to keep the secrets of industrialization to itself, a man called Samuel Slater emigrated to the US and he built a spinning machine from memory and a partial design. A year later, Moses Brown opened the first factory in the US in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. In 1813, Francis Cabot Lowell of Boston and four other investors revolutionized the American textile industry. By the late 1820s, Lowell, Massachusetts had become a booming manufacturing cen -
Germany becomes dominant industrial power in Europe
Germany was politically divided in the early 19th century, therefore, pockets of industrialization appeared, as in the coal-rich Ruhr Valley of west central Germany. From 1835, Germany began to copy British model as it imported British equipment and engineers.
Germany’s economic strength spurred its ability to develop as a military power, by the late 19th century, a unified, imperial Germany had become both an industrial and a military giant. -
British Unions win right to strike
By the 1800s, working people became more active in politics, and to press for reforms, they joined together in voluntary labor associations called Unions. A union spoke for all the workers in a particular trade. It engaged in collective bargaining, negotiation between workers and their employers for better working condition and higher pay. If factory owners refused these demands, union members could strike, or refuse to work.
