Timeline of Industrial Revolution

By alexjhastie

  • Jethro Tull invents the mechanical seed drill

  • Thomas Newcomen builds the first commercially successful steam engine

  • John Kay invents the flying shuttle, which speeds up the weaving process

  • The bridgewater Canal, designed by James Brindley, opens near Manchester, England, to connect the coalmines to the city

  • James Hargreaves invents the spinning jenny

  • Scottish engineer James Watt improves the steam engine to help the powering of machinery

  • The first steam powered mills open

  • The steam powered loom is invented by Edmund Catwright

  • The cast-iron plowshare is invented in England

  • Eli Whitney develops the cotton gin, a mechanical device for removing seeds from cotton

  • British doctor Edward Jenner develops a vaccination against smallpox

  • Eli Whitney uses an assembly line to mass produce muskets for the US Army

  • Richard Trevithick builds the first steam locomotive

  • Scottish engineer John McAdam makes the first paved roads, using crushed stone

  • A canal for ocean-going ships connects the English city of Exeter with the sea

  • The worlds first commercial railroad opens between Stockton and Darlington in England

  • Britain's Factory Act restricts the use of children in industry

  • The combine harvester is invented

  • Isambard Kingdom Brunel's iron steamship 'Great Western' becomes the first vessel to run regular transatlantic passenger services

  • Labor laws in Britain forbid women from working underground in coal mines

  • German political thinkers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels write the Communist Manifesto urging a workers' revolution

  • In England, Henry Bessemer invents a process for making steel more efficiently and cheaply

  • The first telegraph cable to be laid across the Atlantic

  • The Trade Union Act recognizes unions by law

  • Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone