The Original “Silken Valley”: How and Why the Derwent Valley Became the Birthplace of the Industrial Revolution

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
John G. Crofts
Keyword(s):  
Water Flow ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Power Source ◽  
Textile Mills ◽  
Cotton Industry ◽  
Water Power ◽  
Renewable Power ◽  
History Of ◽  
River Derwent

The paper outlines the history of the extraction of power from the River Derwent in Derbyshire, England, a source of abundant, reliable and vigorous water flow; and how this renewable power source provided power for the industrialization of what were formerly cottage occupations. The Romans introduced Water Wheels to Britain in the 1st century, which were used in the Derwent Valley to grind grist, mine lead, power iron forges and pump water. The prototype factories of the Industrial Revolution were built here, utilizing water power technology to drive textile mills. Cotchett’s Silk Mill, built in Derby in 1702, was followed by Lombe’s Silk Mill nearby in 1717, Then followed the cotton industry, led by Arkwright and Strutt in Cromford, the first “modern” mill, with 200 hands and round-the-clock operations, in 1771. After this success, Strutt built a larger mill in 1782 at Belper, powered by eleven 21 ft diameter water wheels. Samuel Slater, apprenticed during the building of this mill, emigrated secretly to America, where he enabled the first successful U.S cotton mill to be built in Pawtucket, R.I. The skills and traditions remain in the area, in such notable companies as Rolls-Royce and the Royal Crown Derby Porcelain works.

Leibniz’s Theme, Babbage’s Dream

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Subrata Dasgupta
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz ◽  
Steam Engine ◽  
Historical Event ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Steam Power ◽  
Water Power ◽  
History Of ◽  
Automate Calculation ◽  
James Watt

The German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) is perhaps best remembered in science as the co-inventor (with Newton) of the differential calculus. In our story, however, he has a presence not so much because, like his great French contemporary the philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623–1662), he built a calculating machine—in Pascal’s case, the machine could add and subtract, whereas Leibniz’s machine also performed multiplication and division—but for something he wrote vis-à-vis calculating machines. He wished that astronomers could devote their time strictly to astronomical matters and leave the drudgery of computation to machines, if such machines were available. Let us call this Leibniz’s theme, and the story I will tell here is a history of human creativity built around this theme. The goal of computer science, long before it came to be called by this name, was to delegate the mental labor of computation to the machine. Leibniz died well before the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, circa 1760s, when the cult and cultivation of the machine would transform societies, economies, and mentalities. The pivot of this remarkable historical event was steam power. Although the use of steam to move machines automatically began with the English ironmonger and artisan Thomas Newcomen (1663–1727) and his invention of the atmospheric steam engine in 1712, just 4 years before Leibniz’s passing, the steam engine as an efficient source of mechanical power, as an efficient means of automating machinery, as a substitute for human, animal, and water power properly came into being with the invention of the separate condenser in 1765 by Scottish instrument maker, engineer, and entrepreneur James Watt (1738–1819)—a mechanism that greatly improved the efficiency of Newcomen’s engine. The steam engine became, so to speak, the alpha and omega of machine power. It was the prime mover of ancient Greek thought materialized. And Leibniz’s theme conjoined with the steam engine gave rise, in the minds of some 19th-century thinkers, to a desire to automate calculation or computation and to free humans of this mentally tedious labor.

Energy in South Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 282-304
Author(s):  
Rod Crompton ◽  
Ruwadzano Matsika
Keyword(s):  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
Energy Markets ◽  
Power Capacity ◽  
Fourth Industrial Revolution ◽  
Renewable Power ◽  
History Of ◽  
Imported Oil ◽  
Made In

South Africa’s long dependence on imported oil and domestic coal leaves it ill prepared to navigate the Fourth Industrial Revolution and decarbonization. In 1998, after a long history of state intervention in energy markets, post-apartheid policy set new market-orientated reform goals. Following a promising start, the pendulum swung back towards state intervention. In 2018 a combination of factors, including an electricity supply crisis, brought about indications of a return to market reforms, albeit an attenuated version thereof, particularly in power generation. Petroleum markets have been stuck in impasses associated with old-style regulation and social policies entangled in price regulation. Mismanagement and corruption have taken a toll as has private investor insistence on financial support. Good progress has been made in electrification, electricity subsidies for the poor, gas infrastructure, and renewable power capacity auctions. Technological innovation in renewable power offers reduced economies of scale and much promise for energy markets.

Applications of Nanotechnology for Textile Products: A Review

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 15-22
Author(s):  
Nemailal Tarafder
Keyword(s):  
Textile Industry ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Nanometer Scale ◽  
Cotton Industry ◽  
Future Success ◽  
The Future ◽  
Properties Of Materials ◽  
Textile Products

The fundamentals of nanotechnology lie in the fact that the properties of materials drastically change when their dimensions are reduced to nanometer scale. Nanotextiles can be produced by a variety of methods. The use of nanotechnology in the textile industry has increased rapidly due to its unique and valuable properties. Changed or improved properties with nanotechnology can provide new or enhanced functionalities. Nanotechnology is a growing interdisciplinary technology and seen as a new industrial revolution. The future success of nanotechnology in textile applications lies in the areas where new principles will be combined into durable and multi-functional textile systems without compromising the inherent properties. The advances in nanotechnology have created enormous opportunities and challenges for the textile industry, including the cotton industry.

Socio-Technological Aspects of Automation in Public Works Activities

1987 ◽  
Vol 19 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 633-643
Author(s):  
William F. Garber
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Work Force ◽  
Public Works ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Training Problem ◽  
Total Employment ◽  
The Usa ◽  
History Of ◽  
Complete Automation ◽  
The Impact

The history of human society is replete with examples of advances in technology overrunning the ability of societal organizations to efficiently handle the resulting massive societal dislocations. The social impacts of the “Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th Centuries” illustrate how profound such effects can be. The automation-computer-robotics revolution now underway also has the potential for serious societal changes. In this regard public works activities are subject to increasing amounts of automation with impacts upon current and net total employment and training needs. To evaluate the present status of automation in the USA, questionnaires were sent to public works authorities in 110 cities or agencies. The current degree of automation, the impact upon employment and the skills now needed by public works employers were queried. It was found that in most cases automation was just starting; but that as complete automation as was possible was inevitable given the increasing complexity of the tasks, the demands of the public and the long term prospects for public works funding. In many cases the candidates now in the work force were not properly trained for automation needs. Retraining and changes in the educational system appeared necessary if the employees now needed were to be continuously available. Public works management as well as several labor organizations appeared to be aware of this need and were organizing to handle the training problem and the changes in employment qualifications now necessary. It appeared to be a consensus that the larger societal effects of automation should be handled by society as a whole.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan E. Whyman
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Economic Change ◽  
History Of The Book ◽  
Formal Schooling ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Literate Society

The introduction shows the convergence and intertwining of the Industrial Revolution and the provincial Enlightenment. At the centre of this industrial universe lay Birmingham; and at its centre was Hutton. England’s second city is described in the mid-eighteenth century, and Hutton is used as a lens to explore the book’s themes: the importance of a literate society shared by non-elites; the social category of ‘rough diamonds’; how individuals responded to economic change; political participation in industrial towns; shifts in the modes of authorship; and an analysis of social change. The strategy of using microhistory, biography, and the history of the book is discussed, and exciting new sources are introduced. The discovery that self-education allowed unschooled people to participate in literate society renders visible people who were assumed to be illiterate. This suggests that eighteenth-century literacy was greater than statistics based on formal schooling indicate.

Disability and Work in South Asia and the United Kingdom

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Buckingham
Keyword(s):  
Low Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Low Socioeconomic ◽  
Disability History ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Indian Experience ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Western View

Historical analyses, as well as more contemporary examples of disability and work, show that the experience of disability is always culturally and historically mediated, but that class—in the sense of economic status—plays a major role in the way impairment is experienced as disabling. Although there is little published on disability history in India, the history of the Indian experience of caste disability demonstrates the centrality of work in the social and economic expression of stigma and marginalization. An Indian perspective supports the challenge to the dominant Western view that modern concepts of disability have their origins in the Industrial Revolution. Linkage between disability, incapacity to work, and low socioeconomic status are evident in India, which did not undergo the workplace changes associated with industrialization in the West.

scholarly journals “Industrious Revolution” Revisited: A Variety of Diligence Derived from a Long-Term Local History of Kuta in Kyô-Otagi, a Former County in Japan

Histories ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 108-121
Author(s):  
Satoshi Murayama ◽  
Hiroko Nakamura
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Industrial Production ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Local History ◽  
The Self ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Original Theory ◽  
Self Reliance ◽  
History Of

Jan de Vries revised Akira Hayami’s original theory of the “Industrious Revolution” to make the idea more applicable to early modern commercialization in Europe, showcasing the development of the rural proletariat and especially the consumer revolution and women’s emancipation on the way toward an “Industrial Revolution.” However, Japanese villages followed a different path from the Western trajectory of the “Industrious Revolution,” which is recognized as the first step to industrialization. This article will explore how a different form of “industriousness” developed in Japan, covering medieval, early modern, and modern times. It will first describe why the communal village system was established in Japan and how this unique institution, the self-reliance system of a village, affected commercialization and industrialization and was sustained until modern times. Then, the local history of Kuta Village in Kyô-Otagi, a former county located close to Kyoto, is considered over the long term, from medieval through modern times. Kuta was not directly affected by the siting of new industrial production bases and the changes brought to villages located nearer to Kyoto. A variety of diligent interactions with living spaces is introduced to demonstrate that the industriousness of local women was characterized by conscience-driven perseverance.

History of forestry and forest management

1975 ◽  
Vol 271 (911) ◽  
pp. 69-80 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
National Forest ◽  
Private Landowners ◽  
Timber Production ◽  
Land Area ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of

Britain possesses a forest area which is one of the smallest in Europe in relation to its population and land area. In the past, forests have been felled to make way for farming and to supply timber for ships, houses, fuel and metal smelting. Timber was a key to sea power, and repeatedly the availability of home timber supplies has proved crucial in time of war. The nation’s dwindling reserves of timber have been a source of anxiety since Tudor times and periodic surges of planting for timber production by private landowners took place until about 1850. Thereafter, interest faded with the advent of the iron ship, the Industrial Revolution and the availability of cheap timber imports. Govern­ ment activity was minimal until a national forest authority was formed in 1919 to create a strategic timber reserve. Since 1958 there have been frequent policy reviews to assess the changing needs of the nation for timber and the new values associated with the social and environmental benefits of forests.

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