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The English Industrial Revolution Essay

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Textile manufacture changed dramatically in the 1700s. Key inventions such as Hargreaves' spinning jenny (1764), Arkwright's water frame (1769), Crompton's spinning mule (1779) and Cartwright's power loom (1784) reduced human labour by up to a third. Early models of these machines tended to be unreliable, and some looms were ruined by machine breakers as a statement against the replacement of human labour with machines.
The main centres of textile production in England became Greater Manchester, Lancashire and West Yorkshire. Leeds, for example, boasted around 170 'scribbling machines' (which prepare wool for spinning) by 1786; this had unfortunate consequences for workers, who signed a petition in that year stating that 'twelve men are thrown out of employ for every single machine used in scribbling'.
By 1830, over half of British exports consisted of cotton textiles. People began to favour the …show more content…

Play the interactive game 'Who Wants to be a Cotton Millionaire?'
What were the key names and inventions mentioned in Professor Clarke's lecture?
How did the majority of inventors discussed in the lecture end up, financially speaking?
After playing the interactive game 'Who wants to be a cotton millionaire?', note down five things you learned about the cotton industry during the Industrial Revolution.
Transport
In the 1750s, stage coaches achieved an average speed of 5 miles per hour; by the 1790s this had risen to almost 7 miles per hour. By the 1780s there were 16 coach services going from London to Bath per week. A 1754 advertisement boasted: 'However incredible it may appear, this coach will actually arrive in London four days after leaving Manchester'. Consumer transport allowed city-dwellers to go to the countryside on weekends, partly making up for the pollution and stress of daily

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